Essay on Racism and Its Impacts on Government Employment Opportunities

Overview

Racism generally refers to the dominance of a group of people belonging to a specific race and believed to be the majority over the minority race. Racism usually occurs at three levels, that is microlevel, mesolevel, and macro level. At the micro-level, racism occurs between the individuals; institutions are the main components in the mesolevel, while at the macro-level cultural aspects of racism dominate. On the other hand, employment generally refers to the state of being in work that is paid. An individual may either be self-employed or an employee. Employees are mainly categorized as temporary or permanent based on the terms of employment between the employee and the employer. Depending on the working hours, the employees may be part-time or full-time.

Employment is a source of income for individuals in society. It aids in the improvement of the living and social welfare of the people. However, the researchers have observed employment discrimination due to racial segregation of the people. The hiring, promotion, recruitment and training process of job seekers have been under the influence of the race of the people within the public and private institutions. The research study examines the effects of racism in public institutions on employment levels and promotions.

Background of the study

Despite the global economy showing positivity in the growth rate, unemployment is inevitable. Currently, the unemployment rate in the world today stands at approximately 5%. Many countries in the world are aiming to provide sustainable working conditions. The provision of enabling working environment aligns with Sustainable Development Goal number eight. In addition, the countries are struggling to create more job opportunities in the private and public sectors. The developing countries are particularly formulating robust policies that enhance twenty-four working economies. The focus is to improve economic growth and promote job opportunities that raise the people’s standard of living (Khan & Chaudhry, 2019).

In the context of employment provision, particularly in the government, institutions’ selection of the employees’ criteria is an emerging issue. The hiring, training, and recruitment processes are unfair. Unemployment as a social aspect escalates poverty in a region or country, thus widens economic inequalities and becomes a threat to an economy (Elmes, 2018). It is essential, therefore, to understand the causes of economic disparities. Poor quality jobs, low education levels, unemployment, ownership to marginalized communities, and association with minority ethnic groups or races are some of the causes of economic inequalities.

The exploration of the racism that attributes to economic disparities is very crucial. Institutional racism involves the enactment of policies and policies that favors the majority group. Restrictions are imposed on the minority groups on the availability and access to essential services. The vital services may include access to housing, health services (Atkin, 2018), and employment opportunities. The information retrieved from this research study will aid in understanding how institutional racism has immensely contributed to the imbalance in employment opportunities. Moreover, the existing literature extensively addresses the issues of social injustice such as sexual violence, gender inequality, poor housing, unequal access to education, and unfairness in criminal justice. Focus on the institutional aspect and employment trends thus fill the knowledge gap.

Research Problem Statement

Every country targets to reduce the inequalities within the individuals. The inequalities mainly encompass income and gender inequalities. Earlier scholars observed that income inequalities arise from unequal access to employment opportunities among individuals. The principal focus of Sustainable Development Goal number ten is to promote equal access to resources and opportunities by all (United Nations, 2019). Access to opportunities will enhance rapid economic growth and improvement of social welfare. Reduction of depression and establishing strong families is eminent in a society that promotes equality in economic and social aspects.

Even with all the government and non-governmental institutions’ support in campaigning for equal access to job opportunities, the efforts have proven futile. People have observed that it has always been marred with discrimination and inequality in the job recruitment process. Governmental employment opportunities usually have been associated with unfairness in hiring, recruitment, training, and promotion.

The research study targets to gather information about the employment trends in government institutions in the United States. The employment ranking and statistics of the employees in terms of their races. The data will be beneficial in analyzing the institutional policies and their role in promoting equality in employment opportunities. Besides, the findings will aid the government in enacting policies that facilitate employment equality. The information will act as an assessment tool for the enforcement of laws that discourage discrimination and inequality. For future researchers on institutional racism, the data will serve as a basis for their research. This research will also cover the knowledge gap that exists on institutional racism and employment. The research study aims to achieve its overall objective by analyzing various forms of racism. It will also establish the impacts of racism on employment, evaluate the roles and policies of the institutions about the job, and give recommendations that will promote equality in government employment opportunities.

The research will extensively cover the impacts of institutional racism on recruitment and promotion to governmental job opportunities.

Research Questions

The study aims to cover four questions as follows:

• What are the primary forms of racism?
• To what extent has Institutional racism affected employment in the United States?
• What are the roles and the policies of the relevant institutions in promoting equality in government opportunities?
• What interventions should be undertaken to foster equality in employment in the United States?

Research Hypothesis

An increment in institutional racism will lead to inequality in employment opportunities.

Research Objectives

The study shall mainly focus on the following objectives:

• To analyze the primary forms of racism
• To establish the impacts of institutional racism on the employment trends in the United States.
• To Evaluate the institutional roles and policies pertinent to employment in the United States.
• To propose interventions aimed to foster equality in employment opportunities in the United States.

Justification and Significance

Racism is a social concept that earlier scholars have extensively covered. However, the researchers in their work ignored the impacts of institutional racism on employment trends. The trends encompass the employee composition in terms of race and gender. The research study will mainly focus on the racial design of the employees. The research study information will cover the knowledge gap in the discipline of psychology. It will also make it easier for future researchers interested in the study of topics related to institutional racism. Furthermore, this research will enhance sustainable employment laws that embrace equality in employment opportunities in government institutions.

Research Methodology

This study will apply a mixed-method type of research design. The researcher will integrate qualitative and quantitative data into the analysis through the use of this design. Therefore, the mixed-method research design is more advantageous than exclusive qualitative and quantitative research designs (Manzoor, 2020). The main methods of data collection will be questionnaires, interview schedules, and literature review.

Literature Review

Most of the arrests, imprisonment and murder cases reported in the United States involve minority groups. The stereotypic nature of the dominant group, that is, the whites, that construes minority groups as inferior, has attributed to the social injustices (Hetey, & Eberhardt, 2018). Apart from arrests, the minority group is subjected to poor housing and poor working conditions. The incomes from the meager jobs are usually low.

The earlier scholars elaborated on the criminal injustices, sexual violence, discrimination to health services, police brutality, unequal access to education, and economic inequalities (Lopez-Littleton et al., 2018). Sparkman, in his work, addressed the pervasiveness of racial discrimination in America’s workplaces. The researcher highlighted the discrimination in the hiring of the employees in the workplaces. However, Sparkman limited the research scope of his study to employment in private institutions such as law firms. Besides, Sparkman’s work faces criticism because it is more generalized on racism. The profession lacks the element of specificity in the form of racism (Sparkman, 2020). Borowczyk-Martins et al., in their paper, also addressed the issue of racial discrimination to job search and differences in the wages in the labor market. The main focus of Borowczyk-Martins et al. was to evaluate how racial discrimination influenced wage differentiation. Besides, the study also finds out that racial discrimination among job seekers was the primary concern. The aspects of employment were so general that Borowczyk-Martins et al. did not highlight non-governmental, private, and public institutions as employers in the study. The scholars compared Wages among the whites and Blacks, and the general employment inefficiencies were the only aspects that were vividly elaborated in the paper (Borowczyk-Martins et al., 2017).

The Borrowczyk-Martins et al. work formed the basis for research on the institution racism on the recruitment and promotion of employees in government institutions. Besides, the increase in arrests and police brutality among the people in the minority group triggered the choice of the research topic. I was eager to get information on the composition of the police force in terms of race.

References

Atkin, K. (2018). Institutional racism, policy, and practice. In Primary Healthcare and South Asian Populations (pp. 19-30). CRC Press.

Borowczyk-Martins, D., Bradley, J., & Tarasonis, L. (2017). Racial discrimination in the US labor market: Employment and wage differentials by skill. Labour Economics, 49, 106-127.

Elmes, M. B. (2018). Economic inequality, food insecurity, and the erosion of equality of capabilities in the United States. Business & Society, 57(6), 1045-1074.

Hetey, R. C., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2018). The numbers don’t speak for themselves: Racial disparities and the persistence of inequality in the criminal justice system. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 183-187.

Khan, R., & Chaudhry, I. S. (2019). Impact of human capital on employment and economic growth in developing countries. Review of Economics and Development Studies, 5(3), 487-496.

Lopez-Littleton, V., Blessett, B., & Burr, J. (2018). Advancing social justice and racial equity in the public sector. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 24(4), 449-468.

Manzoor, A. (2020). Designs of mixed-method research. In Cognitive Analytics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 95-121). IGI Global.

Sparkman, D. (2020). Racial Discrimination is Pervasive in America’s Workplaces. Training.

United Nations, (2019). Sustainable development goals. The energy progress report. Tracking SDG, 7.