41028 - The Future of Colorism in the Workplace

Description

How will people experience colorism in an evolving workplace? Will racial and color-based discrimination persist if more of us work remotely? Will Generative AI help alleviate or exacerbate our experiences of colorism at work? This panel will investigate how an increasingly diverse workforce navigates the persistent challenges of colorism in the context of structural racism. With most organizations struggling to achieve anything close to racial justice or inclusion, the future of colorism at work needs investigation. Panelists will discuss the progress we have made in the courts and with legislation like the CROWN Act in protecting people of color from color and hair-based discrimination at work. Recent work has also highlighted the significant role that skin tone plays, sometimes bigger than race, in stratifying people in education, healthcare, employment and housing. Panelists will also engage the role of community-based organizing and resistance against colorism that has made a long-hidden problem more visible. Given the outsized role that colorism has in perpetuating inequality and racial oppression writ large, this panel of highly influential scholars in the field will bring a critical eye to the future of colorism and race in the rapidly evolving world of work.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Session

Presider

• Margaret Hunter, Santa Clara University

Panelists

• Tanya K Hernandez, Fordham University

• Meeta Rani Jha, University of California-Berkeley

• JeffriAnne Wilder, Oberlin College

Session Organizer

• Margaret Hunter, Santa Clara University