Joanna works for a nonprofit group that develops and administers a test that is required as part of practicing a certain profession. During her second year with the organization, she was made aware that the test is biased: white men on average tend to perform a lot better than other groups, and not by a small margin. Joanna was surprised to find out about this inequity but felt reassured by the determination of her colleagues to fix the problem. As the months and years pass by, Joanna suspects that the only way the issue will be addressed is if this information becomes public knowledge. She is hesitant to “blow the whistle,” as she is worried about the repercussions of her actions for her job. At the same time, she knows that the racial bias of her organization’s test score is directly impacting the career progress of many individuals.
Joanna works for a nonprofit group that develops and administers a test that is required as part of practicing a certain profession. She has enjoyed working at the organization for four years and gets on well with all of her co-workers. Part of her job includes access to a certain amount of information about the results of the test her organization has developed and continues to oversee.
During her second year with the organization, she was made aware that the test is biased: white men tend to perform a lot better than other individuals, and not by a small margin. Over the past decade, white men have performed thirty to forty percent better on average than other demographic groups. When Joanna and her team discovered this problem, it was also made clear that this was a problem that needed to be addressed and that the organization was hard at work to provide a solution in the near future. Joanna was surprised to find out about this inequity but also felt reassured by the determination of her colleagues to fix the problem.
Now that it's been two more years, Joanna is unconvinced that her organization is hard at work to solve the score inequities. After first being made aware of the problem, she’s gained additional security clearance and has become more familiar with the inner workings of the organization. As a result, it’s become clear that any solution to the problem would take at least a decade to implement. She is only one of a handful of people aware of this issue. Based on negative reactions to the organization’s diversity efforts from team members in positions of authority, she worries that she is the only one concerned about the way the organization is continuing to uphold inequitable outcomes.
As the months pass by, she suspects that the only way the problem will be addressed is if this information becomes public knowledge. Joanna believes that she is the only one willing to expose details regarding the score disparities to the public. At the same time, Joanna is hesitant to “blow the whistle.” Since there are so few people aware of the testing bias, it would be pretty easy to guess who exposed the organization. She is worried about the repercussions of her actions for her job, but Joanna also knows that the racial bias of her organization’s test score is directly impacting the career progress of many individuals.
How might Joanna resolve this dilemma? Could Joanna advocate for this problem to be addressed internally, or is the best solution to expose information about her organization publicly? Joanna appears to be facing a conflict between her own self-interest (keeping her job) and her sense of the “greater good” (ensuring she is not upholding oppressive systems). Have you ever faced a similar circumstance?