While significant progress has been made in terms of discrimination, the sad reality is that many workers suffer racial discrimination at work. Racial discrimination is damaging on many levels. It prevents employees from progressing in their careers and it also causes emotional damage.
Outlined below are some common examples of racial discrimination in the workplace:
1. Direct discrimination
Direct racial discrimination occurs when an employee or prospective employee is put at a direct disadvantage compared to people of other races. For example, if an employer states that they do not hire people who are not “white American”.
Direct racial discrimination also happens to current employees. For example, if a white employee was given a verbal warning for being 15 minutes late, but a black employee was fired for being 15 minutes late, then they have been directly treated differently based on race.
Racial discrimination can also occur by association. An example of this would be if an employee is treated differently because they are married to a person of color. For instance, the employee may be left out of meetings with clients because the company only wants to be represented by individuals who represent “white U.S. culture”.
2. Indirect discrimination
Discrimination based on race or ethnicity can also be indirect. Indirect discrimination occurs when a policy applies to everyone, but impacts only certain individuals negatively because of their race or ethnicity.
For example, an employer may require cleaners to speak English as their first language, despite there being no pragmatic or necessary reason for the restriction. This may put individuals of certain races and ethnicities at a significant disadvantage.
If you feel you have been discriminated against based on your race or ethnicity, you do have legal options. Seek further guidance to find out more about these.