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Studying Workplace Ethnoviolence

NCJ Number
126935
Author(s)
H J Ehrlich
Date Published
1989
Length
13 pages
Annotation
While civil rights laws have lessened overt discrimination in the workplace, the changing structure of the labor force has resulted in the perpetuation of a black-white gap in status and income and in ethnoviolence.
Abstract
In general, the workplace is organized in such a manner that its normal operations restrict the life chances of most ethnic minority persons. Further, research indicates that most black workers identify discrimination as a major factor in their lives. Black executives, on the other hand, report substantial satisfaction with their jobs, their relations with supervisors, and their performance evaluations. The ability to get a job, change jobs, and move up or down the job ladder is largely determined by a person's ethnicity and social class background. Blacks are generally more likely to be unemployed or employed in low status, low opportunity jobs. Studies indicate that 20 to 25 percent of minority populations experience at least one act of ethnoviolence a year. To study ethnoviolence in more detail, data were obtained on 33 cases of ethnoviolence in the workplace. Ethnoviolence took the forms of harassment, insults, actual physical violence, threats, and demeaning or degrading work. Ethnoviolent incidents at work were pervasive and serial. Two mechanisms appeared to trigger these attacks. One was the solo entry of a black worker in a previously all-white work unit or position. The other was any challenge by the black worker to the work organization's authority structure. 22 references