Black American executives deal with complex social dynamics today. Even after reaching the executive level, they are too often not seen for their talent and accomplishments but the color of their skin. No matter how well they do, they are treated differently. They have to be always on guard, do a little extra work, and be cautious of their workplace environment.
Racism in the American workplace is top-down. It does not end when you are promoted. Instead, you are faced with a new set of challenges to overcome.
Black employees only reach the executive level when they display a higher standard of performance than is required of whites. They are less likely to be hired, mentored, and promoted (especially on a C-suite level).
Racism still permeates institutions throughout America. Black managers confront far more complex challenges than their white counterparts
Let’s look at how black executives face racism even after years of tirelessly working to move up the ladder…
Room At The Top
There is a limited room at the top for Black Americans. The representation of the Blacks in corporate America at the Executive, Senior & Management Level is only 3.2%. Black men are paid 13% less than white men. Black women are paid 39% less than white men and 21% less than white women. Only five Fortune 500 CEOs are Black. This indicates the limited number of opportunities for them to rise to a significant position of power. When they do, they are not the equals – not in progress evaluation and not in wage.
Most of the time another black employee isn’t promoted to the executive level until one officer moves on. Those who are rising to the top are scrutinized more closely than the white managers and are fired or demoted if a single negative signal is received.
The Blind Alley
One of the ways through which racism is prevalent against black managers is by limiting their opportunities. They have fought to make inroads with white equals in dominant positions. By placing them in support roles, like a diversity and inclusion manager, as opposed to the director of engineering where one has a supervisory role, a clear promotion path is hindered.
Black employees are seldom given high-impact jobs. Just 8% of managers are black. The staff management ranks are only to put up the façade of Diversity & Inclusion on the top level. These jobs do not give any opportunities to aspiring leaders to reach where they deserve to be. In fact, in finance companies, 1.4% of managing directors, 2.4% of executive committee members, and 1.4% of senior portfolio managers are black. In tech, only 1.9% of executives are black. So, where are the highly qualified black finance professionals and tech graduates when it comes to t taking a seat at the table?
Working As A Black Manager
As if underrepresentation wasn’t bad enough, the biases on the executive level are extreme. The lived experience of black managers proves that they continue to face explicit racism powered by the white nationalism. The microaggressions are common against black executives. Every other black manager has shared their story of being treated like a secretary. They are four times more likely to encounter racial prejudice at work.
The black leaders are disproportionately handed glass cliff assignments, which means that they are at a greater risk of failure. This makes them feel a heightened sense of difference and inauthenticity at work. More than 35% of the P&L executives said they were assigned extremely tough projects that no one wanted to handle and had a high risk of failure. They must create a façade, showcase tremendous fortitude to act as the task was nothing big when accomplished since there will be no appreciation.
Black leaders are more likely than white ones to leave. They have less psychosocial support. The stereotypical norms of white managers running the shows for decades leave the singular or a few black managers in an inhospitable environment. These employees feel like outsiders, which pushes them out the door sometimes.
You Are Black
Black professionals and leaders are expected to be the cultural ambassadors who address the needs of other black employees. They are constantly told that since they are of the same race, the others will relate to them better. This leaves them with two jobs – one they were hired to do, and the other to be the champion of all black employees. They experience ‘diversity fatigue’ that comes from constantly hearing and engaging in conversations about race without seeing the white leaders paying heed to them.
They feel demoralized because instead of taking them for who they are and their skills, they are made a case study for what’s happening among the black employees. They aren’t seen as an authority in their work, but they become the official race relations manager.
The stress of being a black executive in corporate America means you can never react to the racism you experience every day.
They must hide the black culture because the whites think that it is the most corporate thing to do. There are 5,572 corporate board seats, of which African Americans only hold 450. Instead of squandering and devaluing the Black Managers and employees, it is about time we think why the representation is so low!
The white supremacy has limited the number of opportunities for black employees on the management; from mid-management to the C-suite level. Until these organizations actively start to dismantle systemic racism from the top-down, nothing prominent will change for ambitious black employees in corporate America. Our hopes are tied to the current social justice moment, as it might be able to shift the tides for black employees.
