Page 166 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

6. RACE COMPOSITION
The following quotes from employers in the Chicago area exemplify the
data (Wilson, 1996):
The general manager of an inner-city hotel stated, "I see far more Blacks think­ 135
ing the employer has the obligation to give him a check for doing nothing."
(p. 112)
A vice president of an offset printing firm stated, "Well, I worked with them in
the military, and the first chance they get, they'll slack off, they don't want to
do the job, they feel like they don't have to, they're a minority. They want to
take the credit and shift the blame." (pp. 118-119)
The above statements not only depict stereotype content, but also they
can be taken to indicate that those who made them endorse the negative
stereotype's content and, therefore, could be labeled as blatantly racist.
Such racism clearly has declined over the course of the last quarter cen­
tury, with Brief and Barsky (2000) [based upon data reported by Schuman,
Steeh, Bobo, and Krysan (1997)] estimating that slightly more than 10%
of the United States' adult, White population still openly endorse nega­
tive stereotypes of Blacks. However, the situation in organizations may be
much more problematic than a 10% estimate of blatant racists might sug­
gest. As so aptly put by Dovidio and Gaertner (1998), racial prejudice in
America is a virus that has mutated. This mutated virus is a blend of early
learned racial fears and stereotypes (evident as a residue of negative racial
sentiments) and such treasured American values as individualism and self-
reliance (reflected in deep-seated feelings of social morality and propriety;
Kinder & Sears, 1981). Those infected by this new virus [which we will
call "modern racism" (McConahay, 1986)] do not necessarily show out­
ward signs of being ill nor are they aware of their illness (see, for example,
Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986; Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Those who endorse
the ideology of modern racism fail to define their beliefs and attitudes as
racist and act in ways to protect a nonprejudicial, nondiscriminatory self-
image. For modern racists to behave consistently with their (unconscious)
negative racial attitudes requires that they have available "a plausible, non-
prejudiced explanation for what might be considered prejudiced behavior"
(McConahay, 1986, p. 100).
Based upon the above, the behaviors of modern racists within organi­
zations would be expected to be no different than nonprejudiced persons
unless they are embedded in an organizational context that supplies them
with an appropriate (seemingly nonprejudiced) justification to discrimi­
nate against Blacks. For example, a manager may not want to place a Black
applicant in the presumably awkward position as the first person of color
in a socially tight all-White work team or take the risk of placing a Black
person in the position of supervising a group of potentially hostile Whites.