Racial Discrimination In The Workplace

When you hear the term ‘workplace discrimination’ you immediately think of the unfair treatment a person gets in their workplace, be it for their sex, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, or race. Note that workplace discrimination doesn’t only happen while a person is employed, but it can happen in all stages of employment – recruitment, workplace terms and conditions, and dismissal. Discrimination can happen between an employer and the employee, as well as between co-workers themselves. Our focus in this article is on racial workplace discrimination.

What is race discrimination in the workplace?

Racial discrimination at work is when you are treated differently from your employer or colleagues because of your race, or the race of someone you are associated with, like your partner. The term race includes color, nationality, descend, ancestry, ethnic background, or any feature that is related to a particular race. It is illegal to discriminate someone based on their color and race by a number of federal and state laws, and you can even take action against it. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (RDA) defends people who are racially discriminated in different public areas, going as far as making racial hatred against the law.

Sadly, workplace racial discrimination is often difficult to detect. Unless the employer says so, you can’t really know why they hire a particular person or give them a promotion. FindLaw explains that you can’t ask questions to a possible employee about their race when they come in for the interview. If the employer does so and doesn’t hire the person, this automatically serves as evidence that race was a factor in this decision. Then, there’s the other case when people don’t know why they were not hired. You could always ask the employer, but the reasons you will get are probably not based on race.

Workplace racial discrimination can be direct and indirect, racial harassment and victimization – all of them illegal. If you are having problems identifying racial discrimination, read the following situations:

Direct discrimination

You immediately will know it’s racial discrimination when someone refuses to give you a job, dismisses you from work, doesn’t promote you, or pays you less, because of your race, nationality, or ethnicity, according to Citizens Advice. So you are treated worse than your colleagues of a different race.

Indirect discrimination

This is when a company has policies or rules that apply to everyone, but some people with certain characteristics are put to disadvantage compared to others. An example of this would be when the employer says the candidates for the job should have UK qualifications – you have the equivalent qualifications from your country but are not allowed to apply. Another example would be banning headscarves at work or insisting on wearing skirts, explains Citizens Advice.

Harassment

Racial harassment happens when an employer or colleague constantly uses discriminatory comments, thus showing racial intolerance towards a person on their culture, religion, language, and color. See the following examples by Prevent Violence at Work:

– Making excuses for not working with the victim,
– Trying to hinder or stop the victim’s chances for a promotion,
– Stereotyping the victim with subordinate tasks or case-loads,
– Being intolerant regarding the victim’s differences like their accent, hairdo, beliefs.

Victimization

If even after complaining of harassment and discrimination you are still treated the same, you are being victimized. Chances are, you might be treated even worse after the discrimination complaint. Does the law protect you against victimization, you ask?! Well, if you have made the complaint under the Equality Act (the law against discrimination), give evidence to help someone else who has made a complaint under the Act, say someone has done something against the laws of the Act, and basically do everything that is related to the Act, you are protected against victimization by law.

For every abovementioned discrimination, you are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII bans intentional and every other type of discrimination, policies, and rules that exclude minorities and ‘are not job-related’. Therefore, if you believe you have been a victim of racial discrimination at work, collect all the evidence you have and talk to the HR department since they are required by law to prevent discrimination at the workplace.

You might also want to read: How To Prevent Discrimination In The Workplace