Racial Discrimination. I will discuss about the issue of racial discrimination in employment and in the workplace in the United States

University of Social Sciences & Humanities Name: Trần Thị Anh Thư

Department of English Linguistics & Literature Code: 0857010262

Social Issues in America Class: VHVH2

Lecturer: Trinh Hien Nhan, M.A.

There are more and more immigrants from all over the world coming to the United States every year. They follow the call of religious freedom, liberty, independence, individual rights and the equalities. They hear of the grandeur of the promise land where opportunities and dreams are made real. They come to the United States from the eastern to western hemispheres, from Africa to Asian. They believe that they will have a happy, successful living with equal opportunities through hard work. Yet life is not a dream. The higher expectations they have, the higher despair they feel. Because discrimination still exists even if there are many great progresses for struggling against discrimination or a mixed-race president. Discrimination is a specific examples of inequalities rooted in class, race, and origin which imply that living in America is not attainable for everyone. And now in this paper, I will discuss about the issue of racial discrimination in employment and in the workplace in the United States, one of the most heated matters of public debate in recent years.

According to a study on the effects of race on hiring decisions by the Supreme Court, it is found that racial discrimination is still alive and grows well. Applicants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin including white applicants and black applicants are divided into four groups. They are white applicants with a criminal record, whites without a criminal record, blacks with a criminal record and lastly blacks without a criminal record. They are all given the comparable resumes and sent their resumes to the same employers. Except for the differences in race and in criminal record, applicants are the same. However the rate of the group who receiving the call for interview is totally different. There is 34 percent for whites without a criminal record invited back and to blacks without a criminal record is only 5 percent. And to two groups with a criminal record, only 14 percent of blacks were called back for an interview in comparing to the 17 percent of whites. Maybe the employers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States are more likely to discriminate than employers in the rest of the country. In the other hand, the unemployment rate for African Americans has always been higher than the national average. According to CBS News, it is reported that African American unemployment at 16.2 percent in comparing to the national average at 9.1 percent. There is a bit higher for African American males. Black males have a greater chance to be unemployed at 17.5 percent. For young men of color, things are especially bad. The unemployment rate for African American teenagers is nearly 41 percent. Although there’s been a lot of expectation to manage this racial discrimination in employment in the United States, the unemployment rate for African Americans is going to the recession. African-American unemployment averaged during 2006-2007 and the total African American unemployment is currently at over 16 percent and has been hovering around 15.8 percent in 2011. Besides that the employment rate of all African American is down to 51 percent from 60 percent in 2001 means that nearly half of all African Americans aren’t working. Why is the national average rate lower than the African American unemployment rate? Why does half of African American do not work? Is it because they are lazy? The only answer for these questions is racial discrimination in employment. Furthermore racial discrimination is not only to African American but also to Asian American. Due to the fact that many Asian American work in well-paying and high status jobs, they still experience the barriers of discrimination. Besides that although Asian American has been called the “model minority”, they still have to face a number of misperceptions such as quiet, hardworking, family-oriented but passive and antisocial. A new study by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is reported that there are only about 2 percent of Asian American in the private sector and 3.26 percent in the federal sector. The report notes that across all federal agencies, Asian American is consistently underrepresented as mid-level supervisors or executives. Although we are not provided many specific examples of discrimination against Asian American by the report, we can see that Asian American face many barriers such as narrow assignments, language and accent discrimination, perceptions of foreignness, perceptions of lack of leadership. It is the misperceptions help Asian American experience the barriers of discrimination especially in employment. Hopefully they will soon overcome these barriers not only in employment, but also in life. Last but not least, there is much statistical evidence showed that racial discrimination in the workplace is still common. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC reported that racial harassment on the job in 1996 was higher than in 2000 four times in the workplaces in North Carolina. It has increasing from 16 cases in 1996 to 62 cases in 2000 only in that region. We cannot believe but the racial discrimination in workplace and in employment is still alive and work well in the 21st century.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Racial discrimination in employment can come in the form of inappropriate comments, misperception, unfair treatment of employees in regards to hiring, calling for interview, promotions, racial harassment in the workplace and so on. Racial discrimination in the workplace is unacceptable and it is illegal under the rules and the racial discrimination standards of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1991. But why does the racial discrimination keep working and going well? Are there so many gaps in the law, the rules or the racial discrimination standards? I think the problem here is not from the law, the rules or any racial standard. It is from the awareness. That is all what we have to do for excluding the racial discrimination in workplace. To deal with this issue, I think we should have to solve in three sides. Those are company or cooperation, employers and the public. First of all, to company or cooperation, we should develop the specific policies inside the company about the standard of racial discrimination and the strict punishments going along with the policies. For example if any letter, evidence or report sent to company board to complain about the discrimination of the manager or supervisor during the recruitment process, a faith investigation should be made and if the complaint is true, that manager or supervisor should be fined an huge amount of money or even they will be fired. Besides that, the company should hold the special training course for the leaderships such as managers, supervisors, board of directors about the equalities in hiring, in employment and especially in the workplace. The company should help them understand about the policies, the equalities in the workplace, the risks of racial discrimination and make sure that there will be no discrimination in their company. Secondly, to the side of employers, I think we should establish the groups in company’s offices to protect their rights inside the company. And those groups will have the regular meeting every week or every month to discuss about the workplace concerns, solve the racial harassment or racial discrimination in hiring or employment in the company if have. They may be so small and cannot solve these problems but they should have their own voices and take actions if necessary. Their voices and the right actions will help change workplace behavior to prevent racial discrimination from now and in the future. Besides that I think a training course about anti-discrimination company’s policies for all new employers, workers, officers in the company is necessary. By this training course, all employers may have a right understanding about this issue and know what they have to do to prevent the racial harassment also racial discrimination in the workplace. Lastly, I think the public plays an important role in solving racial discrimination. Since the United States is a democratic country, the ideas and voices of the public will be listened and appreciated. That is the reason why we should make sure that the public will have a same voice and the right ideas about this issue. To help them have a positive and correct viewpoint, we should propaganda the meaningful lessons about the values of connection, solidarity, melting-pot culture, equalities, liberty and anti-discrimination through the panel in the street, advertiser, television, radio, news and books.

Although awareness of discriminatory behaviors in the workplace is increasing, immigrants still face unique problems in dealing with oppressive attitudes, policies, and culturally insensitive practices. In this essay we can see that immigrants are being discriminated against in recruitment and promotion, and are victims of racial harassment in the workplace. I try to figure out the way to solve this problem and change the racial discrimination in the United States. Hopefully it will help to supply some ideas about racial discrimination in workplace. In my opinion, immigrants coming to the United States have the same hopes, opportunities and capabilities to have the equalities, freedom, and happiness. Opportunities to have an interview, find a job, receive the same promotion and treatment should be equally available to everyone, regardless of their race or their colors. The economy is terrible for all Americans right now and we desperately need action to both expand the economy and exclude the racial discrimination also.

Sources: