Fighting Systemic Racism in Your Workplace is a Duty
Systemic racism is real, and it’s on full display in the world today.
The evidence is clear — American businesses and corporations have and continue to violate African-Americans’ rights and freedoms on a systematic level. The criminal justice system is no exception. African-Americans are disproportionately pulled over, accused, arrested, and convicted of crimes compared to their Caucasian counterparts (and more often that not, for crimes they did not actually commit). When it comes to driving violations, the data shows that police officers generally stop Black drivers at higher rates than White drivers. And that’s just one microscopic example of the racial biases in our criminal justice system.
At my day job, I help residential homeowners, landlords, and property managers across North America to screen prospective tenants using a combination of advanced AI and human expertise. We provide comprehensive screening for landlords who want to ensure they know who is moving into their properties. We perform identity, employment, income, address verification, and credit checks. Our goal is to build trust between landlords and tenants by providing a fair and objective screening process for both parties. In my years of working at this company, one thing I’ve noticed is that landlords in America tend to have one feature in common — being white. They are often landlords born into intergenerational wealth and privilege. In reality, most white landlords have not had to work hard to be landlords; they’re simply elected to be landlords by default due to a white-loving society.
American businesses and corporations have and continue to violate African-Americans’ rights and freedoms on a systematic level. The criminal justice system is no exception.
For those of us who work for a corporate company (or any company for that matter), it’s our individual responsibility to question and challenge the status quo. What we know as just “the way things are” may actually be covered in implicit biases. It is up to us to speak up when we notice that our company’s practices and values do not align with our fight for a just and non-racist society, no matter where we are on the corporate ladder. Whether it’s an employees’ behaviour, a corporate practice/tradition, or the very product or service that your company sells, these inconsistencies must be addressed if we want to effect substantial change in the workplace.
For my company, it was removing a once integral feature of our screening service — offering criminal background checks on tenants. Before we pulled back this service, we looked at the stats. Yes, it’s clear our landlords wanted to know if their potential renters were once convicted of a serious crime. However, it’s also clear that certain renters were disproportionately charged and convicted of crimes solely on the basis of their skin colour. In other words, a Black or Hispanic person could be unfairly targeted for a crime, while a white person could be completely blameless for that same crime. As it stands, the criminal justice system does not serve minorities. So, the possibility of collecting unfounded criminal records on renters that were purely racially charged, was a very real possibility.
Whether it’s an employees’ behaviour, a corporate practice/tradition, or the very product or service that your company sells, these inconsistencies must be addressed if we want to effect substantial change in the workplace.
My colleagues and I gathered together on a Zoom session and we had an open conversation about fighting racial inequalities in America and we deliberated on which side of the fight we wanted to be on. Our conclusion? Although our landlord customers want to know whether a criminal record exists on their renter, it’s more important and meaningful that we do our part in educating landlords on the greater issue of systemic racism by discontinuing this service. We do not want our landlords making prejudiced tenancy decisions based on unfounded, biased, and/or racist criminal records. Even in doing something as simple as removing criminal record checks from our service offering, we are making strides towards removing inherent biases and potentially discriminatory practices from our screening process.
Of course, the fight does not end there. Fighting systematic racism cannot be reduced to a single action or one tough conversation. Our fight for equality must be enduring, ongoing, and consistent. What we did as a company was a necessary step that is within our power to combat housing discrimination, and to encourage a bias-free renting experience for everyone, regardless of their skin colour.
Fighting systematic racism cannot be reduced to a single action or one tough conversation. Our fight for equality must be enduring, ongoing, and consistent.
We must always be evaluating our systems and practices, and questioning how we can do things differently to make the world a better place. This is our duty. Think critically about the company-wide decisions and how they might perpetuate racial injustices. Challenge your peers and superiors, and point out implicit biases in their thoughts and ideas. After all, if the powerful corporations that impact our everyday choices can’t even speak up and take action, then what chance do we stand?
Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s murder, when an innocent Black woman was killed by police officers in her own home in Kentucky. Let’s all stand with the rest of the world in solidarity and unity in our continuing efforts to fight against systematic racism.
