Everyone – regardless of their background – deserves to have a safe and fair work environment. Unfortunately, prejudice in the workplace comes in many forms. It is important for employees to understand the ways that discrimination based on their racial or cultural background could impact their careers.
What is the difference between race, color, and national origin discrimination?
Discrimination based on a person’s racial or cultural background can come in various forms, and each type of bias is subtly different. These include:
- Racial discrimination – Racial discrimination is mistreatment based on the racial group that a person belongs to.
- Color discrimination – Color discrimination is bias based on the color of a person’s skin. This bias may involve treating employees of the same racial background differently based on the shade of their skin. For example, a person with lighter skin may be given more opportunities than a person with darker skin because of prejudice.
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- National origin discrimination – National origin discrimination involves mistreating a person due to that person’s country of birth or ancestral home. This can include harassing a person specifically because of their national origin as well as subtler types of discrimination for their accent or speaking languages other than English. This includes Ancestry discrimination involves unfair treatment of an employee because of the specific identifiable group that a person’s family comes from. This could include bias against people from a specific country, nation or tribe as well as bias against the cultural characteristics of that group.
A person may experience one type of discrimination or multiple forms based on their unique cultural background.
How can discrimination impact your work?
No matter what type of bias a person experiences in the workplace, that mistreatment can significantly impact their career. Harassment and inappropriate jokes can make a work environment hostile. Discrimination may cause them to lose opportunities for new positions or promotions, or their employer may pay them less because of bias. An employer may even fire them as a result of prejudice.
Thankfully, this workplace mistreatment based on a person’s race, color, or national origin is illegal, and workers who experience this discrimination can hold employers accountable. Working to understand your legal options can be the first step to seeking justice for the harm you have experienced and protecting the future of your career.