EFFECTS OF RACIAL INEQUALITY IN JOB ENVIRONMENTS - CHRISTINE JIN
Though assumed to be almost nonexistent, recent polls illustrate the prevalence
of this civil rights issue throughout all employment corporations. Take one, of
the numerous examples, in which a CNN study shows resumes
with ‘white sounding’ names were 50% more likely to be given a call back for an
employment opportunity as opposed to an ethnic or ‘black sounding’ name (Sanders 1).
Let us assume that an American of an ethnic descent was lucky enough to be selected for an employment position. Another problem lies within the individual's ability to hold the occupation. One study shows, that whites are more likely to be able to hold the professional occupation for at least 6 months at 33 percent, while black Americans are likely at 22 percent. Hispanics however are only at 13 percent (Racial Inequalities in Managerial and Professional Jobs 1). The existence of this problem has numerous critical effects, especially in regards to the growths of wage, poverty, and employment gaps between the minority and majority populations in America.
However, even at the face of distinct evidence, Americans are likely to deny the existence of this civil rights issue, furthermore continuing to allow the problem to exist. Why?
With laws such as affirmative action and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 presently in action, it is a common assumption that racial inequality in the work environment is already eliminated. Furthermore, even if one is conscious of the issue, most have given up, with the idea that effort has already been put into place. Therefore if it still persists, the problem cannot be combated.
Another contributive factor to the existence of the major civil rights problem is the concept of colorblindness. Colorblindness, the tendency amongst many non-minorities to claim to not 'see or notice' distinctions in regards to ethnicity and race, is actually a harmful approach to see all as equal. Many Americans have the perception that if they ignore one's racial characteristic, they would be able to unconsciously treat them as an equal. However, this only results in harmful effects for the minority. Colorblindness actually allows for individuals to simply ignore the presence of racial inequalities existing in America, therefore making it more difficult to propose for a solution. Racial and ethnic differences amongst the American population must be recognized in order to note the existence of these inequalities and to further attempt to correct them. If ignored, or denied to have any relevance, progress is extremely difficult, as a whole.
The message I believe is necessary to deliver is how prevalent this civil rights issue is, in America today. Though we have had a black president, and of course there are many successful Americans of an ethnic descent throughout America, these individuals do not serve as evidence that racial inequality does not exist. Though laws are in place, and attempts have been made to diminish this disadvantage for minorities, the issue is still presently impacting Americans.
I urge my target audience, those of influential positions, such as the Senate and the House of Representatives, to acknowledge that these problems are ubiquitous throughout the United States. Also, I urge that they propose to find a solution and bring awareness, for they are the most promising audience capable of intervening with the civil rights issue.
In regards to the method of delivery of this message, I propose a speech. I believe that a speech would be best in eliminating any misconceptions regarding the issue. I believe visuals are not necessary to help bring awareness to this issue, rather, examples of emotion-appealing stories and statistics to emphasize the prevalence of the inequality throughout the nation. Furthermore, the start with a strong source of credibility, I believe the message should be delivered by a representative of the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission or another government-affiliated organization. This will allow the audience to realize that the issue is larger than they thought, in scale, if such organizations are involved. Furthermore, the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission is well known for its report submission section of its website, which is where Americans may report personal racial inequality experiences. Sources state that in 2014, the EEOC received 31,073 charges alleging race-based discrimination (CNN). With the use of varying raw and concrete data, the rhetorical values of the speech could be further strengthened.
Sources Used:
Let us assume that an American of an ethnic descent was lucky enough to be selected for an employment position. Another problem lies within the individual's ability to hold the occupation. One study shows, that whites are more likely to be able to hold the professional occupation for at least 6 months at 33 percent, while black Americans are likely at 22 percent. Hispanics however are only at 13 percent (Racial Inequalities in Managerial and Professional Jobs 1). The existence of this problem has numerous critical effects, especially in regards to the growths of wage, poverty, and employment gaps between the minority and majority populations in America.
However, even at the face of distinct evidence, Americans are likely to deny the existence of this civil rights issue, furthermore continuing to allow the problem to exist. Why?
With laws such as affirmative action and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 presently in action, it is a common assumption that racial inequality in the work environment is already eliminated. Furthermore, even if one is conscious of the issue, most have given up, with the idea that effort has already been put into place. Therefore if it still persists, the problem cannot be combated.
Another contributive factor to the existence of the major civil rights problem is the concept of colorblindness. Colorblindness, the tendency amongst many non-minorities to claim to not 'see or notice' distinctions in regards to ethnicity and race, is actually a harmful approach to see all as equal. Many Americans have the perception that if they ignore one's racial characteristic, they would be able to unconsciously treat them as an equal. However, this only results in harmful effects for the minority. Colorblindness actually allows for individuals to simply ignore the presence of racial inequalities existing in America, therefore making it more difficult to propose for a solution. Racial and ethnic differences amongst the American population must be recognized in order to note the existence of these inequalities and to further attempt to correct them. If ignored, or denied to have any relevance, progress is extremely difficult, as a whole.
The message I believe is necessary to deliver is how prevalent this civil rights issue is, in America today. Though we have had a black president, and of course there are many successful Americans of an ethnic descent throughout America, these individuals do not serve as evidence that racial inequality does not exist. Though laws are in place, and attempts have been made to diminish this disadvantage for minorities, the issue is still presently impacting Americans.
I urge my target audience, those of influential positions, such as the Senate and the House of Representatives, to acknowledge that these problems are ubiquitous throughout the United States. Also, I urge that they propose to find a solution and bring awareness, for they are the most promising audience capable of intervening with the civil rights issue.
In regards to the method of delivery of this message, I propose a speech. I believe that a speech would be best in eliminating any misconceptions regarding the issue. I believe visuals are not necessary to help bring awareness to this issue, rather, examples of emotion-appealing stories and statistics to emphasize the prevalence of the inequality throughout the nation. Furthermore, the start with a strong source of credibility, I believe the message should be delivered by a representative of the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission or another government-affiliated organization. This will allow the audience to realize that the issue is larger than they thought, in scale, if such organizations are involved. Furthermore, the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission is well known for its report submission section of its website, which is where Americans may report personal racial inequality experiences. Sources state that in 2014, the EEOC received 31,073 charges alleging race-based discrimination (CNN). With the use of varying raw and concrete data, the rhetorical values of the speech could be further strengthened.
Below, is an image I believe is significant in combating any
arguments regarding educational differences, or experience levels between the
minority groups being the reason for unemployment. As one can see, the
difference between unemployment rates of whites and blacks are significant, by
approximately half. Such an image is evidence that supports the fact that this
civil rights issue still persists.
Discussion Questions
1) Do you think a
message through a different delivery towards a different audience would be
better in intervening with this specific problem? What kind and why?
2) What other
legal actions do you propose that you think would better the national
situation?
3) Do you think
that such a large inequality could be fixed? Why or why not?
4) Why do you think the laws already in place have not been
effective in completely eliminating the problem?
Sources Used:
Racial Inequalities in Managerial and Professional
Jobs." Racial Inequalities in Managerial and Professional Jobs. N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 Apr. 2017.
Sanders, Katie. "Do Job-seekers with 'white' Names Get
More Callbacks than 'black' Names?" Politifact. N.p., 2015. Web. 04 Apr.
2017.
1) Do you think a message through a different delivery towards a different audience would be better in intervening with this specific problem? What kind and why? I like your message because it has great potential for action. I think another option would be something like a TED talk or maybe even a small clip comprising short clips of individuals and their stories. I think both would work because it has the capability of reaching large audiences. It also would allow ordinary individuals who do not know much about racial inequality the chance to learn more about it. The more these individuals are aware that racial injustice persists in the work place, the better chance these individuals can make change throughout their community.
ReplyDelete2) What other legal actions do you propose that you think would better the national situation? I think more transparency in the workplace would be beneficial. More employees should feel comfortable reporting discrimination and shouldn't feel wrong about doing it. As far as legal action goes, it would be beneficial for employers to undergo more ethics training provided by HR. Companies should also fully lay out their requirements for the job and therefore be more transparent on their needs and qualifications. More specifically, companies should have a valid reason for not hiring someone and should be able to fully defend this argument in court.
3) Do you think that such a large inequality could be fixed? Why or why not? I think it has potential. If more people are aware of the current injustices in the workplace, the better chance of succeeding in eliminating it. If it goes without notice, like colorblindness, we won't live to see a change.
4) Why do you think the laws already in place have not been effective in completely eliminating the problem? I think because there are also legal ways to discriminate against employees. This works in the employers favor because they can find loop holes in discriminating against a persons race without coming out and admitting it. For example, it is legal to discriminate against appearance and even credit history. With time, this examples may become illegal but for now employers can use it. Unfortunately, this means they can prolong hiring or even simply hire individuals on legal grounds when in reality it was simply because of the individuals race.
I like your suggestion of requiring employers specifying employment qualifications and companies providing reasons for not hiring; this would definitely have a stricter hold on corporations and even eliminate some racial discrimination within the job environment. Also, I thought that your explanation of loop holes being present for racial discrimination and the fact that racial discrimination is simply legal, was insightful in identifying the main reasons for the problem still persisting.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my post on inequality of gender in the work force, so your post dealt with many things I discussed, yet we went about some things in different ways which I found interesting.
ReplyDelete1. I do believe a speech would be effective, but sometimes speeches can create the obstacle of inattention. I know I have fallen victim to spacing out during a speech or lecture. I think a better approach could be a video or documentary that uses visuals to make the audience more inclined to listen to the ideas that are approached. I also believe that a video can share stories of actual experiences of race discrimination, using pathos to touch on the audience emotions, with the use of pictures and videos of their mistreatment so the audience can put themselves more accurately into the shoes of that person.
2. I fully agree with Casey's points here. I think employees are often times far too timid when trying to report discrimination because of intimidation from other coworkers, or the sense that they will not be able to change anything (i.e. the obstacle of change). More transparency would do leaps in preventing this. Another factor that I took into consideration when proposing solutions for my civil right problem is to create a program similar to Alcohol EDU that employers would have to complete before joining the job. Instead of alcohol though, it would deal with discrimination.
3. I think that we still have a long way to go, but in general I think that this inequality may be fixed. I think that more and more people are realizing the harmful and unnecessary affects of discriminating, and that our society is making strides to address this (such as a African American president) but we still have a long way to go in the sense that many Americans still are living in the past where they believe whites are inherently better in some way than other races. I think that over time this idea will become extinct, but it will take a while. (especially with the current state of our president)
4. I think the system may not be extremely effective due to the fact that coworkers can fly under the radar unless reported, and even then, those who discriminated can deny the allegations made against them without any evidence to the contrary (more often than not). And as I mentioned above, often employees are too timid to report this discrimination with factors such as getting scared of being fired.
Although I knew about the inequality occurring, I had no idea that certain races also had more trouble retaining their jobs. I find it very interesting that even when minorities get hired, they struggle to hold onto their jobs as long as white people do, on average. I think a speech would be effective in spreading your message if it was recorded and posted on some sort of platform where a larger audience than just the attendees could view it. I agree with Maddie that inattention could be an obstacle, but if the speech was accessible on the internet, then people who cared about the topic could seek it out as well. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great read. Thank you for posting. I think a speech is a great way to engage your current target audience because that specific artifact can often reach a large audience. I find it very interesting at the inequality that is taking place in the workplace across the United States. It is said that certain minorities have to be afraid of loosing their jobs or work harder to hold on to them. I agree with Casey on that employers can often find loop holes on which they can give unequal treatment to the group of which they choose to discriminate against. I think that there could be a revaluation of employment laws.
ReplyDelete