Several years ago, the mega law firm I then worked for hired a Black female lawyer. She had just graduated from a major law school top of her class. She was smart, hard-working, and charismatic.
Week three into her new role she knocked on my office door and asked if she could speak to me. She already knew I cared deeply about equity and justice so felt comfortable confiding in me. I was a partner, too, so her purpose wasn’t just to sound off. She knew I wasn’t afraid of good trouble.
On the verge of tears, she described how another partner just told her in a joking tone, “We all know how you got the job.” I was outraged. With the new lawyer’s permission, I marched down to the managing partner’s office and demanded action be taken.
Though the head partner promised a swift response, nothing happened.
Racism in the workplace today doesn’t typically come with a racial slur or someone throwing around the “N” word. It’s more complex and often hides behind the cloak of professionalism. That’s why it’s critically important to identify the many ways it manifests itself so employers can be better equipped to prevent it, and, if necessary, address and create safe workspaces.
Here are just four of the many ways today’s more professional racism impacts Black men and women.
Mistakes by Black People Are Treated Differently
Black people aren’t immune from making mistakes. Nor are all Black people good at their jobs. They’re humans. But what often takes place in the real world is that errors made by Black employees attach to the Black employees as part of their reputation very quickly. It becomes who they are. They get labeled incapable.
Whereas white counterparts are given the grace of “the learning curve” or “Everyone makes mistakes.”
So we’re clear, there’s nothing wrong with giving people the benefit of a learning curve. Or acknowledging we all make mistakes. We just need to extend that same commonsense benefit to our Black employees.
Some people are aware of this reoccurring, prevalent bias, but many employers and supervisors aren’t. Some is intentional, but most people are simply operating out of deep, unconscious bias formed over many years not even aware of their uneven conduct.
It is imperative companies incorporate this education into their training, so supervisors and superiors are prepared to intentionally treat Black employees the same as white employees.
Failure to Promote Black People
The statistics on Black people in leadership positions at America’s companies are embarrassing. In 2024, less than 2% of S&P 500 companies were headed by Black CEOs. For smaller to mid-size companies, as of 2023, Black people accounted for a mere 5.2% of company leaders.
Part of the reason is a form of professional racism that skips over Black people for promotions, even though they are qualified. Oftentimes more qualified than the person selected. This is in turn stifles building wealth for many Black families.
There’s so much passion in our nation for hiring and promoting people based on merit alone. It’s become all too familiar, though, that the same passion isn’t there when our Black brothers and sisters get passed over despite deserving the promotions based on merit.
Companies and organizations must be intentional in ensuring they are providing qualified Black employees with the same opportunities for advancement as their white ones. It’s not happening consistently, and this needs to stop.
Conduct and Words
In 2018, a group of Black lawyers asked the housing court in the Bronx to convene lawyers who regularly practice there to discuss the disparate ways white lawyers treated their Black peers.
There had been repeated instances of white lawyers demeaning, yelling over and eye-rolling at Black peers in court hearings, while judges stood by and allowed the unprofessional conduct to persist, despite every court in America having rules on court decorum.
Black people across every profession regularly hear comments like, “We need you to be a team player,” “don’t take it personally,” and “get along,” while their white peers don’t receive the same criticisms nearly as often.
The Bronx lawyers who convened fell into two categories. One group insisted that the people offended were just unpolished. Newbies. Thin-skinned. “Stop getting so offended.” That’s become a new mantra for white folks refusing to look at their conduct.
The other category of lawyers noticed a wide difference in how the same lawyers acted when opposing other white lawyers.
The lawyer antics and the “be a team player” comments come across as racially neutral. There’s usually nothing that sounds like a racial slur in these contexts. That’s why this article is titled “Professional Bigotry.” But the reality on the ground is that just because the conduct isn’t accompanied by an “N” word doesn’t mean it is somehow OK.
Companies and professional organizations must confront these ugly facts to create a fair and equitable workplace. Part of that is learning about how our conduct and use of words and phrases may not always look the same when it comes to our Black colleagues.
Don’t Speak Up
After COVID, I wrote a piece called “Work-From-Home Policies May Increase Racism.”
The thought behind my piece was that one way to fight racism is for us all to get to know each other, which is hard to do stuck at home.
Several Black friends sent me private messages expressing their disagreement with my piece. They shared that when they go to an office, they have to confront micro-aggressive words and conduct many times a day. Comments that aren’t addressed to white co-workers.
Indeed, Black people report severe exhaustion from the number of microaggressions they deal with in the workplace every day.
But what compounds the problem is that more often than not, when Black people speak up about the seemingly racially neutral conduct, they are met with comments that minimize or invalidate what occurred. “It was just a joke,” “don’t be so sensitive,” or some other response that deflects the conduct onto the Black recipient of the words.
The problem then becomes that the Black professional is to blame for making an issue out of “nothing.”
What happens next is many Black people then fear speaking up because they are the ones who end up being labeled as the problem.
Companies and organizations need to stop invalidating genuine experiences and instead focus on making their workforce aware of the conduct so they can stop it.
These are just a few of the many ways Black folks confront racism in the workplace. We’ve become so obsessed with the letters DEI that we forgot that these types of problems led to these programs in the first place. And they aren’t going to just magically disappear if we stop talking about them.
Companies are even scaling back or even eliminating DEI programs. That’s the wrong path forward.
Instead, we need to double-down and make our workplaces fair, equitable and truly professional for all workers. Including Black folks.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Jeffrey Kass' work on Medium.