Jun 29, 2009 - Discrimination is Alive and Well in the U.S. by: Lady Dianne
Discrimination is Alive and Well in the U.S.
Many people would like to think discrimination is a thing of the past, like slavery, since President Obama took office.Not so.Most of my professional career has been about eliminating discrimination in the workplace - Ten years with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as an EEO investigator, conciliator, and trainer.I have spent twenty-two years as the President of Sutton Enterprises designing, delivering workshops and retreats on Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action and Valuing and Managing Diversity.
While blatant discrimination may sometimes seem as though it has diminished, I get examples in every class to the contrary. For example:
·In a meeting of Federal representatives one of the individuals was reported saying “why don’t gays stay in the closet.”
·Last month in a diversity session, a participant heard a white man on the street call a black man a nigger because he got the cab first.
The SPLC Report (Spring 2009) published by the Southern Poverty Law Center (www.splcenter.org) writes the number of hate groups active in the U.S. continued to grow in 2008 as racist extremists were fueled by immigration tensions, a faltering economy and the election of the first President of “Color.”The SPLC’s annual hate group count identified 926 hate groups – a 54 percent increase since 2000 and a 4 per cent gain over 2007.
According to the SPLC Report Neo-Nazi David Duke claims that President Obama will be a visual aid for angry white Americans and will provoke a backlash among relatively mainstream whites that will result in a dramatic increase in the ranks of extremists.
To quote Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, author, journalist, etc, “America is not post-racial; we need to be post-racist.”
Also subtle discrimination is quite active.It is the “paper cuts” of personal interaction that creates a lot of problems and tensions in the workplace. In the DVD Drop by Drop, micro-inequities are examined. Micro-inequities are the small messages of prejudice that are sent from one person to another, often without knowing. Really, these small communications of disrespect and inequality can be destructive. It is estimated that we send 2000 – 4000 micro messages every day. Some typical examples include failing to acknowledge someone’s presence, never bothering to learn the correct pronunciation of a person’s name, cultural slights (ignoring cultural needs/differences and sensitivities) or excluding someone from relevant e-mail. (Refer to www.costal.com)These micro-inequities may be too subtle to be eliminated by legal mandate but micro-inequities are large enough to lower self-esteem, decrease morale and productivity, increase frustration and employee turnover.
I know I do not have all the answers but I would like to believe that the election of President Obama and the immerging Generation Y into the workplace represents the new wave of human development and interaction.However, I am not sure how quickly this new wave will take effect.What do you think????
Dianne Floyd Sutton is President of Sutton Enterprises, author, trainer, educator, facilitator, expert witness, coach and actor. She has twenty-five years of combined experience in Human Resource Development (HRD) and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) training. And she has twenty years of business experience as Sutton Enterprises.
