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sarahmichiganIn some of my BARW posts and other race discussions in the last week or two, I've seen people talk about how you can't change society as a whole or how companies are just made up of individuals, so focusing on indivuals is all you can do (I'm paraphrasing). Of course, it's true that companies and societies are made up of individuals, but I *don't* think it's true that all one can do is influence individuals to be aware of racial inequalities and making sure hiring and other policies are fair.
If you have an established Old White Guy Network at a company, even if every individual is committed to social justice and remedying racial inequalities, it's going to take active work on the company level to get to a place where racial minorities make up more than a tiny percentage of the workforce there. There are a myriad of confounding factors, including the fact that many racial minorities come from poorly funded schools and so, as a group, may not have the same educational background that a similar-sized group of white potential hires could have.
But, there is another issue: people tend to hire people like them. This is just simple human pscyhology, and it extends past race. Studies have shown that people who have the hiring power often hire people very much like them in temperment (laid back vs. go-getter, quick decision makers vs. ponderers, and so on). Even if you're committed to racial equality, if you're not hyper-aware of this tendency, you're not going to make that effort to seek out a diverse workforce.
I think that social movements like school busing and Affirmative Action are trying, in their ham-handed ways, to try to break the cycle and make an entry point for racial minorities (and women). I'm not saying I think they've been effective, just that I think the intentions were good and that the problem that was identified was a real one.
Really, I think at least part of the solution to racial inequality in the work force, government, housing, and so on, goes back to changing the way we fund public schools at the elementary and high school levels. As it stands, rich (predominantly white) neighborhoods have better schools and more up-to-date books and poorer (predominantly minority) schools have crowded classrooms and 20-year-old books. Until we find away to spread that around a little more equally, I think Affirmative Action and similar programs are never going to be able to make a significant dent in this problem.
If you have an established Old White Guy Network at a company, even if every individual is committed to social justice and remedying racial inequalities, it's going to take active work on the company level to get to a place where racial minorities make up more than a tiny percentage of the workforce there. There are a myriad of confounding factors, including the fact that many racial minorities come from poorly funded schools and so, as a group, may not have the same educational background that a similar-sized group of white potential hires could have.
But, there is another issue: people tend to hire people like them. This is just simple human pscyhology, and it extends past race. Studies have shown that people who have the hiring power often hire people very much like them in temperment (laid back vs. go-getter, quick decision makers vs. ponderers, and so on). Even if you're committed to racial equality, if you're not hyper-aware of this tendency, you're not going to make that effort to seek out a diverse workforce.
I think that social movements like school busing and Affirmative Action are trying, in their ham-handed ways, to try to break the cycle and make an entry point for racial minorities (and women). I'm not saying I think they've been effective, just that I think the intentions were good and that the problem that was identified was a real one.
Really, I think at least part of the solution to racial inequality in the work force, government, housing, and so on, goes back to changing the way we fund public schools at the elementary and high school levels. As it stands, rich (predominantly white) neighborhoods have better schools and more up-to-date books and poorer (predominantly minority) schools have crowded classrooms and 20-year-old books. Until we find away to spread that around a little more equally, I think Affirmative Action and similar programs are never going to be able to make a significant dent in this problem.
