Essay On Racial Inequality In The Workplace

Terry Jones

English 102

27 April 2014

Racial Inequality in the Workplace

Racial inequality has been an ongoing issue in America for almost 300 years. The first signs of racial inequality in America surfaced many years ago. The issues America faced with Racism began back in the early 1700’s and lasted throughout the years until 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Acts of discrimination in the US has made a huge decline in the last few years, but has it stopped completely? The answer is no. It has been noticed that the white American has more advantages in the workplace than other minorities to this day.

Law prohibits discrimination that is based on origin, race, or country, but that does not mean that the habit does not exist. People might experience these types of racial discrimination in the form of verbal harassment around their work place -- for example, co-workers calling other workers by racial slurs or frequently making derogatory statements made toward them involving their ethnic background or skin color. There are other forms of ethnic or racial discrimination that is not as easily observed, and may partake in privileged or negative treatment of an employee, being looked over for a promotion or getting paid at a different rate because of a persons race or ethnicity. Employers are not allowed to authorize rules or policies that do favor or even discriminate against other employees that belong to a certain race or ethnic group. Businesses also can not discriminate against their job applicants because of their race or their ethnicity. Any employee that receives any unfair or unfavorable treatment because of his or her ethnicity or race is a victim of unlawful racial discrimination. This also occurs when specific ...

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...affects the productivity, profits, and teamwork. Racial harassment is a type of workplace bullying, and those who continue to harass their co-workers or assistants without any types of negative consequences may spread their offensive and wrong behavior onto others. “Workplace consultant Catherine Michael Mattice reports that one workplace bully could cost a business approximately $83,000 in time dealing with the bully and the victims. This did not include the cost of lost productivity, revenue or staff turnover.” (Mattice, smallbusiness.chron.com).

People who say it is harmless fun are wrong, and more action needs to be taken in order to avoid further damage to companies. Though this problem has lessened throughout the years, it is still present today in America and more steps need to be taken to maintain a healthy economy and working environment for all minorities.