In his book, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Social Justice, Paul Kivel, a community organizer in California devoted to racial justice wrote, “To avoid being called racist, [White Americans] may claim that they don’t notice color or don’t treat people differently based on color. [But] it is not useful or honest for any of us to claim that we do not see color.”
A new survey published in the online version of the journal Psychological Science by researchers at the University of Georgia reinforces Kivel’s sentiments.
University of Georgia researchers found that Whites who subscribe to an ideology of colorblindness in the workplace cause their minority colleagues to feel less committed to their work. Yet, when White employees champion multiculturalism, their minority peers feel more connected to their jobs.
The decision to embrace a workplace environment of colorblindness or multiculturalism has confounded companies and universities for decades. Proponents of colorblindness argue that assimilating into the dominant culture is best for everyone. New research strongly suggests, however, that colorblind climates harm both minority employees and the organization for which they work.
