Sona is an exchange student from India studying for one semester at a private university in Australia. She has been assigned to work with a group of her classmates on a project with which she is not completely familiar. The group of students who are all from Australia have worked with each other before. They are also working with a person from India for the first time. Being in a new environment, Sona is a little shy in participating in the group and despite being a good student is usually quiet in group discussions. A few weeks later, when Sona shares her reflection in the group, her teammates make comments about how good her English is ‘for an Indian’. This is not the first time that Sona has experienced passive racism. There has been more than one incident where Sona’s teammates have made comments about her culture or have cast her in a stereotypical mould. Sona feels uncomfortable and hurt by these incidents.
Test Inequity: When to Blow the Whistle?
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.
Confronting Coworkers
Cassie is a marketing professional in her late twenties who joined a new project at her firm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges of working remotely, she is proud of her contributions to the project and feels valued by her new team members. However, after downloading the transcript from a recent virtual meeting, she discovered that two of her coworkers had been badmouthing her appearance in what they believed was a “private” chat. Cassie is embarrassed and heartbroken that her colleagues would speak about her in such disparaging terms. She is torn about whether to confront her coworkers, bring the issue to her Human Resources Department, or simply pretend that nothing occurred.
Hurtful Meme
Madeline is a nurse who works in the emergency room of a hospital. Upon her hiring, she discovered that Paul, one of her classmates from nursing school, also worked at the hospital and would be her co-worker. After working a few shifts together, the two connected on social media. One day, Madeline saw that Paul had “liked” a meme on social media that expressed anti-immigrant sentiment, decrying immigrants as a drain on resources, including healthcare. As soon as she saw the meme, Madeline felt uneasy. The hospital where Madeline and Paul worked served many in their city’s immigrant communities, and Madeline was herself the children of immigrant parents. The meme hit close to home for her. Additionally, Madeline considered herself friendly with Paul, and he was in a more senior position to her on the nursing staff.
The Admissions Dilemma
Alex was recently accepted to a prestigious college and joined a private online group made up of other accepted students. In the group, students were exchanging inappropriate jokes. Some jokes were hateful towards certain groups of people. Alex was taken aback by what the other students were sharing, but also unsure of what college would be like and anxious to make new friends. After reading some of the other students’ posts, Alex contributed a joke that mocked a minoritized group. A few weeks later, the college's admissions team learned about the online group and decided to take back admissions offers from students who contributed hateful content, including Alex. Alex was no longer welcome to attend the university.
Discriminating Decisions
Renee is a 38-year-old American working towards a post-graduate degree abroad. Renee spent the past 12 years of her career working in international education. Before leaving her post to pursue her own education, Renee served as Director of Study Abroad at a mid-sized public research university in the US. Renee describes a time, early on her career, when she was instructed by her superior to block a student with disabilities from study abroad. At the time, Renee reached out to others, including the human resource department at her university, but was met with silence. Ultimately, the student did not go abroad. Renee was deeply troubled by the experience and has dedicated her energies to advocating for student rights ever since.
Valuable Investments: Ethical Values in Business
Lauren is in her late forties, and is the president and CEO of an Internet startup company. Lauren argues that strong values and business success are intimately related, though she acknowledges that this understanding may not be the norm in the business world. During a previous job with a different company, Lauren made the choice to move a company meeting from Colorado to California “at a time when Colorado had passed legislation that was very anti-gay and lesbian,” even though they had already put deposits down on hotels in Colorado. She upset at least one other employee with her support of the gay and lesbian population, and this employee quit the company as a result. The company certainly lost money because of Lauren’s decision, and she may well have lost customers as well.
Typecast?
Chris is a thirty-two-year-old Black actor whose specialty is Shakespeare. Chris attended a conservatory, and during his last year there, he was cast in the role of Dull in a production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost because, the head of the school told him, “he had no vision of an African American [playing] any role in the play but a character named Dull.” (The character of Dull is a “bumbling police officer,” who, in this particular production, was to be dressed in a fat suit.) Though the head of the school’s behavior was unacceptable, Chris worried about confronting him, not knowing who he could report him to and that doing so would just end up with him blacklisted from future work on the stage. Even though performing the role of “Dull” was an incredibly painful experience for him, Chris stuck with the role, hoping it would be worthwhile for his career. He made a few important connections as a result of the production, which eventually led to his being able to work with a prominent Shakespearean actor at the Globe Theatre in London.
A Stereotypical Problem
Meg is a twenty-five-year-old Asian-American actress, who chose acting in part because she felt that Asian- Americans were underrepresented, and stereotyped, in theater. Several years ago, Meg landed a leading role in a play, and took the role despite the fact that it depended on a superficial stereotype of Asian women. She agreed to do the play in part because she knew that the director was well-known and well-connected in the theater world. She felt that if she gained influence through working with this director, she would then be in a better position to undermine racial stereotypes. Meg felt condemned by the Asian-American community for her decision to take the role, but she viewed it as a compromise that would allow her to take a more principled stand in the future.
Drama with Bullies
Nick is a high school senior who is deeply committed to acting. Nick explains that drama is not the cool thing to do at his high school, and students who do drama are one of a few groups who are regular targets for bullying. Nick faced a particularly difficult situation when he and a friend were cast in a musical production. Nick was looking forward to improving his singing and dancing skills. However, some of the other students, who had frequently bullied the drama club members in the past, came to the rehearsal and started recording it without Nick’s consent. Nick was unsure whether or how to confront the bullies, who were making him uncomfortable.
Hiding Your Heritage?
Elena is a high school student in New Jersey who immigrated with her parents to the United States from Mexico at a young age. She is proud of her Hispanic heritage, and she volunteers at a cultural center after school to share her culture with others. However, Elena notes that Hispanic people are treated unfairly in America, something she has witnessed personally with her father, who often has a difficult time staying employed in the construction industry. She is currently required by her school to take part in a senior internship experience, and she is applying for a few different opportunities. She wonders if she should “hide” certain aspects of herself, such as her full name and experiences related to her ethnicity, from her resume when she is applying for the internships in order to eliminate the possibility that she will be discriminated against by hiring managers. Ultimately, she decides that it is better to represent herself truthfully, come what may.