Essay Sample on Structural Racism: Gender and Work

Introduction

Structural racism refers to a societal system characterized by discriminative distinctions that are used to establish economic and social policies in various institutions. Hence, structural racism is a systematically organized process that nurtures inequalities based on racial lines. Therefore, an assessment on structural racism assists one to establish workplace and gender prejudices that are used to define an individual's ability from a racialized perspective. Consequently, it is important to acknowledge the collective practices that are used to expressed gender and workplace discrimination in society through different behaviors and processes. Most of the workers employed in multinational organizations often experience institutional racism at their workplaces. Hence, the need to evaluate the gender and work prejudice present in various workplace environments. Implicit bias is used to outline the privileges some employees have based on their perceived class and racial background within a particular company. Additionally, when structural racism dominates influential positions and boardrooms, it has an adverse effect on the employees working culture. For that reason, structural racism affects the workforces' professional ambitions and well-being.

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A majority of the employees have experienced gender and workplace harassment. For example, approximately 33% of the workers have been harassed or bullied at their workplace (Hussain para. 8). Structural racism has been expressed through physical violence, verbal abuse, and unfair workplace treatment that has limited the personnel's development and training. Besides, structural racism has favored the dominant group against the minority group. As a result, workers affiliated to the minority group do not report the work and gender racial issues at their workplace due to the probable repercussions. For instance, almost 50% of the staff members who experience partial work treatment do not report their racial incidents to their managers (Hussain para. 4). Consequently, structural racism has led to the harassed and bullied workers preferring to confide in their colleagues. The fear of the probable consequences is worse among the young and women employees. Most women exposed to structural racism are afraid of the probable workplace repercussions. However, some of the youths who express their discontentment over structural racism are treated harshly after reporting the issue to the managers. Therefore, the systemized racial treatment has an adverse impact on most of the subordinate personnel at their workplace environment.

Functionalism Theoretical View

Structural racism is a contentious issue that is linked to the functionalism theory. Some of the sociology critics claim that discrimination and racism contribute positively to the workplace environment. However, only the dominant group is the main beneficiary of the functionalism view. Besides, the dominant group has exploited the functional theory's perspective to uphold their gender and work discrimination against their subordinates. The radical racial opinions benefit the individual oppressing their colleagues by viewing them as inferior to their perceived social status (Kuebler 678). However, structural racism has negative long-term impacts on the projected organizational goals. As a result, the race-based disenfranchisement outcomes have led to disunity and demotivation among the workers, and it has resulted in dismal organizational performance.

Structural racism has helped in creating strong close relations among subordinate members. Even though the workplace discrimination has led to various social inequality issues, it fosters close ethnic ties. Subsequently, the youths' and women's tendency to share their workplace issues with their colleagues in the minority group has fostered racial and ethnic ties. The close bond promotes the group's cohesion and provides them with the opportunity to appreciate their diverse cultural backgrounds (Kuebler 679). Additionally, the co-workers exploit the group's close links to protest against the gender and work harassment they experience at their workplace environments. Hence, the close ethnic bond among the subordinates has nurtured emotional and cultural support among workers who would have felt alienated by the dominant group.

Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa

In the past two decades, South Africa has been characterized by xenophobic attacks against foreigners. The xenophobic attacks usually occur in Pretoria and Johannesburg. However, most of the xenophobic violence incidences are not always addressed in the media. Besides, the xenophobic attacks have become a longstanding structural racism issue that has been linked to the post-apartheid era within the South African jurisdiction (Misago para. 2). Since 1994, most of the foreign workers have been harassed due to their alien citizen status in South Africa. For instance, in June 2008 the xenophobic attacks in South Africa were characterized by a massive national protest by South Africans against foreigners, especially for African countries. The xenophobic violence demonstrates the oppression the foreign nationals are subjected to that has led to mass displacement, property destruction, mob justice incidences, and murder cases. Therefore, the xenophobic violence exemplifies structural racism that explicitly targets foreign workers employed in various South African firms.

An analytical preview of the xenophobic attacks in South Africa reveals the leadership deficient the nation is experiencing. The lack of effective preventive interventions and response exposes the lack of decisive and competent national leadership in the South African government. Moreover, the main drivers of the xenophobic violence are embedded in its complex present and past economic, social, and political factors. For example, most of the politicians use the immigrants' issue as their excuse to justify their political challenges in delivering excellent public service to the citizens. Consequently, almost 80% of the radical citizens have exploited the anti-immigrant sentiments from the government officials and politicians to fuel their xenophobic attacks (Misago para. 10). Hence, political scapegoating has nurtured the perception that foreigners are a threat that should be eliminated among most of the South African citizens. Furthermore, the xenophobic perception has been embedded in most of the citizens residing in informal settlements and poor suburbs. Such individuals have a mindset that the African immigrants are creating stiff competition on the limited opportunities and scare resources. Therefore, political scapegoating has been used by the leaders to convince the locals that the foreigners are responsible for the socio-economic hardships in South Africa.

Solutions to Structural Racism

Multinational organizations with employees from diverse ethnic backgrounds should endorse institutional policies that promote cultural diversity and reduce racial discrimination. Hence, most organizations have opted to implement organizational development initiatives, diversity training, and increase inter-group ties to mitigate racial prejudice. Firstly, organizational development emphasis on the incorporation an appropriate planned and resourced reform process that advocates for non-discriminatory organizational processes. The vital organizational process that should incorporate impartiality includes organizational culture, planning, leadership, communications, and organizational strategy. As a result, organizational accountability demands for a common organizational mission, effective communication channels, efficient organizational leaders, and an inclusive organizational plan. Moreover, a common organizational mission with the stakeholders assists in ensuring that the workplace environment is conducive for the workforce to accomplish the projected company goals. The establishment of a reliable communication channel will ensure that the workers express their views on any prejudice or partial treatment in the company. According to Trenerry et al., 85% of the multinational firms that have resolved their discrimination concerns have established a comprehensive organizational plan to incorporate applicable anti-discriminatory policies (38). The policies should be adopted from organizations that faced similar racial issues and integrated effective anti-discriminatory rules. Hence, organizational accountability plays a crucial role in integrating planning policies that will mitigate structural racism in multinational firms.

Secondly, diversity training is a fundamental aspect of the anti-discriminatory organizational process. Therefore, anti-racism training aims at confronting racialized perspectives through evaluating societal discrimination, stereotyping, present, and past racism issues. The facilitators have the mandate to obtain information on racism perpetuation to integrate it into the anti-racism organizational program. Furthermore, the workers are encouraged to have a comprehensive understanding of racial identity that is used to propagate partial opinions against the ethnic minority group. Consequently, the diversity training demystifies the beliefs on "white privilege" being an invisible unearned asset that is utilized by the dominant group to oppress their subordinates (Trenerry et al. 40). The anti-racism educators have to realign the minority group's view on racism into a personal and malicious intent among some individuals who think prejudice is a pervasive reality. Besides, everyone has the responsibility to condemn the discriminative practices whether one is affiliated to the minority or dominant group. However, some of the sociology critics claim that diversity training might entrench static cultural identities and stereotypes against the dominant group. Conversely, diversity training has led to a positive impact by enhancing the employees' cultural awareness. As a result, diversity training has been used to demystify the structural racism views on stereotyping and societal discrimination as a pervasive reality.

Finally, the managers should aim at creating a conducive workplace environment that promotes positive inter-group bonds. Besides, workplaces provide an ideal environment to enhance the inter-group contact between the dominant and minority group members. The company's management can create a conducive workplace environment by ensuring the employees have a common vision. Additionally, the managers can develop team building activities to ensure the workforce has a sustained and sufficient interaction to establish inter-group relations. The company's leadership should design organizational strategies that promote inter-group contact indirectly. For example, matching mentees and mentors from various groups as well as endorsing job rotations to promote teamwork among the staff members (Trenerry et al. 48). Likewise, the diversity trainers should ensure there is heterogeneity in the participants' cultural background to motivate the employees to learn about their colleagues' morals and ethics. Therefore, the lunch hour break provides an opportunity for the employees to interact and fortify their inter-group ties.

Structural racism refers to the societal process that is used to promote discriminative policies that oppress the minority group in a particular community. Most of the employees working in multinational firms are likely to experience gender and workplace harassment. However, the women and youths are hesitant to report the structural racism issues due to the probable consequences that might arise once the incidence is reported. Consequently, structural racism has an adverse impact on the organizational goals, the employee's well-being and professional ambitions. Moreover, the functionalism perspectives purport that s...