Intersectional Discrimination
Intersectional Discrimination is the discrimination of a person or classification of people because they are a member of two or more protected classes. Equal employment opportunity statutes prohibit this type of discrimination. Intersectional discrimination can involve more than one EEO statute, e.g., discrimination based on age and disability, or based on sex and age, or discrimination based on race and sex, etc.
Intersectional discrimination, harassment, and retaliation were standard operating procedures at my previous job. My employer routinely discriminated against and allowed the race-based harassment of Black, female employees. In fact, my previous employer was found guilty of retaliating against a Black, female manager.
Black women were routinely subjected to race-based name-calling, which was most prominently used during performance evaluation time. It was not uncommon for Black, female employees to receive performance evaluations declaring them to be “snooty,” “mean,” “rude,” “not nice,” “angry,” “defensive,” “pissed off,” and/or “nasty.” These comments were always made by White women. These comments also violated my employer’s performance evaluation guidelines, which stated that personality-based feedback should not be the focus of performance reviews and that reviews should rely on work-related commentary. These personality-based comments (all fraudulent) were used to justify “delineated areas of concern” and were the stated reason why Black, female employees would not be promoted, would receive a poor review and low salary increase, etc. In some cases, Black, female employees were told that they would be promoted “in the next cycle,” if they could show improvement in these alleged areas of concern.
If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you! And, for the record, it is impossible to believe that EVERY Black, female employee behaves in one manner—unless you are a complete racist!
Intersectional discrimination was so rampant at this job that five Black women resigned employment within 2 months time! Interestingly, all of the resignations took place directly before or after the year-end performance evaluations. The common complaint I heard was being blamed for problems caused by White staff (usually White women) and being labeled as a sudden personality/behavioral problem.
The similar allegations against these five Black women give credibility to claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against this employer because the allegations show the mindset at the job to tolerate and, therefore, to encourage a discriminatory environment.
Here’s a tip for you to use in the workplace: Don’t be an as*hole!! One of the good things about being friendly with other staff (read: not being an a**hole) is that you can find out details from other staff regarding the types of feedback they’re getting from managers and supervisors about their performance, you can get information about their salary (and can compare that to other staff of similar education and experience), and you can find out information about other conditions of their employment.
You can use this shared information to see if there are any patterns or blueprints being used against certain staff. You should document any similarities regarding these patterns of criticism, etc. because they can be used to help prove misconduct, racism, discrimination, etc. in the workplace.
Intersectional discrimination, harassment, and retaliation were standard operating procedures at my previous job. My employer routinely discriminated against and allowed the race-based harassment of Black, female employees. In fact, my previous employer was found guilty of retaliating against a Black, female manager.
Black women were routinely subjected to race-based name-calling, which was most prominently used during performance evaluation time. It was not uncommon for Black, female employees to receive performance evaluations declaring them to be “snooty,” “mean,” “rude,” “not nice,” “angry,” “defensive,” “pissed off,” and/or “nasty.” These comments were always made by White women. These comments also violated my employer’s performance evaluation guidelines, which stated that personality-based feedback should not be the focus of performance reviews and that reviews should rely on work-related commentary. These personality-based comments (all fraudulent) were used to justify “delineated areas of concern” and were the stated reason why Black, female employees would not be promoted, would receive a poor review and low salary increase, etc. In some cases, Black, female employees were told that they would be promoted “in the next cycle,” if they could show improvement in these alleged areas of concern.
If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you! And, for the record, it is impossible to believe that EVERY Black, female employee behaves in one manner—unless you are a complete racist!
Intersectional discrimination was so rampant at this job that five Black women resigned employment within 2 months time! Interestingly, all of the resignations took place directly before or after the year-end performance evaluations. The common complaint I heard was being blamed for problems caused by White staff (usually White women) and being labeled as a sudden personality/behavioral problem.
The similar allegations against these five Black women give credibility to claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against this employer because the allegations show the mindset at the job to tolerate and, therefore, to encourage a discriminatory environment.
Here’s a tip for you to use in the workplace: Don’t be an as*hole!! One of the good things about being friendly with other staff (read: not being an a**hole) is that you can find out details from other staff regarding the types of feedback they’re getting from managers and supervisors about their performance, you can get information about their salary (and can compare that to other staff of similar education and experience), and you can find out information about other conditions of their employment.
You can use this shared information to see if there are any patterns or blueprints being used against certain staff. You should document any similarities regarding these patterns of criticism, etc. because they can be used to help prove misconduct, racism, discrimination, etc. in the workplace.
Labels: discrimination, harassment, performance evaluation, protected class, retaliation
posted by S. Mary Wills at 6:45 AM
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