Two-thirds of workers from marginalized backgrounds face racism at their jobs: survey

By Hayatullah Amanat

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    Regina (CTV Network) — A recent study indicates that the majority of employees from marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds in Canada have encountered workplace racism at some point in their careers.

The global advocacy group Catalyst surveyed more than 5,000 employees including women, men, transgender individuals and non-binary individuals in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The findings indicate(opens in a new tab) that 66 per cent of people surveyed have experienced racism in their careers, with 52 per cent of workers reporting that they encountered racism in their current jobs.

The survey reveals that the most common types of racism at work are workplace harassment (48 per cent), which involves incidents such as racist jokes and slurs, employment and professional inequalities (32 per cent), which include unequal pay, missed promotions, and uneven workloads based on one’s race.

“Our findings show that racism in the workplace is deeply embedded, often flying under the radar in the form of offhand comments or other exclusionary behaviors,” Catalyst president and CEO Lorraine Hariton said in a press release.

“It’s imperative that leaders at every level of an organization act to combat racism and build antiracist workplaces, address racist and discriminatory incidents, and create environments of physical and psychological safety that enable employees to report racist experiences.”

The survey also found that employees face racism in the form of racial stereotypes and demeaning comments about their cultures or bodies.

According to the survey, these stereotypes include assumptions about intelligence, cleanliness, language skills and even blame for COVID-19.

Data shows that trans and non-binary employees of colour face a higher rate of workplace racism at 69 per cent while women and men of colour experience workplace racism, though at slightly lower rates, with 51 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.

When it comes to the individuals responsible for workplace racism, the data shows that 41 per cent of leaders, 36 per cent of co-workers, and 23 per cent of customers or clients engage in racist behaviors.

Men and women show equal likelihood to initiate racism. However, trans and non-binary individuals were not identified as instigators in the survey.

The survey found that four out of five racist acts are initiated by white individuals, while one out of five are initiated by another non-white person.

Catalyst recommends that organizations implement policies to combat workplace racism, noting that these policies should target racial inequities by removing bias from hiring, development and promotion processes. Additionally, the organization says training managers to recognize and address racism from colleagues, customers, or supervisors is critical.

Reporting for this story was paid for through The Afghan Journalists in Residence Project funded by Meta.

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