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Racial Bias In The Workplace Essay

696 Words3 Pages

Racism has plagued our world, from racial bias in our judicial court system to the racial prejudice encountered in the workplace. There are many prejudices that have occurred in our own home state in Illinois. The Civil Rights Act states that employers must have a sustainable workplace free of discrimination, whether that be based on sex, race, color, religion, or national origin, especially within the process of employment. As a result of this act, companies have attempted to reduce racial discrimination. Regardless, the workplace still endures the pervasiveness of racial discrimination and harassment. Some would say that racism has become more prevalent in the workplace, and this is what we believe.
One of the interesting studies we found …show more content…

“The percent of group in the overall workforce compared to percent of group in the poverty-wage workforce for black workers is 11% versus 14% whereas white workers have an advantage at 67% versus 56%” (Illinois Poverty Report)(Page 20). The total amount of the workforce is 67% white compared to 11% of the workforce being black. Out of the entire poverty-stricken workforce, 14% are black. One could infer that blacks and minorities are more susceptible to a job in the poverty-wage workforce than whites and thus, many bring up the argument of racial bias being prevalent within the workplace. The Illinois Poverty Report even states that the black worker median wage is 77% of the white worker wage. This is another denotative implication of racial bias and, thus also implies that if a white worker wage salary is about $75,000, the median wage of a black worker is $57,250. That is a $17,750 difference and indicates that whites have a substantial advantage over blacks, regardless of whether or not the applicant is qualified. A 2015 Report Race at Work states “40% of ethnic minority employees have either directly experienced or witnessed racist bullying and harassment from clients, customers and service users”. One can infer that this statistic significantly displays the degree of

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