Friday Thoughts on Racism — Restricted Career and Earning Potential
This week, I want to introduce another very sensitive topic. We all know or have heard about the gender pay gap, that it still exists (and has been compounded by the pandemic), and that the gap is slowly (too slowly) closing. What you might not be aware of is the race pay gap or the ethnic pay gap. Yes, depending on the colour of one's skin, this can have an impact on the amount one can earn when compared with their white colleagues.
In the US and UK statistic examples below, you will see consistently that, except for Asian men and women, Black people and people of colour fall consistently behind in earning potential. It can be assumed that this trend also exists in every white ethnic majority nation.
Source: Payscale Inc.
Source: Office for National Statistics — Annual Population Survey
Why is this? Last week I introduced a theme of caste rather than class systems, that exist within companies, which continue to suppress the ability for Black people and people of colour to increase our earning potential and to progress to senior positions. I’m currently reading a book called “Caste — The Lies That Divide Us”, by Isabel Wilkerson. I have learnt so much from this book and I’m only barely into the second chapter. Here is an excerpt that begins to explain the deep rooted biases we all have within us:
“The institution of slavery created a crippling distortion of human relationships where people on one side were made to perform the role of subservience and to sublimate whatever innate talents or intelligence they might have had. … On the other side, the dominant cast lived under the illusion of an innate superiority over all other groups of humans… These disfigured relationships were handed down through the generations.”
I believe that there is a blind spot when it comes to opportunities for Black and people of colour. This comes from an unconsciously biased view that Black people are not as intelligent as white or lighter skinned people, and as such Black people should be paid according to this perceived level of intelligence. In addition, positions requiring significant levels of technical competency would generally not be offered to Black people, if there is a white or lighter skinned comparable candidate. As with all forms of systemic racism in the workplace, nothing is ever overt or obvious; but a lack of awareness by recruiters of the restricted learning and career opportunities open to Black people, and due to tightly restricted recruitment criteria, the pool of available Black talent is severely limited.
During my nearly 40 year career, I can share many examples where I have been passed over for promotions and job opportunities. In one example, I applied for a managerial position which I believe was well within my capabilities, the only restrictive factor was that I had broad rather than deep technical background. As this was a management position, I had expected to play to my leadership rather than technical strengths by drawing on the technical experience within the team. As a leader, I was (and still am) perfectly capable of deepening my technical knowledge where I saw it necessary to do so. I didn’t get the position.
In another example this time related to my income, I joined a company where my manager’s manager directly challenged the salary package I was being offered, as being too high for the job I was being employed to do. Only after I had started at the company did I find out that a colleague doing the same job as me, with very similar qualifications, skills and experience; was earning significantly more than me. In addition my earning potential was capped by a pay grading structure that required me to “break through” the polarised glass filter or have an “arc lamp” luminosity and intensity (see last week’s post) so bright my potential could not be ignored. This is so demoralising and degrading for a Black person, driving us to seek better opportunities elsewhere.
A great movie that expresses this situation is “Hidden Figures”, a Hollywood glamorised yet true story, starring Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monàe. This is set in the space race years of early 1960’s NASA; but these situations still exist in companies to this very day. They might not be as blatantly racist as portrayed in this film, but they are just as systemically racist and therefore restrictive to a Black person’s and a person of colour’s career and earning prospects.
STEM initiatives have a tendency to focus on encouraging young female talent, I would challenge our company to also consider actively broadening the scope to include young Black and of colour males as well as females.
My personal examples are not isolated cases; I share my experiences as real examples of situations faced by every Black person and person of colour at some stage during their career.
On a final point I would encourage research and action to redress the balance of the prospects and earning potential of Black people and people of colour within your companies.
#endsystemicracism #antiracism #zeroracism
