Racial Discrimination In America's Social History

Racial discrimination has been a problem in America’s social history. Discrimination of ethnic minorities (especially Blacks) has long been a controversial issue, prevalent in societies, and workplace for several years. Racial discrimination remains a key concern in the United States’ workplace. Employers not only use discriminatory screening and recruitment processes, but also often stereotype Blacks by rating them as workers with weaker soft and hard skills compared to Whites (Bobo & Fox 321). While racial discrimination is not clearly as visible as was the case in the 1960s, it is still prevalent (Brown 1485). Morris (“forbes.com”) asserts that it has learnt to conceal itself even from its causes, but it persists despite decades of activism,
enactment of legislation, and implementation of human resource programs aimed at countering it and promoting appreciation of diversity. In this, we shall see the populations that are discriminated, factors that encourage racial discrimination, and the role of journalism in racial discrimination.
Racial segregation at the American workplace is a reality.
The majority of those who are vulnerable are the minorities. Blacks and Hispanics are major targets for racial discrimination in the wake of the twenty-first century when there are numerous laws warning against the injustice. According to Gedeon (“Minorities and racial discrimination”), Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to pass interviews and get job opportunities. It is unfortunate that even employers admit they are reluctant to recruit minorities.
Racial discrimination also has a gender perspective; in many workplaces, women 's work is undervalued, and they earn less pay than men. The case is worse for Black women, who bear the brunt of racial and gender discrimination (Gedeon “Minorities and racial discrimination”). They face double jeopardy, per se.
Muhammad (“American Money”) notes that the rate of unemployment among Blacks is two times of the national rate. The conditions used to single out potential Black recruits are astonishing; a person’s name can mean he/she will never secure a job since some employers rarely call back individuals with “Black sounding names.” Even with good education, college-educated Blacks have high chances of being unemployed compared to Whites (Tucker “daytondailynews.com”). Therefore, when a White and Black attend interviews, Whites have better chances of being hired. Moreover, they are more likely to be promoted to higher job positions compared to their Black counterparts. They also have more power and influence during work meetings (Meares et al.
12).
Racial discrimination of the minorities persists because it is hidden in the mesh of society. It is evident in everyday social interactions, but there are few people who talk about it. In addition, the victims lack proof of racial discrimination in many instances and; as such, cannot file lawsuits. After all, employers can refute their claims by arguing that they treat the persons differently due to their poor performance and lack of experience. Some discrimination lawsuits even run on for many years without being resolved (Muhammad “American Money”). Such circumstances make racially discriminated employees discuss issues with their employers or just sweep the issue under the rug.
Additionally, poor law enforcement enhances racial discrimination; failure to properly implement legislation targeting equal opportunities leaves more room for discrimination. African-Americans lack mentors and good links for networking in different professional arenas. As if that is not enough, they are subjected to unconscious bias at the federal level. Their low level of education (Tucker “daytondailynews.com”) also makes them be left out in many job opportunities at federal level. Whites claim to support racial equality, but are reluctant to back policies that would lead to racial equality at federal level (Bobo & Fox 323).
Journalists play a key role in racial discrimination. They are undeniably significant players in this form of injustice because the information they disseminate forms part of the public opinion on the matter. Studies indicate that journalists are biased in their reporting. Majority of journalism students are Whites (Aleman 72) and are trained by majority White professors. Thus, they are not well equipped to report on matters concerning racial groups (Aleman 73). Aleman (86) contends that there is a lot of Whiteness in journalist training including journalism textbooks. This leads to reporting of issues from a White person’s view, distortion, and misalignment of racial experiences including discrimination among people of color.
More often than not, journalists relegate minority problems to the minority sections of newspapers. A study conducted by Prichard and Stonbley in 2007 regarding discrimination in the work settings revealed that there is little attention paid to minorities ' issues in the news (Prichard & Stonbley 231). The authors revealed that a particular newspaper organization in Wisconsin divided stories by content, according to race (Prichard & Stonbley 242). News editors decided the stories with minority angles - “minority themed” stories. It is unfortunate that even African American reporters did not blow the whistle on such issues for fear of causing conflict with their editors (Prichard & Stonbley 242).
As revealed by the study, minority journalists were assigned stories relating to minorities ostensibly due to their cultural affinity (Prichard & Stonbley 240, 244). On the contrary, White journalists were assigned stories concerning business and government on the grounds of talent and hard work (Prichard & Stonbley 236). This implies that White journalists are better placed to handle important stories. Consequently, African Americans with a special talent or interest in politics and business may never be assigned such news stories. This is also a clear indication of racial discrimination in journalism and means that racial discrimination in the workplace is yet to be brought out into the limelight of the society.
Racial discrimination in American workplace is rampant. The people who face the biggest burden of the discriminatory acts are the Blacks even though other minority groups like Hispanics are subject to racial discrimination. It is sad to note that racial discrimination persists in a country that has been advocating equal rights for all. To make matters worse, journalists compound the problem by sidelining minority problems or posting them under the minority sections of newspapers. This paper serves as a wakeup call to students of journalism to change their mindsets about minority communities. In addition, the paper calls for journalism schools to train more African American journalists and employ more people of color in the institutions. News media organizations also need to be fair in recruitment and assign journalists stories on the basis of their hard work, talent, competence, and interest.

Works Cited
Aleman, Sonya M. “Locating Whiteness in Journalism Pedagogy.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 31 (2014): 72-88. Print.
Bobo, Lawrence D, and Cybelle Fox. “Race, Racism, and Discrimination: Bridging Problems, Methods, and Theory in Social Psychological Research.” Social Psychology Quarterly 66.4 (2003): 319-332. Print.
Brown, Dorothy A. “Fighting Racism in the Twenty-First Century.” Washington and Lee Law Review 61 (2004): 1485-1499. Print.
Gedeon, Kimberly. Minorities and racial discrimination in the workplace: Are we exaggerating? 29 May 2013. Web. 29 April 2014. < http://madamenoire.com/279178/minorities-and-racial-discrimination-in-the-workplace-are-we-exaggerating/>
Meares, Mary M, John G. Oetzel, Annette Torres, Denise Derkacs, and Tamar Ginossar. “Employee Mistreatment and Muted Voices in the Culturally Diverse Workplace.”
Journal of Applied Communication Research 32.1 (2004): 4-27.
Morris, Michael, and Susan Fiske. “The New Face of Workplace Discrimination.” Forbes Magazine. 12 Nov. 2009. Web. 30 April 2014.
Muhammad, Dedrick. American Money: Workplace Discrimination. 4 June 2013. Web. 29 April 2014.
Prichard, David, and Sarah Stonbely. “Racial Profiling in the Newsroom.” Journal & Mass
Communication Quarterly 84.2 (2007): 231-248. Web. 1 May 2014.
Tucker, Randy. “Workplace equality for blacks remains elusive.” Dayton Daily News, 17 Jan. 2011. Web. 1 May 2014.