Racial discrimination has existed in the United State’s work force for decades. Even with the abolition of slavery racial tension and inequality has persisted throughout the years. Being a college student in the modern day, I have had a variety of jobs where I have witnessed racial discrimination first hand. Most of my experiences in the work force have been with manual labor or in the lower end food service industry. In these two very different divisions of work almost all of the employees have been a single race, with no diversity. I find this both interesting and unfortunate.
Even with title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (declaring that any employer with more that fifteen employees is not allowed to refuse to hire or take away any direct compensation that an employee is set to receive because of that employee’s race) employers still tend to enact some sort of racial discrimination. The following question if often posed to employers; if there are two employees of two different races are equally qualified to fill a certain position, which one will the employer choose? I have found that depending on the race of the employer, he or she will choose the employee whose race is similar to their own.
From an HR standpoint and I do alot of hiring, I would disagree. I would choose the applicant that is of a different race from me simply because I am an Equal Opportunity Employer as I want to hire as many diverse employees as possible.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked in the public sector in a program helping those that are disadvantaged, a common thought or saying among many of my counterparts was "The 30 year old white male is the group MOST discriminated against and given the least opportunities of anyone in this country."
While this is an overstatement, they white male was often the last applicant considered when it came to eligibility for classroom training assistance, on-the-job training and other gov't-funded programs.
While I don't disagree that racism is definetely apparent in our society, and employers are violating the Civil Rights Act, no one goes unscathed by it.