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The terms prejudice and racism are normally used simultaneously with discrimination and other terms like stereotyping or racial bias. Discrimination describes a situation when equal treatment lacks other people are treated differently due to issues like gender, sexual orientation, skin color, and race, among others. In most cases, racism is the cause of other factors like stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Racism is prevalent in the United States and, therefore, cannot be ignored and looked at as a thing of the past. Understanding racism, therefore, considers its driving force to be prejudiced individuals’ biased behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. Understanding racism and how it contributes to discrimination and prejudice can help individuals or practitioners who work with people from diverse groups.
It is important to consider that racism and discrimination can be gender-based. Racism has been connected to discrimination and prejudice; therefore, it is important to address it beyond the individual to explicitly understand how they create significant organizational problems. Addressing racism, prejudice, and discrimination help organizations come up with a comfortable working environment that boosts human resource productivity (Borrego & Johnson, 2018). Additionally, it is important to acknowledge the extent to which the concepts are present in everyday worlds and how inherent they are in organizations.
Racism is the cause of many of the disparities felt by the minority communities in the United States. Additionally, understanding the concepts like prejudice and discrimination needs a good understanding of what racism entails. Racism has been acknowledged as the unfair or negative treatment of a particular group based on race or ethnicity. It is important to acknowledge the social science research definition of racism that defines the concept as a power system intertwined with beliefs and practices that aim to maintain the racial and ethnic hierarchy. According to Fish & Syed (2020), the hierarchy of power ought to be maintained, which derives from the oppression of others and privilege, superiority, and power.
In addition, those who are privileged are likely to then engage themselves in discriminatory practices that target those that are considered less privileged. The practices and beliefs are detrimental to the target and, in most cases, do not affect the perpetrator. Racism seeks to maintain an ethnic or cultural hierarchy and, therefore, cannot be understood as an interpersonal or situational act (Fish & Syed, 2020). Racism, therefore, uses prejudice and discrimination as a way of maintaining the cultural hierarchy that deprives others of equal treatment
Understanding discrimination and prejudice are essential for practitioners who work with diverse groups. Discrimination is the unfair treatment of individuals based on set categorical distinctions and, therefore, can be understood as interpersonal behavior. Discrimination can be both negative and positive; that is, people can be treated better or unfairly depending on the group they relate to. Negative discrimination is an act that can have detrimental impacts on the victims as they miss out on opportunities, and therefore this leads to loss of life quality. Discrimination can be verbal and involve insults, threats, or mocking people from a particular group. In addition, discrimination can involve physical acts and be relational, like excluding others (Fish & Syed, 2020). Negative and positive verbal or physical discrimination is often derived from evaluations and stereotyping of a particular group.
Prejudice, on the other hand, is people’s unsubstantiated and preconceived thoughts and opinions due to perceived categorical distinction. Fish and Syed (2020) suggest that prejudice is known to hold a person’s emotional attitude when relating to a person or an individual of a particular group. Additionally, prejudice can encompass negative and positive evaluations of a particular group and dictate an individual’s attitude towards a particular group.
Considering the three concepts together, it is important to acknowledge that racism is the power system responsible for perpetuating racial and ethnic hierarchies. Additionally, prejudice relates to beliefs while discrimination relates to behaviors, and both of this help maintain the ethnic and racial power hierarchy system. (Fish & Syed, 2020) suggest that racism is, therefore, a foundational core that leads to understanding prejudice and discrimination. Understanding the concepts is therefore important for practitioners who work with diverse groups as they help avoid them since they are always detrimental to the victims. Practitioners need to understand the concepts mentioned above since they maintain society’s racial and ethnic hierarchy.
Supporting Practitioners in Their Work with People from Diverse Groups
The theories are important in supporting practitioners in their works since they ensure that all people are treated equally regardless of their corresponding group through cultural competency. Racial and gender-based discrimination is normally detrimental and leads to unequal access to resources and opportunities. Therefore, it is vital to consider racism, discrimination, and prejudice to ensure all individuals are accepted the way they are given equal treatment and appreciated for their differences. Furthermore, practitioners need to be racially conscious as it helps reduce significant problems that arise in the workplace (Nnawulezi et al., 2020). Additionally, Nnawulezi et al. (2020) points out the importance of deconstructing white ambivalence and racial consciousness to intervene in the problems that arise due to discrimination and prejudice. Understanding the concepts can be achieved by involving practitioners in cultural competency training that help identify the areas where discrimination and prejudice are prevalent and how they can be avoided.
Building cultural competency that avoids racism, discrimination, and prejudice is something that most organizations look up to. The theories explain that practitioners need to be more culturally competent, making working with diverse populations easier. Understanding the concepts helps practitioners to be more culturally aware, have a lot of cultural knowledge, and be culturally sensitive. Additionally, the practitioners are likely to value the diversity in society and appreciate individual distinctions. Understanding the concepts helps understand the types of diversity in an organization that can be typified according to race, gender, sexual orientation, social class, ethnicity, nationality, and ethnicity.
Application of Concepts and Culturally Competent Practices in Nike
Several organizations are already adopting a culturally competent workplace, exemplified by the Nike organization. Nike is constantly building a culturally diverse culture and inclusion as their way to advance sustainability. For example, Nike focuses on diversity and inclusion by hiring people from all demographics and aiming to represent the athletes and the community they serve. Additionally, Nike is aiming to have 50% of their global corporate workforce made by females by 2025; they aim at having women at 45% of their leadership positions (Nike Inc, 2021). Nike focuses on inclusion and cultural diversity by increasing the representation of ethnic minorities, who now represent 29% of their leadership team (Nike Inc, 2021). Nike is a good example of an organization that considers cultural diversity and aims at providing an organizational culture that is culturally competent.
In addition, Nike aims to invest 10 million U.S dollars in academic partnerships and scholarships to increase direct and intern hires in Hispanic-serving institutions and historically black colleges and universities. The organization inspires organization-wide responsibility culture that focuses on doing what is right for and by the people (Nike Inc, 2021). Along with this inspiration, Nike strives to find solutions that offer the support needed in diverse communities. For example, Nike’s nonprofit partnerships with solstice create programs like United We All Win and NikeUnited, which support diverse and low-income communities by providing affordable solar amenities (Nike Inc, 2021). Therefore, Nike leads change by ensuring equality and sustainability, creating a brighter future for athletes and their employees.
Important Skills and Knowledge Required for Working with Diverse Groups
Cultural competency is an important skill for working with people from diverse groups. Additionally, essential skills for working with people from diverse like cross-cultural communication and emotional intelligence, ensure people avoid detrimental issues like racism, prejudice, and discrimination (Borrego & Johnson, 2018). Since discrimination and prejudice correspond to racism, cultural competency is essential in understanding cultural competency. Cultural competence ensures individuals have mutual respect and understanding of the entire individual in the workforce regardless of the group they correspond to. Working with people from diverse groups requires.
For an organization to be culturally competent, there is a need to consider the leaders and the indicators of cultural competence. The indicators of cultural competence require all individuals or practitioners to avoid stereotyping, acknowledge the power and influence of culture, build on resources of all cultures present in an organization, and allocate resources that build on cultural awareness. Additionally, these authors argue that other strategies that organizations can implement are by eliminating discrimination and prejudice in all company practices and policies. Creating a multicultural organization helps it function by ensuring the differences are used to strengthen the efforts.
References
Borrego, E., & Johnson, R. G. (2018). Cultural competence for public managers. Routledge.
Fish, J., & Syed, M. (2020). Racism, discrimination, and prejudice. The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development, 1–12.
Kwantes, C. T., & Glazer, S. (2018). Cross-cultural competence and cultural intelligence in the workplace. SpringerBriefs in Psychology, 95–101.
Nike Inc. (2021). How Nike is building on diversity and inclusion to advance sustainability. Nike News.
Nnawulezi, N., Case, K. A., & Settles, I. H. (2020). Ambivalent white racial consciousness: Examining intersectional reflection and complexity in practitioner graduate training. Women & Therapy.
Salter, P. S., Adams, G., & Perez, M. J. (2018). Racism in the structure of everyday worlds: A cultural-psychological perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 150–155.
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