The indignities of working with racialization: physical, emotional and familial tolls of experiencing workplace racism

ABSTRACT

Canada is often viewed as an oasis of multicultural inclusion where racially diverse groups could freely enjoy life in all its forms. Focusing on a group of twenty-five racialized participants working for the public sector in British Columbia (BC), this qualitative study illustrates that workplace racism is alive and prevalent in Canada. Moreover, it aims to demonstrate that this form of racism impacts not only racialized individuals who are targeted, physically and emotionally, but also their families. After presenting an outline of what constitutes racism and racialization, the article will detail and discuss findings with respect to physical, psycho-emotional and familial tolls that experiencing racial discrimination at work had exacted on racialized participants. The paper will then conclude that considering the higher expectations from public servants for not only modeling equity behavior but also upholding the rule of law, opportunities exist to more seriously address systemic racist violence against racialized workers in public sector employment contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial discrimination
• workplace racism
• impacts of racisms
• public sector
• British Columbia
• Canada

Disclosure statement

This work was supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and a Fellowship at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Social Work.

Declaration of Ethics Clearance

This study has been reviewed by, and has received ethics clearance from, a University of Toronto Research Ethics Committee.

Declaration of Exclusive Submission

This original work has not been previously published and is not under consideration at another journal.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Government of Ontario [Ontario Graduate Scholarship].