Introduction
Racism is a significant issue in sociology since it impacts the kind of relationships that may be formed between individuals and the consequences that can be anticipated from such relationships. Despite countless efforts to offer African-Americans the same rights and opportunities as Whites, the situation cannot be resolved due to the emergence of new factors and challenges. Institutional racism refers to a sort of racial inequality manifest in the actions of societal and political institutions. Structural prejudice has the potential to adversely affect a large number of persons, such as when recruitment corporations refuse to hire individuals based on their skin color. Between 1962 and 2015, the unemployment rate for African Americans was at least twice higher than the jobless proportion for Caucasians in all but seven years (Zambrana et al. 176). This issue is essential as a research topic since the relationship between workforce well-being and occupational involvement and performance is inherent. Therefore, this essay aims to provide a literature review and methodological aspects of the concern to establish the causes of the challenge.
Literature Review
This literature review offers a more in-depth understanding of the scholarly articles of many writers regarding their perspectives on the subject of systematic racism in the workplace. Although businesses are currently unlawful to participate in discriminatory employment practices, many studies indicate that other harmful types of discrimination hinder African Americans. McCluney et al. in their research across careers and sectors, insinuated that Blacks face intelligence-related ethnic prejudice and misconceptions (4). In business organizations, stereotypes concerning the absence of professionalism and competency of Blacks may result in fewer prospects for progress in their respective sectors. These structural and organizational distinctions in employment categorization have ramifications for exposure to various psychological risks while working (McCluney et al. 4). Work-related stress paired with other life stresses that may unfairly target African Americans, such as community attractiveness and family obligations, may contribute to their ill health. Chronic job stress and systemic inequity in the workforce, which may aggravate this stress, may be crucial factors connecting racism to health disparities.
Yearby and Mohapatra established a positive correlation between institutional prejudice and laborers’ wellness in their research on structural racism during the COVID-19 pandemic (5). They enumerated that the unequal exposure of African Americans and ethnic minorities to COVID-19 is partially attributable to systemic discrimination in occupation. During the Jim Crow era (1875–1968), recruitment rules were implemented to protect white employees and handicapped Blacks and ethnic minorities (Yearby and Mohapatra 5). Many laws that enhanced collective bargaining privileges, for instance, either explicitly exempted African Americans or permitted organizations to discriminate against them. These employment rights favored whites by granting whites membership to associations that negotiated paid sick leave. However, it left racial and ethnic minority personnel without labor representatives and paid sick leave, requiring them to function while ill and exacerbating gaps in their susceptibility to fatal infections such as COVID-19. Although the Jim Crow era ended in 1968, numerous African Americans still lacked paid sick leave. Other occupational rules continue to restrict their access to fair compensation, resulting in discrepancies in COVID-19 vulnerability (Yearby and Mohapatra 5). This is illustrated by the predicament of farm laborers and homecare employees.
Wingfield and Koji highlighted that the connections between numerous organizations generate a web of relationships that reinforce racial inequities in multiple contexts, resulting in various obstacles for black employees to obtain and maintain employment (34). At the institutional level, racially neutral rules, laws, and practices may have disparate effects on black employees. Wingfield and Koji contend that these processes indicate the decline of Jim Crow-style instruments of structural racism and the consequent increase of colorblind philosophies that legitimate subtler, more covert behaviors that preserve racial inequities (34). For example, corporations that prohibit specific hairstyles for personnel, such as dreadlocks and braids, are purportedly proposing legislation applicable to all workers but have a discriminatory effect on African American employees. Wingfield and Koji demonstrated that in the aftermath of the Civil Rights era and positive action initiatives, black directors experienced enterprise practices that diverted them into institutional racism employment (34). The systematic prejudice labor was characterized by less assimilation into the leadership context, reduced long-term protection, and fewer paths to top managerial positions.
Williams et al. provided several illustrations of how the regulations, methods, and activities of medical institutions contribute to the perpetuation of varied incarnations of unequal employment and clinical outcomes for Black clinicians and clients (2). Anti-Black discrimination is a distinct form of racism believed to have developed from a pyramid model imposed during indentured servitude that placed White people at the highest level of the social hierarchy and Black people at the bottom (Williams et al. 2). This action continues to disadvantage Black people to this day. Due to anti-Black policies, practices, and institutional arrangements, Black practitioners continue to be underserved in management and other areas of authority and control within healthcare institutions. When medical institutions execute the idea that Black folks are ethnically or physiologically distinct to explain the abuse, maintain injustices, and assume colored orientations as White spaces, anti-Black bigotry is also displayed. Moreover, Williams et al. found a correlation between the frequency of misconceptions, marginalization, and non-Black specialists’ unconscious and White favoritism and judgments (2). The result was that such prejudice damages Black individuals in hospital and occupational settings.
Similarly, Kyere & Sadaaki’s study demonstrated how systematic racism functions in the US medical framework, encompassing mental health institutions (3). Healthcare settings categorize African Americans, particularly Black women, into dangerous responsibilities with the lowest incomes and the least management culture, including direct workers and assistants. Their analysis indicated that Black women were heavily underrepresented in the healthcare workforce compared to other racial and demographic groupings. However, African American women were more likely to be associated with these lower-level professions, similar to the trend during slavery, when enslaved Black people worked under the direction of White people (Kyere and Sadaaki 3). Intriguingly, several of the beneficiaries served by these lower-level mental health providers of color are individuals of color with complex needs requiring additional resources and attention. Therefore, their capacity to harness organizational resources to offer quality services may be constrained due to a lack of job involvement.
Lastly, Taylor et al. highlighted that corporate preconceptions, which frequently result in hidden racism throughout the recruiting process, are a variable impacting African-American recruitment (217). They discovered that changing the sound of a European name to an African-American-sounding voice culminated in a 50% increase in responses from recruiters. Therefore, misconceptions impact African-Americans’ ability to obtain work. African-American men possess several traits, such as linguistic forthrightness, openness, and boldness that are incompatible with a predominantly White workplace setting.
These societal prejudices justify inequality, such as the disparate wages and workforce participation among African-American men. African-American skilled males are twice as likely to be unemployed and receive 20% less than their White counterparts (Taylor et al. 217). Only 22% of employed African-American men hold leadership positions, contrasted to 33% of White employed men (Taylor et al. 217). Moreover, Taylor et al. investigated Black and White men who competed for hundreds of low-paying jobs using identical resumes save for their race (217). The study revealed that African-American minority candidates are less likely to be requested for an interview, resulting in fewer chances to create rapport with the company and display their skills. Corporations are likewise less inclined to consider African-American men than to engage White men.
Methodology
The research paper utilized a secondary analysis from McCluney et al.’s study (6). Secondary research alludes to the utilization of already-existing investigation data to answer a separate issue from the original material. The present analysis analyzes data from the 2008 and 2010 phases, in which subjects were asked additional questions about work motivation and prejudice in the workplace. Employing restrictive three-digit US census employment classifications, statistics from 2008 and 2010 were integrated into Health and Retirement Study (HRS) records to integrate knowledgeable or more objective evaluations of the workplace setting into the research. To mitigate industrial effects, the HRS uses constrained three-digit sector codes to unify business codes from the 2000 census into eight main sections (Appendix 1).
In 2008 and 2010, 24,220 people participated in the HRS. Of these, 7,417 spanned the ages of 50 and 64 and worked part-time or full-time for a salary. Among these employees, 3,327 responded to the Lifestyle Leave-Behind Survey in 2008 or 2010, 3,154 had results on SRHS in the subsequent cycle (2010 or 2012), and 3,126 had a three-digit Census profession code that was compatible with O*NET data (Appendix 1). To narrow the scope of their investigation, the investigators removed 344 individuals who identified as Hispanic due to insufficient analytical power. Since the scholars lacked sufficient subjects to investigate health inequalities in other minority groups, they also excluded (N=109) participants who identified as Asian, American Indian, Alaska Native, or Pacific Islander. The remaining 231 respondents lacked home affluence, BMI, or occupation data. The final subjective HRS sample analysis included 2,030 White and 412 Black laborers, totaling 2,442 staff. This is lowered to 2,389 respondents (1,984 White and 405 Black personnel) for perceptual processing and 2,220 for MAP (1,851 White and 369 Black professionals).
Conclusion
Race is an essential issue in sociology since it impacts the kind of relationships that may be formed between individuals and the repercussions that can be anticipated from such relationships. In addition, institutional racism strongly influences job possibilities, initially via regulations and subsequently through illegitimate norms embedded into employment market organizations. Structural racism is a form of racial inequity that manifests itself in the acts of governmental and societal establishments. Therefore, institutional bias can negatively affect African Americans’ well-being and professional productivity, such as when recruitment entities reject to employ them based on their skin color. The connection between workplace discrimination and community is that it may cause African Americans to quit their jobs, hence increasing unemployment rates. To tackle the problem, a nation may adopt a series of laws and guidelines within which citizens must confront prejudice and prevent situations in which racial minorities must suffer.
Works Cited
Kyere, Eric, and Sadaaki Fukui. “Structural Racism, Workforce Diversity, and Mental Health Disparities: A Critical Review.” Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 2022, pp. 1-12.
McCluney, Courtney L., et al. “Structural Racism in the Workplace: Does Perception Matter for Health Inequalities?” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 199, 2018, pp. 1-37.
Taylor, Evi, et al. “The Historical Perspectives of Stereotypes on African-American Males.” Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, vol. 4, no. 3, 2019, pp. 213-225.
Williams, Myia S., et al. “Black Physicians’ Experiences with Anti-Black Racism in Healthcare Systems Explored Through An Attraction-Selection-Attrition Lens.” Journal of Business and Psychology, 2022, pp. 1-14.
Wingfield, Adia Harvey, and Koji Chavez. “Getting in, Getting Hired, Getting Sideways Looks: Organizational Hierarchy and Perceptions of Racial Discrimination.” American Sociological Review, vol. 85, no. 1, 2020, pp. 31-57.
Yearby, Ruqaiijah, and Seema Mohapatra. “Law, Structural Racism, and the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Law and the Biosciences, vol. 7, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-20.
Zambrana, Ruth Enid, et al. “Workplace Stress and Discrimination Effects on the Physical and Depressive Symptoms of Underrepresented Minority Faculty.” Stress and Health, vol. 37, no. 1, 2021, pp. 175-185.