NOTE: Due to space limits, The Gainesville Sun ran a shorter version of this column on July 20, 2020. But here we have no such limits, so you get the full version.   Thanks for reading!  Eva

Several readers wrote to object to last week’s column. They thought I was trying to minimize, justify and excuse racism in the workplace. I was not.  That I was using the term “unconscious bias” to imply those action were harmless. Quite the opposite. It soon became clear I didn’t convey my message well. So let me give this another shot.

Let’s say we agree we live in a racist society that is now realizing just how racist it’s been all along. Specifically, that what Black people experience in the US has been much worse than what we as a society have acknowledged.

Now, for the sake of discussion let’s categorize individuals in our society on a spectrum of racism. 

1)The highly racist, torch carrying and unapologetic person, the White Power types.

2) The medium racist, nice, not openly hostile but privately prefers things to be the way they were, like Archie Bunker.

3) The well-meaning person, who objects to racism in theory yet can’t escape their share of  unconscious bias, we’ll call them Unconscious Racists . (Hint: that’s most of us).

Within our civil society we find our institutions: the justice system, education, government, media, the arts, Wall Street, etc.  Institutions in turn are made up of individuals from these three categories.  A few are White-Power types, others are Archie Bunker types and the great majority are “unconscious racist” types.  Some combination of these individuals made policy, laws, and decisions that  –whether well intended or made with malice–   have resulted in the overall institutional racism we’re becoming increasingly aware of today.

So, that’s society and it’s institutions.  Now let’s jump over to the workplace.  Because workplaces mirror society they too are made of all three categories of people.  Except in the workplace there are very clear anti-discrimination laws that are designed to keep the “White power” and “Archie Bunker” types in check.  In the workplace they have less influence, they sort of have to hide.  Therefore, the workplace should be a place free of discrimination and a paradise of equality. Right?  But, it’s not.  Somehow, leadership and power in large workplaces continue to be held by mostly white people.  Why?

I received pushback for saying that I didn’t think large organizations were systematically racist.  And I stand by that.  Their results could be called racist, but large organizations don’t have a secret plan hatched by white people to keep minorities down – what I would call systemic racism.  There’s no deliberate, systematic, institutionalized attempt to exclude minorities.  In fact it’s the opposite.  They spend great effort to make themselves minority friendly, to have diversity plans and to recruit and retain minorities.  But it hasn’t worked very well.

For the last 40 to 50 years corporate America tried.  The workplace -where it’s illegal to discriminate, where there are policies to the contrary, where the White Power and Archie Bunker types can’t have their way, is a great experiment that has disappointingly fizzled.  Why?

My theory, -this is the important part–  is that even though the majority of us think of ourselves as unbiased non-racists, we are still unconsciously racist, in that third category.  And we continually make what appear to be harmless “unconscious bias” decisions.  But they’re not harmless.  The cumulative effect is the inequality we see.  In other words, you don’t have to be consciously racist to produce racist results.  This is where I see both the hidden problem, and also the solution.

Let’s move over to small workplaces.  It gets more dicey here since they aren’t subject to the same discrimination laws as their larger counterparts.   If they’re owned by White Power or Archie Bunker types,  – then yes – you’re likely to find more unchecked racism there.

That leaves the rest small business owners, the well-meaning ones from the third category. They’re the all-white law office, dental office or marketing group that says “I’m not a racist, I don’t see color.”

Last week I said I didn’t consider these businesses were racist because –even though the results were racist—they weren’t  intentional.  This gave some readers the impression that because I attributed their behavior to “unconscious bias” that I was excusing it, or that it is somehow harmless.  It is not.  It is in fact very harmful.  I want to make this clear:  whether  an all-white staff results from unconscious bias or  intentional racism- the effect on society is equally harmful.

This is why it is no longer enough to simply “not be a racist”.  If we want to help society, we must become intentionally “anti-racist”.  What does that look like?  It’ll be different for each of us.  Maybe questioning racist comments, or challenging your own family and friends to think differently, or seeking out minority applicants instead of hiring your neighbor’s niece.  Figure out what it means for you. Don’t be a bystander.

Lastly, there’s a big “waking up” societal shift right now and everyone seems primed for change.  But let’s not just focus on the White Power and Archie Bunker types and “institutionalized racism” as the only villains. They are obvious, easily spotted and outnumbered.  Even after those issues are addressed and redressed, our own unconscious racism won’t magically disappear.  I’ll close with a quote from a reader:  “It will take personal recognition, acknowledgment, renunciation, and then public and private action by each of us, to eliminate our own, as well as our society’s biases and racism…”

Thank you readers for a great discussion.

©Copyright Eva Del Rio

Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com