Comment on: A black boss, a black sheep?

        We stated before that creating a multicultural environment stimulates  people to get to know each other, reduce prejudice and consequently reduce racism. According to a study (Steve Schifferes, 2002) a multicultural environment will cause more racism. This is of coarse quite opposing.

        It has yet again been proven again that the underlying problem of discrimination is the way that people think and act. Some people will indeed  discriminate more if they are obliged to work together. Others will probably change their view on e.g. black people.

         What if there is a study for every solution we gave which proves  the opposite to be true? Isn’t it a bit naïve to want to ‘solve’ racism? Is it even possible to solve? Nonetheless, I think we found some solid solutions, however, it depends on the character of a person whether they will work or not. 

 Ward Algoet

Solely based on my opinion

Labour unions can help to mitigate racial disparities

In previous blog entries, we already discussed ways to prevent racism at work, but we didn’t mention where employees can turn to if they are confronted with this problem.
Labour unions can definitely help to mitigate racial disparities. By collective bargaining they give the employees the opportunity to speak without fear. Moreover, they can help the racial minorities by  talking to the management of the firm about the problems that these people face, and discussing the best ways to tackle them.


As a conclusion to these  three weeks of blogging, I think we can say that it became very clear that racial discrimination in the labour market is a common problem, but by no means an easy  one to solve. In my opinion, it will never be possible to completely eliminate racism at work, but what we can do, is try to find ways to prevent it and properly address the problem if it occurs.
Furthermore, as Laurence already mentioned, it’s important that we look beyond the most frequent form of racism, which is against people of colour, to discover that the overlooked phenomenon of racism against white people exists as well.
I think these should  be the main points to focus on in our paper and presentation.

(Link to article)

Annelies Delaere

A black boss, a black sheep?

In 2002 Steve Schifferes, a  journalist of the BBC, did a research on racism at British workplaces. Therefore he used a poll on the site ‘BBC news online’. 

One of the results of his study is that racism is much higher at work than in other places. I don’t think that this is something strange. At work, you are obliged to work together with whoever your boss wants to. So you have contact with people that you maybe don’t like: customers, but also colleagues. A racist can do what he wants in his private life, but in his work life he or she has to follow the rules.

Another quite remarkable result was that one in three said “that people didn’t  want to work for someone with another race”. I wouldn’t mind working for such a person as long as that person is a good employer. In my opinion, it isn’t your race that determines how well you work, but your capabilities. 

Martijn De Meyer

(link to the article) 

Racism against white people

I agree with Annelies remark that we need to beware that we don’t turn the situation around and start to refuse white workers. That is why it’s interesting to pay some attention to racism against white people because it exists and it’s still increasing.

Initially, I would like to give two remarks. First, the rate of racism against white people is different according to the country. Secondly, I think it’s a theme that we need to treat with some prudence.

On the one hand you can’t start an organization only for white people because it will be labelled as a racial company, but on the other hand there are a lot of companies only for Asians or black people where white clients are treated impolite and recruiting white workers doesn’t come up for discussion.

In conclusion, I think we need to use the word “racism” with a lot of prudence instead of utilize it in every dialogue or situation between a white person and a person who has another origin.

Laurence de Klerk Wolters

(link to the article)

Multicultural environments can be created naturally

I agree with both, Ward and Laurence, on the fact that creating a multicultural environment and organising workshops are great initiatives to reduce racism in the workplace. Team building activities and workshops create an opportunity for the employees to put their prejudices aside and take this chance to really get to know their co-workers, no matter what their race is. Hopefully these initiatives will lead to a situation of mutual respect.

However, I would like to point out the fact that there is a big difference between trying to prevent employers from refusing applicants because of their skin colour and hiring applicants primarily because they are from a different race. A multicultural workforce is a great ideal to strive for, as long as you don’t turn the situation around and start to refuse white workers instead. As we already said in previous posts, the main reason to hire someone should be the skills he or she possesses, not his or her skin colour. Consequently a multicultural workforce will be created naturally.

Annelies Delaere

The change we need ...

First and for all I agree with Ward and Laurence that racism can’t by solved by using only laws. I think the problems lies much deeper: in the foundations of our society and .. ourselves. Racism along with terrorism,  is one of the biggest threats in our world nowadays. These problems aren’t going to solve themselves and only laws aren’t going to do a lot as well. This doesn’t mean that laws are useless. I think that laws show you what is socially accepted and what not. Without the law, people aren’t going to feel the urge to change the way they behave.

In my opinion, the real solution is reshaping the world and treating the underlying problem which is, I think, fear of the unknown. This can be done for example by learning your children that everyone is equal and maybe even by changing your own opinion. To summarize it with a quote of Michael Jackson: “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change…”

Martijn De Meyer

Based on my own opinion and the reactions of the other team members on my blog entry ‘the client is king’

Video of Michael Jackson's 'Man in the mirror'

Creating a multicultural environment..

Creating a multicultural environment is definitely a step in the right direction. However, I think that it’s more important to stop thinking in divisions. On the one hand you want to stop racism and create an environment where everybody has the same rights but on the other hand you admit that there is still a difference between people with another skin color by putting the focus on the fact that companies need to employ people with all kinds of cultures.

One of the most important factors to create a multicultural environment is to inform your workers about their multifarious backgrounds and cultures. The basic rule is that you need to understand the foreign culture and to admit the existence of differences between these cultures.

Secondly, it’s very important to respect the foreign culture. Finally, the participating workers should use their knowledge of their own culture to gain knowledge about the other cultures. Sometimes it’s enough to sacrifice something that is not too important for us, but it means a lot for another culture.

The main condition of a successful multicultural environment is the understanding, the respect and getting closer to the culture of foreign workers.

Laurence de Klerk Wolters