Anti-blackness is a form of systemic racism that dehumanizes and prejudices Black people of our social and economic standing. It has created a divide, exclusion, and fostered an environment of inequity, hate, and discrimination among people of color, predominantly of persons with African descent. This is most evident in the workplace.
In the United States, 75% of Black workers stated that they experience racial discrimination, mistreatments and microaggression in the workplace. This number is much higher than any other racial or ethnic group.
Anti-blackness is so engrossed in society that it's not only a system, but has evolved into a disease. A disease that must be prevented.
As “prevention is better than cure”, here’s a 3-step measure to help prevent this disease from spreading in the workplace:
1. Create health safety measures. Create a work culture of employees that will say something when they see something. In our court system witnesses are very important and it’s the same within the workplace especially to ensure action for your Black employees.
2. Clean and disinfect. Eliminate anti-blackness by first, recognizing that this systemic racism exists; closely assessing team dynamics, tracking experiences and removing repeated aggressors from the organization whether intentional and non-intentional.
3. Utilize a third party resource. Dipper is a third party wellness development platform that fosters a safe space for Black employees to share their workplace experience and provides on demand support to navigate workplace situations. Dipper provides organizations with insights to improve.
By following these steps, we can set the pace and eventually eradicate anti-blackness in the workplace.
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