The concept of racial equity in the workforce has been at the center of attention for the past several years. Some believe and argue that even after the Civil Rights Movement and laws placed following this time, racial inequality still exists, especially in the workplace. 

In the modern workplace, companies are placing greater emphasis on diversity and inclusion initiatives to strengthen organizational adaptability, gain competitive advantage and reduce legal risks. Despite this trend, many companies still struggle with racial and ethnic discrimination and policymaking. 

Diversity in the work environment is defined by promoting acceptance, respect, and teamwork despite differences in race, age, gender, native language, political beliefs, religion, sexual orientation, or communication styles among employees.  

However, there have been studies that show that overall there seems to be a rise in the minority population entering the workplace—the image below shows results from a study that analyzes the demographics of the number of city employees since 2014. It is interesting to note that the number of White and Asian city employees decreased while the number of Black and Hispanic employees in cities has actually increased. 

Unfortunately, there have also been studies that show there still appears to be prejudice against certain racial populations when it comes to the level or status in the career ladder. The two graphs below visually depict the racial leadership gap at organizations and companies of different scales.  

According to a New York Times report, there are only five African American CEOs out of Fortune 500 companies. Furthermore, a University of Wisconsin study revealed that people with African American sounding names are 14% less likely to get a callback.  

To address the problem of a racial gap in leadership and the general workplace, what many companies have attempted is simply hiring people of color as a strategy to promote racial equity. Proponents of this action believe that racism manifests mainly in the segregation of races; welcoming people of color into workplaces would in a way automatically enable individuals to filter up through the system, eventually rising to the top of corporations, governments, and nonprofits, thereby automatically resulting in equity and peace. However, critics argue that this is a fundamental misunderstanding. They point out that what this vision fails to address is the longstanding history of racism in our country—racism is embedded in our society’s framework and lives within all our systems, and thus cannot be eliminated through these types of efforts alone, and this is one of the primary reasons why these efforts have not been as successful as managers hoped, and the issue has not been able to be completely addressed. 

What this shows is that in the end, it is incredibly important to realize that while efforts are being made to increase racial equity in the workplace, the efforts may not be enough in all circumstances and scales. While there may be positive outcomes in some cases and career levels by simply increasing the number of minority individuals in the workplace, it may be beneficial for there to be more corporate level action to come up with other programs or ways to lessen the racial gap, especially when moving higher up in the career ladder.