I Just Want To Work With Someone Like Me!
A friend of mine (Black) went on an interview and called me afterwards because of a comment that was repeatedly made by the interviewer (White). The interviewer kept saying: “We really like our culture here. We like how things are.”
Why did my friend feel this was worth repeating? The company she was interviewing for had about 11 employees. Out of 11 employees, only one was Black…and she was the receptionist. It was also worth repeating because she went in to interview for a senior research analyst job, but as soon as the interviewer got a look at her…all of a sudden the job was being down-graded one component at a time. The more the interview went on, the more junior the job became. Finally, it was to the point where my friend would have wound up having research-related note-taking and word-processing as major components of this potential job. She was also told she would have to take a salary cut.
I remember working for an employer, where—more than anywhere I’d ever worked—I’d hear staff talking about finding people that “fit” or saying that someone was a perfect “fit” on the job. In fact, there seemed to be a high concentration of staff in one department, who were more likely to make theses comments than employees and managers in other departments. The department? Conference Services. The employees and managers making the remarks? White women.
And, boy, did they ever “fit.” They shopped at the same stores, talked about their nannies and housekeepers, gave tips on doing window treatments and Martha Stewart style home improvements, bragged about their homes and their husbands, and they dressed like carbon copies of each other. Heck, they even got to the point where many of them spoke the same way. If you closed your eyes, you really wouldn’t know who you were dealing with. They were so similar, generalizing works pretty well on them. They were elitist, sarcastic, arrogant, and dismissive. And, they each had a say in hiring decisions because they were part of the mid-level and senior management structure in their department.
Whenever it came time to bring anyone new into their department, they only cared about one thing…finding someone that “fit.” When minorities interviewed, they could never quite put their fingers on it, but something just wouldn’t be right. The more people got hired, the more you could easily see that to “fit,” you had to be just like them--White, from money (or married to money) and female. They wanted someone else to go to DSW with, someone else to get margaritas after work with, and someone else, who could keep an eye on their cat, when they were out of town.
Some would argue: Maybe these people weren’t stereotyping and maybe they weren’t racist. Maybe they were just looking to create a great team that worked harmoniously and efficiently. Maybe they just hired the best interviewees. Maybe the Black or other minority candidates weren’t the best “fit.”
I say this…if you are a White interviewer or someone who has input into hiring decisions and you can’t imagine many circumstances in which a minority applicant would “fit” in at your company or within your corporate “culture,” then you are probably a racist and—based on that—you should not be rewarded with the power to impact anyone’s livelihood. If you are prone to thinking that a minority staff member will disrupt the harmony, efficiency or any other aspect of department, group, etc…again, you are probably a racist. And, you don’t deserve the ability to have a say so about any employment decisions.
Let me tell you about those women, who were preoccupied with “fit.” They went out of their way to make a Black, male Meeting Planner appear to be incompetent. They would go to the director of the department and claim that he botched nearly every assignment—by leaving steps out, skirting away from instructions, and displaying other performance deficiencies. They even went as far as to start the rumor that he had a learning disability. He was a college graduate. And, he didn’t have a learning disability. They also routinely called him lazy. This Black man was never eligible for promotion, based on their attacks on his work performance, work effort, knowledge, etc. He was a dumb, lazy Black man—according to them.
You want to know the real issue? They didn’t want this Black man promoted to their level, making the same or similar money, having more of a voice within the department, etc.
Within 2 years of resigning his position and working for a new employer, this Black employee was promoted twice—something that hadn’t happened once in the nearly 5 years he was at our job. And, he became a manager. Clients were requesting him for projects. He was traveling around the world, far surpassing anyone of these women. Still, when he worked at our job, they fixed him good. They made a coordinated effort to stifle his career and they succeeded. Stopping his opportunity to advance hindered his overall employment opportunities (and his pay) and probably represented intentional discrimination.
According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, intentional discrimination occurs when an employment decision is affected by the person's race. It includes not only racial animosity, but also conscious or unconscious stereotypes about the abilities, traits, or performance of individuals of certain racial groups.
And, as far as the question about whether or not it’s okay to hire people or assign people to projects based on who people would like to work with, report to, be served by, etc., Title VII also says this: Basing employment decisions on the racial preferences of clients, customers, or coworkers constitutes intentional race discrimination. Employment decisions that are based on the discriminatory preferences of customers or coworkers are just as unlawful as decisions based on an employer's own discriminatory preferences.
It is illegal to hire people simply because they look like you or are perceived to be like you or who are perceived to “fit,” while intentionally denying employment to minority candidates. It isn’t okay and is illegal to deny someone a promotion, raise, etc. in favor of giving these things to people who are like you, look like you, and who “fit.”
You should listen to the language being used at your job and look at who is benefiting from policies, practices, unofficial guidelines or tolerated attitudes and behaviors (stereotyping, etc)., which may be illegal. If you believe you are the victim of unequal treatment, intentionally or unintentionally, you should consider your options. You may want to pursue the issue by filing an internal or external complaint.
Why did my friend feel this was worth repeating? The company she was interviewing for had about 11 employees. Out of 11 employees, only one was Black…and she was the receptionist. It was also worth repeating because she went in to interview for a senior research analyst job, but as soon as the interviewer got a look at her…all of a sudden the job was being down-graded one component at a time. The more the interview went on, the more junior the job became. Finally, it was to the point where my friend would have wound up having research-related note-taking and word-processing as major components of this potential job. She was also told she would have to take a salary cut.
I remember working for an employer, where—more than anywhere I’d ever worked—I’d hear staff talking about finding people that “fit” or saying that someone was a perfect “fit” on the job. In fact, there seemed to be a high concentration of staff in one department, who were more likely to make theses comments than employees and managers in other departments. The department? Conference Services. The employees and managers making the remarks? White women.
And, boy, did they ever “fit.” They shopped at the same stores, talked about their nannies and housekeepers, gave tips on doing window treatments and Martha Stewart style home improvements, bragged about their homes and their husbands, and they dressed like carbon copies of each other. Heck, they even got to the point where many of them spoke the same way. If you closed your eyes, you really wouldn’t know who you were dealing with. They were so similar, generalizing works pretty well on them. They were elitist, sarcastic, arrogant, and dismissive. And, they each had a say in hiring decisions because they were part of the mid-level and senior management structure in their department.
Whenever it came time to bring anyone new into their department, they only cared about one thing…finding someone that “fit.” When minorities interviewed, they could never quite put their fingers on it, but something just wouldn’t be right. The more people got hired, the more you could easily see that to “fit,” you had to be just like them--White, from money (or married to money) and female. They wanted someone else to go to DSW with, someone else to get margaritas after work with, and someone else, who could keep an eye on their cat, when they were out of town.
Some would argue: Maybe these people weren’t stereotyping and maybe they weren’t racist. Maybe they were just looking to create a great team that worked harmoniously and efficiently. Maybe they just hired the best interviewees. Maybe the Black or other minority candidates weren’t the best “fit.”
I say this…if you are a White interviewer or someone who has input into hiring decisions and you can’t imagine many circumstances in which a minority applicant would “fit” in at your company or within your corporate “culture,” then you are probably a racist and—based on that—you should not be rewarded with the power to impact anyone’s livelihood. If you are prone to thinking that a minority staff member will disrupt the harmony, efficiency or any other aspect of department, group, etc…again, you are probably a racist. And, you don’t deserve the ability to have a say so about any employment decisions.
Let me tell you about those women, who were preoccupied with “fit.” They went out of their way to make a Black, male Meeting Planner appear to be incompetent. They would go to the director of the department and claim that he botched nearly every assignment—by leaving steps out, skirting away from instructions, and displaying other performance deficiencies. They even went as far as to start the rumor that he had a learning disability. He was a college graduate. And, he didn’t have a learning disability. They also routinely called him lazy. This Black man was never eligible for promotion, based on their attacks on his work performance, work effort, knowledge, etc. He was a dumb, lazy Black man—according to them.
You want to know the real issue? They didn’t want this Black man promoted to their level, making the same or similar money, having more of a voice within the department, etc.
Within 2 years of resigning his position and working for a new employer, this Black employee was promoted twice—something that hadn’t happened once in the nearly 5 years he was at our job. And, he became a manager. Clients were requesting him for projects. He was traveling around the world, far surpassing anyone of these women. Still, when he worked at our job, they fixed him good. They made a coordinated effort to stifle his career and they succeeded. Stopping his opportunity to advance hindered his overall employment opportunities (and his pay) and probably represented intentional discrimination.
According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, intentional discrimination occurs when an employment decision is affected by the person's race. It includes not only racial animosity, but also conscious or unconscious stereotypes about the abilities, traits, or performance of individuals of certain racial groups.
And, as far as the question about whether or not it’s okay to hire people or assign people to projects based on who people would like to work with, report to, be served by, etc., Title VII also says this: Basing employment decisions on the racial preferences of clients, customers, or coworkers constitutes intentional race discrimination. Employment decisions that are based on the discriminatory preferences of customers or coworkers are just as unlawful as decisions based on an employer's own discriminatory preferences.
It is illegal to hire people simply because they look like you or are perceived to be like you or who are perceived to “fit,” while intentionally denying employment to minority candidates. It isn’t okay and is illegal to deny someone a promotion, raise, etc. in favor of giving these things to people who are like you, look like you, and who “fit.”
You should listen to the language being used at your job and look at who is benefiting from policies, practices, unofficial guidelines or tolerated attitudes and behaviors (stereotyping, etc)., which may be illegal. If you believe you are the victim of unequal treatment, intentionally or unintentionally, you should consider your options. You may want to pursue the issue by filing an internal or external complaint.
Labels: discrimination, Federal law, racial profiling, racist perceptions, stereotypes
posted by S. Mary Wills at 11:53 AM
6 Comments:
The issue of Generational Differences(www.generationalprofiles.com) is prevalent in all walks of life. But the problem, I believe, is solved in the workplace. Because it is the workplace which requires all generations to deal with one another in support of a common goal. In order to better understand one another, we need to drop this age stigma that shapes our generations, and instead look at the traits and tendencies which each Generation is known for.
My company has created the Generational Profiles to do just this. What we are hoping to do is help kick start the conversation of generational differences by providing a tool which helps point out how well you know the generations as well as yourself. Hopefully then we can start a stimulating discussion on how best to tackle this issue.
I'd like to hear more about what your company is up to. My readers may be interested as well. If you'd like, you can email me an article or something and I will post to this site--unedited. I'm not into butchering other people's perspectives, ideas, etc. You can send it to blackonthejob@yahoo.com! I'd like to hear more about generational preferences.
I think we should always strive to be more informed about what we think, why we think it, what influences us, etc. It's the only way to understand, monitor, and change (if necessary) our own behavior. I'll check out your site.
Wow,
All I can say is thank you for this.
I lost my job in January and found a new one in July but BOY did I hear it all during my search. You don't want to believe your ears or your heart when you hear stuff like "the right fit" or the company owner asking you if you would mind doing tasks for him (duh, I would be working here).
It can be so dehumanizing. But you keep going on.
BTW - at my new job I am the only black person in ANY of the offices.
You summed the feeling up perfectly.
I thank you
on one of my first jobs out of undergrad I was hired to run a program in a suburb. when I arrived I was told I would be the assistant to a white employee hired after me and that there had been a miscommunication. then when I went to orientation and asked for a job description and for information as to why I had been demoted prior to even starting the job I was told "you want a job description? When I say change a light bulb, you change the light bulb. When I say get a broom from the supply closet you get a broom. When I say the staff needs breakroom snacks you go to the food bank and get our allotment. Any questions?" and this was said in front of the entire staff at orientation - 6 new hires & 3 senior level staff people all white. No one said anything and when I filed a complaint later with the parent company they entire group quickly turned it around into a misunderstanding and excused the supervisor because she was from a different generation and probably did not know how racist she was being. I had to sit in multiple meetings with increasingly removed funding agencies over seeing the program where both "fit" and "generational difference" became standing phrases to excuse her blatant racism and make me the bad guy for not letting it drop.
This is the nature of being black and working in N. America, like many of your readers I could probably come up with a myriad of other examples from my work life and even now, with tenure, I am amazed at what my colleagues say and do under the guise of "fit."
There are so many code words to cover up discriminatory behavior that it's scary. It goes to show how stupid racists really are. They come up with these really poorly thougt out lies and then can't figure out why Black people don't fall for it ane report their butts (at least some of us with spines). It's so offensive and illegal to hear someone talking about fit, when everyone knows they mean "no Blacks." That generational defense is really ridiculous and transparent. Yet, they hold onto these people who are jeopardizing their businesses as if they hold the key to obtaining the Holy Grail.
I came across your blog when I was researching Jay Walking. I read several of your blogs and I must say that I feel you arejust as or more racist than the next person. Shame on you. You are holding people down by enabling them with a constant race card.
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