Page 151 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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BRIEF, BUTZ, DEITCH
by addressing why this problem was chosen as the focus of attention and
its multiple facets. Next, we outline a very crude theory of environmen­
tal influences on race composition by specifying a small, exemplary set
of environmental attributes for consideration. For each attribute, we will
attempt to trace how it might affect matters of race in organizations (e.g.,
how the race composition of an organization's customer base might affect
the practices it uses to recruit and select customer service personnel). After
presenting our theoretical ideas, some of the methodological challenges
they pose for organizational psychologists are raised. The chapter closes
with the assertion that the theoretical lens we brought to bear on discrim­
ination against Blacks in American organizations is applicable to other
stigmatized groups (e.g., women and foreign workers) in other settings
(e.g., Asia and Europe).

WHY THE ISSUE OF RACE?

We take on the sticky issue of race in organizations because there is a
clear need. In a study of urban inequality in Los Angeles, almost 60% of
Black respondents reported experiencing some form of work-related dis­
crimination (in comparison, only 25% of Whites reported discrimination)
(Bobo & Suh, 2000). Take these numbers to the national level, and it is
not surprising that in fiscal year 2002, almost 30,000 allegations of racial
discrimination were filed with the EEOC against private sector employers
(U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, April 7,2002). This be­
ing said, however, we do acknowledge that conditions in the labor market
and workplace have dramatically improved in the last 50 years. Prior to
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was legal in much of the United States to use
race or sex to recruit, hire, and assign jobs (Reskin, 1998). The Civil Rights
Act and subsequent antidiscrimination legislation in the 1960s and 1970s
made these practices illegal and spurred decreases in racial disparity, for
example, a significant narrowing of the Black-White earnings gap (e.g., see
Alexis, 1998; Couch & Daly, 2002).
Despite progress, however, there is still widespread evidence that racial
disparities persist in America's workplaces (Reskin, 1998). For instance,
although the earnings gap has narrowed, America's Black workers are still
grossly underpaid relative to their White counterparts (Neumark, 1999).
In 2002, among full-time wage and salary workers, the median weekly
earnings of Blacks ($498) was much lower than those of Whites ($624);
and the earnings gap was especially pronounced for Black males whose
median was a mere 74.5% of that of White males (U.S. Dept. of Labor,
2002). Furthermore, although jobless rates declined dramatically between