Racism is about hate, violent assaults, verbal abuse and overt discrimination against an individual because of their ethnicity. It is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment, of course no organisation would tolerate such behaviour. An organisations policies and procedures will no doubt make this very clear and will be backed up by management training. Institutional racism recognises that what goes on in the workplace is not this type of crude behaviour but a much subtler form intentional and unintentional discrimination.People may be more careful in their language but their actions may still be informed by the negative stereotypes, myths and ignorance they are caring around in their head. Stereotypes that are constantly reinforce by stories in the media rather than people’s own experience of black people.It was these negative stereotypes leading to discrimination intentional or otherwise that were identified in the Macpherson enquiry into allegations of racial discrimination by the police. It was found that within the police force it was a commonly accepted view that African/Caribbean youths were members of violent gangs, involved in drug dealing or using drugs. This was their rational for stopping and searching 30 times as many black youths as white. And of course they considered their actions justified every time they or a colleague found a knife or drugs as a result. This was a very dramatic example of how institutional racism could be experience by a black person. The police officers involved genuinely believed that they were not racist, their colleagues supported them in this claim and the chief constable stated that the force was not racist. In much the same way senior managers in many organisations today claimed that racism isn’t a problem.A young African Caribbean woman submits a grievance against a manager because she was not shortlisted for a post. A quik investigation reveals the individual did not meet the person specification for the post specifically she did not have management experience. So the decision not to short list was right. No she says I am complaining because that criteria was added by the manger once he realised I was interested in the post. Further investigation reveals that a working group set up to agree a job description and a person specification for this new post produced one that was accepted and did not include a requirement for a management qualification. The complainant knows this because she was a member of the working group. She also knows that the requirement for a management qualification was added by the manger who recruited for the post. She knows this because she asked HR why and who changed it. HR confirm this and say the manger argued that the innovatory nature of the post meant it should be paid at a slightly higher level to attract existing managers. The person specification was changed to reflect this. The grievance was not upheld. However this was not the first time a member of staff had commented that this manger would never employ a black person as a manger. Within the black staff group this was just further evidence. Was he racist and clever enough to get away with it?Black people are still underrepresented in senior posts, a black manager is still likely to be described as aggressive when the same behaviour from a colleague is called assertive, black staff are more likely to describe their manager as unsupportive, in many organisations black staff are disproportionately subject to disciplinary action. Perhaps as a consequence black staff have less faith in the organisations disciplinary and grievance procedures.Blair McPherson author of An Elephant in the Room-an Equality and Diversity training manual published by Russell House http://www.blairmcpherson.co.uk/
