Page 250 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

224 microaggressive impact in the workplace and employment

society (Apfelbaum et al., 2008; Purdie - Vaughns et al., 2008; Thomas & Plaut,
2008). As indicated earlier, the effects of microaggressions are oftentimes
felt not just interpersonally but through the environmental climate. Indeed,
a strong case can be made that a company ’ s policies, history, and tradition
of how problems are defined and solved, and its values, inundate all sub-

systems of an organization and are reflected in and influence the actions of

workers.
Multicultural Philosophy versus Color Blindness

Color blindness (a race or gender neutral/free stance or perspective) in
organizational philosophy serves to make many employees of color, women,
and LGBTs feel more invalidated, oppressed, and unaccepted in the work-
place, rather than increasing feelings of acceptance and inclusiveness. Color,
gender, and sexual-orientation blindness serves to negate the racial, gender,
and sexual identities of employees, ignores and invalidates their realities
(Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007), prevents topics of race, gender, and sexual
orientation from being freely and openly discussed (Young & Davis - Russell,
2002), suggests that everyone is the same, suggests that differences are bad
and divisive (Thomas & Plaut, 2008), perpetuates the myth of meritocracy
(Sue, 2005), allows White straight males to deny their unfair advantage
and privilege (Bonilla - Silva, 2005), fosters complacency about inequities and
unfairness in the workplace, and provides a convenient rationalization not to
take responsible action against biases and systems of unfairness (Apfelbaum
et al., 2008).
Organizations need to take a careful look at their corporate cultures and
whether the underlying assumptions of equality and inclusiveness are based
upon a mistaken notion of color, gender, and sexual - orientation blindness.
While unintended, the “ blindness ” or “ neutral ” approach to differences can
cause great harm to culturally diverse populations in the workforce. On
the other hand, a multicultural philosophy that acknowledges differences,

emphasizes the benefits of diversity, and recognizes/validates race, ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation, and religious affiliations of employees seems to

make these groups feel valued, welcomed, and validated (Purdie - Vaughns
et al., 2008). Moving an organization to a multicultural stance, however, is
more than adjusting a statement in the company ’ s vision statement or in a
nondiscriminatory clause. Such changes are cosmetic and have no real impact
on policies and practices. The meaning of being a multicultural organization

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