Race difference and power: Recursions of coloniality in work and organization (original) (raw)
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CfP Race, Difference, and Power: Recursions of Coloniality in Work and Organization
Gender, Work, and Organization, 2019
As recent events and political developments around the world have shown, race in its various incarnations is still one of the key organizing principles for action. Why then do we persistently fail to think about race in organizations and the study of them? And, perhaps most urgently, what does this mean for those whose life and work always already evidences the expectedness of racial power? We invite theoretical and empirical papers addressing, but not limited to, such themes as: -Conceptualizing race and coloniality in work and organization studies -De-naturalizing and de-ontologizing race and gender as categories of difference -Entangled architectures of race and gender -Operations of coloniality in the global south -Race and coloniality in the global distribution of work -The role of coloniality in the emergence of new forms of work -Lived experiences of racial difference in organizations -Material, psychic and epistemic violence of racial difference -Conceptual and ethical limits of representation and ‘body-counts’ -Critical race theory and postcolonial critique in work and organization studies
Ch. 5: Doing Ethnicity in Organizations
This chapter uses critical race theory (CRT) and postcolonial lenses to critique the postrace concept and organizational power differentials mir roring an ethnically coded society. CRT reminds us that despite antidis crimination laws around the globe, employers still normatively pursue workplace homogeneity; not necessarily a racist impulse, but in an effort to promote perceived organizational efficiency. Understanding how orga nizations have become hard-wired to perpetuate White privilege helps to dismantle systemic barriers which continue to stand between people of color and an ability to reach their full human potential at work.
Race and Identity in Organizations
2020
Nothing could be counted on in a world where even when you were a solution, you were a problem.'-Toni Morrison, Beloved In his classic exposition of life as a black man in a colonized world, Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon (1967: 82) writes: 'I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object in the midst of other objects.' If identity is the process of finding meanings in things, in the world, and in the self, Fanon is one of the first critics to articulate the fact that identity work for those who have been racialized, or turned into 'an object in the midst of other objects' (p.82), should challenge our understanding of how identity work occurs. Although much of Black Skin, White Masks is concerned with the ways that colonized and racialized people do creatively and persistently engage in the work of making themselves into subjects rather than objects, Fanon's argument is not that race happens to be the particular content of a universal, existential process of becoming a self. In a critique of Sartre's (2004) theorization that racial identity is a minor term that will be transcended in the historical progression of the dialectic towards common humanity, Fanon (1967: 103) insists, 'black consciousness is immanent in its own eyes. I am not a potentiality of something, I am wholly what I am. I do not have to look for the universal.' Poignantly, Fanon's work continues to be highly relevant in thinking about race and identity in organizations, and in organization and management studies in broader terms, because the question of how we can research and write about race as a formative rather than circumstantial
Organization, 2022
This special issue aims to inspire scholarship that challenges anti-Black racism and white supremacy in our societies and in management and organization studies (MOS). Anti-Black racism refers to "system of beliefs and practices that attack, erode, and limit the humanity of Black people" (Carruthers, 2018, p. 26) that inextricably ties Blackness and its physiological components (e.g., dark skin) to "slaveness" (Wilderson, 2020). By foregrounding anti-Black racism, we seek to draw explicit attention to the widely prevalent and especially virulent kind of racism that is aimed at Black people worldwide, and to acknowledge that privileged non-Black people of color in the global North are often complicit in reproducing anti-Black racism.
Tackling Whiteness in organizations and management
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical and methodological framework to overcome knowledge gaps on Whiteness in organizational and management studies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a brief review of literature on ethnic privileges. Findings – The authors propose a relational approach to tackling ethnic privileges in organizations and management research. Research limitations/implications – The framework contributes to a better understanding and deconstruction of ethnic privileges at work. Originality/value – The paper proposes a theoretical and a methodological framework for tackling Whiteness in organizational and management studies. By doing so, it elucidates the topic of Whiteness, bringing new insights from an interdisciplinary perspective. Keywords Diversity, Discrimination in employment, Whiteness, Relational framework, Ethnic privileges Paper type Conceptual paper
Bureaucracy, Discrimination, and the Racialized Character of Organizational Life
Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2019
Research on racial inequality in organizations typically (1) assumes constraining effects of bureaucratic structure on the capacity of powerful actors to discriminate or (2) reverts to individualistic interpretations emphasizing implicit biases or self-expressed motivations of gatekeepers. Such orientations are theoretically problematic because they ignore how bureaucratic structures and practices are immersed within and permeated by culturally normative racial meanings and hierarchies. This decoupling ultimately provides a protective , legitimating umbrella for organizational practices and gatekeeping actors À an umbrella under which differential treatment is enabled and dis-cursively portrayed as meritocratic or even organizationally good. In this chapter, we develop a race-centered conception of organizational practices by drawing from a sample of over 100 content-coded workplace discrimination cases and analyzing both discriminatory encounters and employer justifications for inequality-generating conduct. Results show three non-mutually exclusive patterns that highlight the fundamentally racial character of organizations: (1) the racialization of bureaucracies themselves via the organizational valuation and pursuit of "ideal workers," (2) the ostensibly bureaucratic and neutral, yet inequitable, policing of minority worker performance , and; (3) the everyday enforcement of racial status boundaries through harassment on the job, protection afforded to perpetrators, and bureaucratically enforced retaliation aimed at victims. The permeation of
Handbook of Research on Workforce Diversity in a Global Society
This chapter is a qualitative, narrative case study that seeks to unveil the social identity diversity of leadership from the perspective a Black woman leader. Social identity diversity is a form of difference that marginalized groups, such as Black women, experience in predominantly White organizational and institutional settings as a result of intersectionality. Social identity diversity creates multiple dynamics for groups such as Black women who hold leadership positions in the aforementioned settings. This study highlights the need for more inclusive and cultural perspectives of leadership, which calls for more inclusive theoretical frameworks that consider the social identity diversity of the leader. Critical race theory is presented as a theoretical framework that is useful for explaining how systems of power sustain domination and oppression in organizational and institutional settings. Implications for an emerging social justice paradigm are given.
The historical origins of ethnic (white) privilege in US organizations
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to trace the genealogy of ethnic (white) privilege in US organizations and its continuing significance in organizations today. Design/methodology/approach – The paper relies upon the historical literature on work, culture, and society found primarily in the fields of labor history and sociology. It also references contemporary organization studies and sociological literature to illustrate the continuing significance of ethnic (white) privilege in the workplace. Findings – There is an inexorable link between European global expansion and colonization, industrialization, and the racialization/ethnicization of nineteenth and twentieth century US organizations. Furthermore, the particular manifestations of ethnic (white) privilege today must be understood within its historical development and the new meanings whiteness has acquired within the workplace if scholars and practitioners are to be successful in creating inclusive workplaces. Research limitations/implications – The focus in this paper is on the USA and ethnic (white) privilege to the exclusion of other forms of difference and contexts. Suggestions for future research are provided along with managerial implications. Originality/value – This paper provides historical insight into the formation of white privilege in organizations and constitutes a prelude to fully understanding its contemporary manifestations in the workplace. These insights suggest ways to disrupt inequality and create inclusive organizations that do not privilege one ethnic or racial group over another. Keywords Diversity, USA, Inclusion, Discrimination in employment, Ethnic (white) privilege, Whiteness Paper type Viewpoint
Dismantling Structural Racism in Organisational Systems
Journal of awareness-based systems change, 2023
Globally, our societies are riddled with racism and so are our organisations. While there are many excellent "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI) practitioners tackling racism and promoting racial equity in organisations, we contend that the language of "diversity" and "inclusion" risks diluting the impact of this work. Something stronger may be required to address racism's tenacious structural character. We propose thinking about this work in organisational systems as more fundamentally "dismantling structural racism." The dismantling process can be enabled by having a fuller understanding of what structural racism is, and how it affects people working in organisations, as well as by having a deeper appreciation of the history of racism, rooted in colonialism, and serving the ends of economic exploitation. With this greater awareness of how racism is built into, and manifests, in organisational systems, we are better equipped to act in more systemic ways towards dismantling it. In this article, we share some of what we are learning about convening and engaging in organisational systems with the purpose of navigating both structural and cultural change.