The New, Foolish Black Agenda?

I’ve used the presidential election several times in an attempt to draw lessons that might be useful in the workplace.  Race is an obvious issue because of Senator Obama’s candidacy.  A lot has happened in various candidates’ campaigns during the last 18 months to focus attention on this issue–for the workplace and our society. 

While the issue of race is still difficult to honestly talk about, it’s important to talk about it because, among other reasons, race discrimination charges continue to be filed by employees against their employers.  During this election, we’ve seen the race card played from time to time, even by Obama himself, but it’s been encouraging to see more and more people talk approvingly of a colorblind society and workplace–but not everybody.

An article in Frost Illustrated, an African-American newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, makes the argument that the new black agenda calling for a colorblind society is foolish.  Blacks are still at the bottom of America’s “pile of plenty.”   The notion that racism is dead is a myth.  What is dead is affirmative action, which was designed to help blacks overcome centuries of racism and injustice.  Blacks continue to be routinely discriminated against when it comes to work, criminal justice, access to housing or healthcare, and much more.

To be sure, racism isn’t dead.  While racism is usually directed toward African-Americans, as I noted in a recent post, it can also operate in reverse.  If the opinion expressed in the Frost Illustrated article is true, those who dream of post-race America are dreaming indeed.

The article in question is intent on highlighting what it calls various mainstream myths being forced upon African-Americans these days.  It calls upon blacks to resist these myths.  In the middle of all this myth-talk, the article says something that doesn’t seem to be a myth at all:   blacks “are the least colorblind segment of American society.”  The fact that 90%+ of African-American voters will vote for Obama–because he’s black–seems to support that non-myth.  To me, that’s understandable, since Obama is the first African-American who’s ever had a chance to be President.  Once this election is over, people of all races can hopefully get beyond hiring, promoting, firing and voting based on skin color.  If we can’t–if the view of Frost Illustrated prevails–then Faulkner will be proven right:  the race issue is our nation’s permanent curse.

As employers, HR professionals, executives, managers, and supervisors, we should be less concerned about opinion and more concerned about facts that we find in our workplaces.  Our job is to prevent race discrimination of any kind, and when we find it, to stop it.