Decentering Whiteness in the Workplace summary

You may have heard the term whiteness thrown around in discussions on diversity, equality, and inclusion. But what does it really mean? Whiteness refers to the dominant cultural patterns of Europeans that have been imposed on societies globally, especially during colonialism. More than just skin color or ethnicity, whiteness outlines social and legal constructions for maintaining power and privilege over Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized groups.

In the United States specifically, the legal and social construct of whiteness was created to consolidate power for certain Europeans over oppressed groups. As early British colonies institutionalized slavery in the 1600s, white identity demarcated English and northern European colonizers from African and Indigenous peoples to justify dehumanizing treatment. Wealth, Protestant faith, light skin, and educated status became delineators of privilege.

But maintaining dominance requires allyship, especially in times of immigration. So, as independence expanded the nation, the boundaries of whiteness tactically grew from just the British aristocracy to include immigrants like the Irish, Italians and Poles – uniting wider European groups under a superiority banner against Black, Asian, and Indigenous communities.

By 1865 when slavery formally ended, non-white groups had been thoroughly disenfranchised and denied voting rights, property ownership, and citizenship. Violent tactics – from lynchings to land seizures – continued, using this legally and socially reinforced construct of whiteness to sustain profound inequities well into the 1960s.

You might notice whiteness rearing its head in the modern workplace through policies, norms, or day-to-day behaviors that implicitly excuse, prioritize or favor traits linked with that dominant white heritage and identity. Consider Eurocentric sounding names receiving higher call-back rates on job applications. Or speaking patterns from those raised with English as a second language facing prejudice or worse – scorn and derision. 

Human resource policies around grooming and appearance often implicitly judge hairstyles from non-European backgrounds as unprofessional. Leaders subconsciously feel more affinity towards employees who share their informal speech patterns, or off-work interests and hobbies that reflect similar upbringings.

Each example may seem minor. Yet small daily interactions create patterns of advantage and disadvantage that impact who feels they belong and can bring their full selves to work, who feels empowered to offer viewpoints, lead key projects or represent the company publicly.

The first step to interrupting this system is tuning into how norms of whiteness often unintentionally and invisibly permeate policies, culture, and habits in most organizations. What are the ongoing impacts of this implicit bias? Let’s tackle that next.