Why did one straw break the camel’s back?

Why did one straw break the camel’s back?

Here’s the secret: There’s a million more straws underneath it...

Even in 2005, prejudice and discrimination are still rites of passage for many businesspeople of color: Glass ceilings. Double standards. Unequal pay. Narrow-mindedness. White skin privilege. Clueless assumptions sandwiched between callous “just get over it” pleas… It’s still there, straw atop straw, brick atop brick. After a while you start to believe that the biggest difference between being black and prosperous and being black and not is who can call you a “nigger” and get away with it.

Again, this chapter wasn’t about complaining or nitpicking. It was about painting a picture of what’s going on in Corporate America then and now in all its increasingly subtle shades. I specifically focused on accounts where bigotry and prejudice often directly translated into tangible actions such as hirings and firings, pay, policy and treatment, budget, etc. And as you can see from these and other accounts, most of hurdles minorities face are more under-the-radar than in generations past. For the most part, folks are either savvy enough to avoid obvious slurs and over-the-top bigotry. And while the “Whites Only” signs are gone, many of the attitudes that once made those signs acceptable still exist, in some industries worse than others.

Also, as I learned thru “Rob” and others, many Hispanics and Asians have had and are still having some similar struggles. One could easily get professionals from different ethnic backgrounds to write their own chapters chronicling workplace bias and prejudice. Also, in today’s global economy, whether it’s sweatshops, outsourcing, or emerging markets, you’ll find that people of color around the world are experiencing similar indignities based on ethnicity and gender.

And let’s be clear here: I don’t blame any one group for this. Prejudice, bigotry, and disenfranchisement are not crop circles; every professional and every company and every industry is responsible for solving these problems. These problems won’t ever get solved until everyone commits to solving them. Together.

One wonders whether the majority still believes that race discrimination
or, more accurately, race discrimination against non-whites—
is a problem in our society, or even remembers that it ever was.
—Harry Blackmun, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice