Similarity between xenophobia and racism in the workplace
Racism can have many psychological sources—cognitive biases, personality characteristics, ideological worldviews, psychological insecurity, perceived threat, or a need for power and ego enhancement. But most racism is the result of structural factors—established laws, institutional practices, and cultural norms.
Many of these causes do not involve malicious intent. Nonetheless, managers often misattribute workplace discrimination to the character of individual actors—the so-called bad apples—rather than to broader structural factors. It is much easier to pinpoint and blame individuals when problems arise. When police departments face crises related to racism, the knee-jerk response is to fire the officers involved or replace the police chief, rather than examining how the culture licenses, or even encourages, discriminatory behavior.
For example, an oceanographic organization I worked with attributed its lack of racial diversity to an insurmountable pipeline problem. Both were entities that could source Black candidates for the job, especially given that the organization only needed to fill dozens, not thousands, of openings. Diana Ejaita A Fortune company I worked with cited similar pipeline problems. Closer examination revealed, however, that the real culprit was the culture-based practice of promoting leaders from within the organization—which already had low diversity—rather than conducting a broader industry-wide search when leadership positions became available.
Progress requires a deeper diagnosis of the routine practices that drive the outcomes leaders wish to change. To help managers and employees understand how being embedded within a biased system can unwittingly influence outcomes and behaviors, I like to ask them to imagine being fish in a stream. In that stream, a current exerts force on everything in the water, moving it downstream.
That current is analogous to systemic racism. If you actively discriminate by swimming with the current, you will be propelled faster. In both cases, the current takes you in the same direction. Workplace discrimination often comes from well-educated, well-intentioned, open-minded, kindhearted people who are just floating along, severely underestimating the tug of the prevailing current on their actions, positions, and outcomes. Anti-racism requires swimming against that current, like a salmon making its way upstream.
It demands much more effort, courage, and determination than simply going with the flow. Empathy Once people are aware of the problem and its underlying causes, the next question is whether they care enough to do something about it. There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. Many White people experience sympathy, or pity, when they witness racism. People of color want solidarity—and social justice—not sympathy, which simply quiets the symptoms while perpetuating the disease.
One way to increase empathy is through exposure and education. Similarly, in the s, northern Whites witnessed innocent Black protesters being beaten with batons and blasted with fire hoses on television. Managers can raise awareness and empathy through psychologically safe listening sessions—for employees who want to share their experiences, without feeling obligated to do so—supplemented by education and experiences that provide historical and scientific evidence of the persistence of racism.
While diversity and inclusion initiatives have been a priority for Mike and his leadership team for well over a decade, their focus and conversations related to racial inclusion increased significantly during Empathy is critical for making progress toward racial equity because it affects whether individuals or organizations take any action and if so, what kind of action they take. There are at least four ways to respond to racism: join in and add to the injury, ignore it and mind your own business, experience sympathy and bake cookies for the victim, or experience empathic outrage and take measures to promote equal justice.
The personal values of individual employees and the core values of the organization are two factors that affect which actions are undertaken. Most actionable strategies for change address three distinct but interconnected categories: personal attitudes, informal cultural norms, and formal institutional policies. To most effectively combat discrimination in the workplace, leaders should consider how they can run interventions on all three of these fronts simultaneously.
Focusing only on one is likely to be ineffective and could even backfire. For example, implementing institutional diversity policies without any attempt to create buy-in from employees is likely to produce a backlash. Establishing an anti-racist organizational culture, tied to core values and modeled by behavior from the CEO and other top leaders at the company, can influence both individual attitudes and institutional policies. Just as there is no shortage of effective strategies for losing weight or promoting environmental sustainability, there are ample strategies for reducing racial bias at the individual, cultural, and institutional levels.
The hard part is getting people to actually adopt them. Even the best strategies are worthless without implementation. Fairness requires treating people equitably—which may entail treating people differently, but in a way that makes sense. But before I do, I want to give a specific example of an institutional strategy that works.
It comes from Massport, a public organization that owns Boston Logan International Airport and commercial lots worth billions of dollars. This forced developers not only to think more deeply about how to create diversity but also to go out and do it.
Actions are often inhibited by the assumption that achieving one desired goal requires sacrificing another desired goal. Although nothing worth having is completely free, racial equity often costs less than people may assume. Seemingly conflicting goals or competing commitments are often relatively easy to reconcile—once the underlying assumptions have been identified. As a society, are we sacrificing public safety and social order when police routinely treat people of color with compassion and respect?
The assumptions of sacrifice have enormous implications for the hiring and promotion of diverse talent, for at least two reasons. But take a look at the scene below. Diana Ejaita People often assume that fairness means treating everyone equally, or exactly the same—in this case, giving each person one crate of the same size.
In reality, fairness requires treating people equitably—which may entail treating people differently, but in a way that makes sense. If you chose the scenario on the right, then you subscribe to the notion that fairness can require treating people differently in a sensible way. Does it make sense for someone with a physical disability to have a parking space closer to a building? He also denounced the recent spate of pandemic-related racial attacks on Asian Americans Samuels, Unfortunately, for many hate crime victim advocates and Asian Americans, this change of heart came too late; too much damage had already occurred Shyong, Both sources define hate crime according to the federal definition noted in the Introduction.
Hate crime data are also collected by advocacy organizations that provide assistance to marginalized communities e. Each of these data sources have significant limitations Gladfelter et al. UCR and NCVS data have been utilized in the present study because they are the largest and most representative of the population. We examined hate crime data from the two collections for the year period from to , the years of data available for both sources.
The UCR enables these counts to be disaggregated by the specific type of racial bias motivating the offense e. Because the NCVS is based on a sample, it is necessary to aggregate several years of data to have sufficient sample sizes for reliable estimates of anti-Asian hate crime. BJS, — UCR The FBI annually collects summary crime data from thousands of city, county, college and university, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies nationwide through the UCR Program.
In other words, the victim may not necessarily be of Asian descent, but if the offender believed they were and targeted them for that reason, the incident would be counted as an anti-Asian hate crime. The FBI data also distinguish between single-bias hate crime incidents, and multiple-bias incidents in which the offender s was motivated by two or more biases.
UCR data reveal that during the 5-year period from to , there was an average of victims of single-bias hate crimes. Of those victims, Among these racially motivated hate crimes, 4. In comparison, during the most recent 5-year period from to , there was an average of single-bias hate crime victims, of which Across these two 5-year periods, there was a When interpreting UCR hate crime statistics it is important to take into account the underreporting problems associated with these data.
In , for example, at least 80 cities in the U. Underreporting may occur at the agency-level because reporting to the FBI is voluntary. Within agencies, underreporting may occur due to the difficulty law enforcement officers have identifying objective evidence of the bias motivation to determine whether or not the incident is a hate crime Gladfelter et al.
A victim must identify the crime as motivated by prejudice in order for law enforcement to classify it as a hate crime; and when detectives investigate, they must collect evidence to prove that the incident was motivated by bias, which is often challenging and unclear Gladfelter et al.
In regard to the latter however, the determination, about whether to charge the offense as a hate crime often falls on the prosecutor, not the police. Unlike the UCR that includes offenses known to and reported by police departments, the NCVS collects information from a nationally representative sample of households about experiences with crime both reported and not reported to police i.
Victimizations are only categorized hate crimes if the victim can provide certain types of evidence to support an affirmative response Addington, NCVS data reveal that from to , there was an average of , annual hate crime victimizations, of which About 2. During the more recent — period, there was an average of , total hate crimes with Across the two periods, it appears that hate crime overall declined by Importantly, the NCVS data also reveal that less than half of hate crime victimizations overall Discrepancies in percentages suggest vast underreporting of hate crime to police and magnify the hidden nature of hate crime against Asian Americans in the U.
Indeed, NCVS hate crime data reveal that While both results reflect a decrease in hate crimes motivated by anti-Asian bias across time, the large differences between the two statistics make it unclear how extensive the decrease is. Discrepancies between the two data collections make it difficult to determine the actual pervasiveness of racially motivated hate crime in the U.
With this in mind, NCVS data suggest that anti-Asian hate crime has remained an alarming problem across time, while UCR data imply the opposite or a less alarming persistent trend. At that point, researchers will be able to assess both the extent to which law enforcement data show a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes known to police and whether there were changes in the numbers of Asian victims of hate crimes reported or not reported to police.
Although the two data sources may not be consistent in terms of the magnitude of any spike, together they should provide empirical evidence about whether the qualitative, anecdotal suggestions of a pandemic-related increase in anti-Asian hate crimes was true nationwide.
Together the two sources will show whether there were overall increases in the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans and whether the victims were comfortable seeking help from the police. Tweets have exposed instances of anti-Asian hate crime involving physical violence and harassment, mainly after bystander videos were posted and picked up by the broader media.
Twitter hashtags such as WashTheHate and HateIsAVirus trended on social media platforms as users responded to the incidents they viewed on their screens Elder, In another incident on March 10th, a Korean American woman in midtown Manhattan was grabbed by the hair, shoved, and punched in the face by an assailant Miles, The victim suffered a dislocated jaw Miles, The assailant told police he feared the victims were Chinese and infecting others with the coronavirus Aziz, Psychological Effects of Hate Crimes Many scientific studies have established a correlation between racialized victimization and poor mental health outcomes e.
Specifically, McDevitt, Balboni, Garcia, and Gu reported that bias crimes impact victims differently than non-bias crimes in that victims of bias crimes are more fearful and experience intrusive thoughts following their victimization. Additionally, the resolution called for federal law enforcement agencies to address pandemic-related hate crimes through data collection, documentation, and investigation Jeung et al.
Finally, Menge called for states to set up multi-agency task forces to address COVIDrelated racial bias concerning safe retail access, fair employment, and quality mental health services in educational settings for Asian American students and others affected by the pandemic Jeung et al. Lamenting the lack of action, a group of 12 U. State Response On February 13, , in response to the recent uptick in verbal attacks and other racial incidents targeting Asian Americans in Los Angeles, CA, county officials held a news conference denouncing racist incidents against the Asian community related to fears around COVID Capatides, Officials urged the public not to buy into stereotypes and misinformation about Asians, specifically citing two separate bullying incidents in public schools that resulted in the hospitalization of school-aged victims City News Service, Racism and xenophobia woven into the social fabric may generate harmful individual-level attitudes and actions against Asian Americans that other and exclude them from national belonging.
Such nativist and xenophobic resentments intricately overlap with racism, wherein those in power fear and resist those who look different, speak dissimilar languages, and have unique cultural practices in comparison. As a result, the othering of Asian Americans has been historically repetitive in the form of bigoted exclusionary practices and violence, thus serving to entrench their foreigner and marginalized status and maintain the racial and nationalist hierarchy.
One could argue that the social and institutional entrenchment of racism and xenophobia has resulted in the repetitive re-emergence of anti-Asian stereotypes across time. Additionally, institutionalized processes and government policies elevated tax burdens, education and housing segregation, land ownership restrictions, and barriers to Asian immigration and citizenship [Zimmer, ] , further sustained the othering of Asian Americans. This othering process is amplified and replicated during pandemics when widespread fear of catching disease engenders prejudice against groups that are different from the majority population, positioning them as effective scapegoats Muzzatti, ; Taylor, Ostracizing Asian Americans in this way metaphorically builds a wall between those socially perceived as most important i.
As cognitive linguists Lakoff and Johnson have long established, metaphors are ubiquitous in forming our world view. Connecting group identities with explicitly medical language serves to categorize those group identities as other. Historically, this connection has influenced anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy in the United States. At any rate, any commitment to avoiding the public othering of Asian Americans was short-lived.
Additionally, through the late spring of , political focus increasingly turned to placing blame for the COVID pandemic on the nation of China; a by-product of this focus is increased suspicion and fear in the American consciousness towards Asian Americans, creating the perfect climate to cultivate further hate crime Jeung et al.
Hate crimes during the COVID pandemic are an extreme manifestation of othering illustrating the replicative and cumulative effects of the historical embeddedness of racism and xenophobia. Although immigration status was not specifically explored in this paper, it is important to note that Asian immigrants without citizenship status may experience exacerbated devastating health effects of COVID hate crime as they have reduced access to resources that may help to address that harm due to fears of deportation upon reporting Dorn et al.
It is also essential that we take the lessons learned from racialized fear derived from historical events and apply that knowledge to feelings of fear and anxiety during the pandemic Jeung et al. Americans must confront incidents of discrimination head-on: in schools, workplaces, businesses, and public spaces, in addition to demanding a robust response from law enforcement and the federal and state governments when hate crimes occur Jeung et al.
In summary, across time, socially entrenched racism and xenophobia toward Asian Americans have repetitively recurred through individual-level prejudiced attitudes and actions. Moreover, these attitudes and actions have been reinforced by institutional-level support during times of crisis or great change, including the coronavirus pandemic. Such othering has led to a climate in which Asian Americans are more vulnerable to racialized forms of aggression, including hate crimes.
Biographies Angela R. Gover , Ph. Gover received her Ph. Gover remains active in her profession by serving on editorial boards for several journals in her field. Shannon B. Harper , Ph. She examines the neighborhood social and structural factors that influence IPH, as well as how the criminal justice system and community resources operate to address it and the abuse that precipitates it. Her published works can be found in multiple peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.
Lynn Langton , Ph. Her research focuses on victimization, victim services, sexual violence, hate crime, financial fraud and white-collar crime, police-community relations, and survey methodology. Prior to joining RTI in , Dr. Langton served as Victimization Unit Chief for the Bureau of Justice Statistics where she directed numerous large-scale national projects, including the National Crime Victimization Survey.
For both collections, the most recent year of data available is Both data collections operate on a calendar year January—December. Once the collections close on December 31st, the BJS and FBI spend several months cleaning and processing the annual files and typically release the data several months later in the summer or fall. In other words, data are expected to be released in the late summer or early fall of The FBI does not produce standard errors so it is difficult to determine whether an apparent change in a number is actually within the margin of error.
Contributor Information Angela R. Gover, Email: ude. Harper, Email: ude. Lynn Langton, Email: gro. References Alba, R. The second generation from the last great wave of immigration: Setting the record straight. Migration Policy Institute. Addington, L. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Ahrens D. Drug panics in the twenty-first century: Ecstasy, prescription drugs, and the reframing of the war on drugs.
Albany Government Law Review. The yellow Pacific: Transnational identities, diasporic racialization, and myth s of the Asian century. UC Davis Law Review. Anti-Asian racism must be stopped before it is normalised. Al Jazeera. Accessed 23 Apr Barde R. Plague in San Francisco: An essay review. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences.
Chinatown is not part of China': Trump's tweet at Pelosi is met with criticism online. USA Today. Boyer, D. Trump spars with reporter over accusation that staffer called coronavirus 'Kung flu. Accessed 1 Apr Bureau of Justice Statistics — Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], San Francisco Chronicle.
Accessed 5 Apr Campbell, A. Federal agencies are doing little about the rise in anti-Asian hate crime. Accessed 30 Apr Capatides, C. Bullies attack Asian American teen at school, accusing him of having coronavirus. CBS News. Accessed 18 Mar Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coronavirus disease Covid situation summary. Chapman, M. Accessed 10 Apr Chen T. Hate violence as border patrol: An Asian American theory of hate violence. Asian Law Journal. The civil rights revolution comes to immigration law: A new look at the immigration and nationality act of National Carolina Law Review.
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Neville Eds. American Psychological Association. Conrat M, Conrat R. Executive order The internment of , Japanese Americans. Scrimshaw Press: Online publisher; The hate crimes reporting gap: Low numbers keep tensions high. Accessed 27 Apr Department of Justice n. Learn about hate crimes. Health care seeking among detained undocumented migrants: A cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health. A time capsule. The Atlantic.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hate crime statistics. Fussell E. Warmth of the welcome: Attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the United States. Annual Review of Sociology. The complexity of hate crime and bias activity: Variation across contexts and types of bias. Justice Quarterly. Our health and theirs: Forced migration, othering, and public health. As coronavirus spreads, so does xenophobia and anti-Asian racism.
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REAL ESTATE INVESTING COMPUTER PROGRAMS
In order to maintain a productive workplace, employers should also take steps to prevent emerging forms of discrimination and xenophobia tailored to new and changing circumstances. To ease tensions, prevent incidents, and ultimately help avoid lawsuits, employers could go beyond their preexisting antidiscrimination, harassment, and bullying policies and practices with additional training, messaging, and proactive attempts to establish a culture of respect and tolerance.
Employers could remind employees of antidiscrimination, harassment, and bullying policies; strengthen those policies and related practices; and educate workforces to overcome bias and encourage tolerance. This is especially important for supervisors and other employees with the authority to hire and terminate employees. Such a multifaceted approach to this evolving issue could be implemented in conjunction with employees returning from furloughs, layoffs, and work-from-home arrangements to prevent incidents of racism and xenophobia and reestablish an inclusive workplace culture.
Failing to do so could result in allegations of discrimination, harassment, a hostile work environment, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, and retaliation. She counsels organizations regarding diversity and inclusion considerations, from preliminary consultation and assessment through development of targeted, long-term initiatives.
She customizes and delivers impactful trainings on all topics related to diversity and inclusion in order to improve employee engagement, innovation, and performance. She can be reached at btorres littler. Racism in the field of civil rights: it occurs mainly as a legacy of a colonial or slave-owning past, a historical disparity, at an economic and social level, the result of racist practices.
The consequences of these situations are observable up to the present, translating into racist acts directed at people from historically disadvantaged groups. Racism expressed as racial segregation: this form of racism manifests itself in the geographical and socioeconomic separation of a group due to its racial or ethnic origin.
The group that has been isolated ends up suffering serious social damage that affects and reduces the chances of its members to get out of this situation. Learn more about the Difference between prejudice, racism and discrimination. What is xenophobia? Xenophobia is an attitude that involves fear and rejection of the foreigner.
In principle, xenophobia does not imply that there is always some intention to discriminate against another person or group for being originally from a different locality. Despite this, xenophobic behaviors are a form of discrimination. For example, it is possible that xenophobic positions are inscribed within political speeches. On some occasions, political representatives and parties use foreigners and immigrants as an excuse to awaken a nationalist sentiment, holding them responsible for the internal problems of a given country.
Characteristics of xenophobia It is based on a rejection or fear of foreigners, as well as people not belonging to a community. It intensifies when targeting immigrant groups. Foreigners are seen as dangerous to the culture and identity of the natives, as invaders, unadaptable or criminals.
It is a form of discrimination and prejudice. It can be accompanied by racism. Relationship between xenophobia and racism Among the main causes of xenophobia are ethnic discrimination and racism. However, not every form of racism or ethnic discrimination is a form of xenophobia. Racism takes as its starting point the visible physical differences phenotypic that exist between individuals, being that someone can be racist even with nationals of the same country.
In the case of xenophobia, hostility or discrimination can occur with anyone, due to the fact that they are not native to a community, regardless of their physical attributes or appearance. Even so, both behaviors are discriminating and can occur in parallel. The confusion between these occurs because, in some cases, people who come from other regions have different physical attributes from those of the natives of a region for example, different skin color.
Thus, these attributes confirm to the natives that these other people are not local. This often makes it difficult to separate the two forms of discrimination. Migration and xenophobia When there are human migratory movements between different regions, the speeches against the reception of foreigners can be fed by xenophobic positions. When it comes to foreign groups that migrate from one locality to another, xenophobia is not always explained by the number of people arriving in a region.
Among the main prejudices promoted by xenophobia are considering foreigners as a danger to the unity of the host group. For example, the increase in the number of immigrants in a society can lead to it losing its traditional values. See also: Causes and consequences of migration It is common for foreigners to be classified as invaders, criminals, enemies, or socially unadaptable. In addition, they are accused of appropriating the jobs of the natives, for being, many times, a cheaper labor force.
There can also be xenophobia when there is a fight between different groups for limited resources. For example, immigrants are often seen as competitors in terms of health and social services, for which they are criticized for having access to these. Various international organizations and institutions, such as the United Nations UN and the International Organization for Migration IOM , work to integrate immigrants, and for their rights and contributions to be recognized in host societies.
One of the ways used by the IOM to combat xenophobia is to promote the social integration of migrant workers in the countries of destination to which they emigrate. Ways in which xenophobia presents itself Xenophobia is expressed in many ways and in various circumstances.
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CSR BSTM 3- Multicultural Diversity in the Workplace - Racism and Xenophobia
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