What would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. say about today's work force? I think he would see that we have made progress, but he would be disapointed that we still have not achieved racial equality and an end to discrimination.
To honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I hope that we will all continue to work for racial equality and an end to discrimination and job discrimation.
Do you have diversity at your place of work? Have you experienced job discrimination?
Diversity:
When I look back upon my career as a lawyer, I have worked at places with diverse work forces and non diverse work forces. Law firms, not so diverse. United States Department of Justice, not so diverse. The very small Fairfax Civil Service Commission office, very diverse. Adjunct professor at a local university, not so diverse among the group of profs that taught similar classes to my class (can't speak for the diversity among professors at the entire university), but a very diverse student body on campus. So Dr. King, we still have a long way to go.
Discrimination:
As a female attorney, I personally experienced sexual harassment. I also saw that women in the legal field were not always treated the same as men. Perhaps not legal discrimination, but a feeling of being treated differently.
In my role as a hearing officer, I heard many cases claiming discrimination based upon race and gender. Sometimes the grievants prevailed. Sometimes they did not. Sometimes there was provable discrimination. Sometimes there was "discrimination," but not at a provable legal level. Dr. King, we still have a long way to go.
So almost 50 years after Dr. King's I Have a Dream Speech, we still have work to do, but I hope that if you look around you at work, you will see a diverse or more diverse work place. Please remember the causes to which Dr. King devoted his much too short life.
Considering that my workplace consists of me and seven cats, well, there is not as much diversity among them as there could be, but there is no discrimination...
ReplyDeleteBut when I did work a day job I saw little diversity anywhere, a shocking amount of intentional discrimination but worst of all enough discriminatory talk and action that the individuals didn't even realize was discriminatory it was so deeply ingrained in who they were. A boss who "jokingly" said she thought the African-American woman on the tour was the new janitor, not a new sales person, and a person in sales who knowingly remarked to me that "they really like those velvet couches" and was puzzled when I didn't immediately recognize that she meant African-Americans. And more, of course, and by people younger than me.
The time is always right to do what is right, and that is what we should do.