Good Example Of Research Paper On Racial Profiling In The Workplace

Throughout the history, we can trace racial discrimination not only in day-to-day life, but also in the workplace. Muhammad Ali once said: “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it does not matter which color does the hating. It is just plain wrong” (Muhammadaliquotes.org). Modern society is considered free from racial prejudices and other things that are associated to your roots and to where you come from. However, even in our civilized world there are still some remnants from the times, when racism took significant place in people’s lives. Therefore, it is a very sensitive topic, because racial profile in the workplace continues to play important role and often lead to unjust decisions and promotions.
The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the influence of racial profile in the workplace and its effect on the attitudes and atmosphere in an organization.
Another important element of the analytical value analysis is ethics. We think that we all can agree on the point that from the ethical perspective, it is extremely unethical even to talk about racial profile itself. In support for this, we can turn to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 2 of The Declaration states: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (Un.org). So, it is clearly written that we all are equal, no matter which race we belong to, and ethically we would say it would be morally wrong to judge a person in the workplace based on his or her race. However, many philosophers disagree on this point, and held various opinions about morally right, and morally wrong issues.
There is one more essential factor of the “3-value” analysis: social responsibility. In the modern world, corporate social responsibility is very important in order to create a positive image for the organizations. Therefore, many companies are paying a lot of attention to various social responsibility campaigns. Racial profile was not left aside, and many organizations started to claim that they are against the racism, so that the society understands that they consider each and every of his employees to be equal. For example, UEFA clearly states that they want to eliminate racism, and considers this aspect to be one of the major social responsibility movements for them. This organization even launched a separate “No to racism” campaign (Uefa.org). Therefore, racial profile also takes place in social responsibility and is often used in order to improve the image of the company and increase the interest of shareholders.
Racial profiling in the workplace is a very hot topic for businesses, and it effects not only individual’s employment, but also their personal lives outside of organizations, because it is a very morally sensitive issue. Most of people in the modern society claim to support equality and do not pay attention to the ‘skin color’. If it is like that, we all should reconsider some principles and become more open to look at the alternatives and to see one major thing, which is ‘we are all equal”. Many historians and philosophers continue keeping the topic of racism updated, and all people hold different opinion, and it is important to look through this issue carefully, because it effects the world that we live in and future generations will.
Racial profiling cannot be considered as only an inconvenience, because it has much deeper consequences for those who experience it. A criminologist, Scott Wortley once said that “to argue that racial profiling is harmless, that it only hurts those who break the law, is to totally ignore the psychological and social damage that can result from always being considered one of the usual suspects” (Ohrc.on.ca). American Psychological Association also states that in accordance with the research psychologists there are serious consequences of racial profiling for an individual, such as post-traumatic stress disorders, perceptions of race-related threats, various other disorders related to stress as the fear to be a part of community (Ohrc.on.ca). Therefore, we can see that racial profile is not only stressful itself, but it has serious consequences that may lead to various events and have different influence not only on an individual, but also on others.
Let us look at the racial profiling issue from Kantian perspective. Kantian ethics are well knows as deontology, or duty-based ethics. Basically, the main idea of deontology is that we all are morally required to follow a certain set of rules no matter what the consequences will be. It can be easily compared to other philosophical theories, as, for example, utilitarianism and consequentialism, both of which consider the importance of outcomes (Cavico & Mujtaba, 2009).
Theory of Duty which was the main Kantian ethics states that we all have a will that is considered to be good, and this good will should be performed by following moral laws. Moral laws, in turn, are universal and can be called categorical imperatives, according to Kant. There are several formulations of Kantian categorical imperative, and one of them is : “Act only according to that maximum whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction” (Sevenpillarinstitute.org). We can apply the main Kantian principle to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we have discussed above. This Declaration can be viewed as a set of certain moral principles, or moral maximums that we are obliged to follow. Therefore, from this point of view, racial profiling, or racism, would be considered as immoral acts, as they do not comply with the universal moral law.
In addition, it is important to note that Kant supported the Golden Rule, which can be basically interpreted as that you have to treat someone in a way you want him or her to treat you. This would be also a firm moral principle, or a categorical imperative that people should unquestionably follow, and, as the result, do morally right things. In accordance with this Golden Rule racial profile will be definitely irrelevant, as it implies discrimination that does not follow this rule.
Now let us look at the racial profiling issue from the universal law test that is based on Kantian categorical imperative. First, it is important to understand the real meaning and value of the law, and only after that it can be evaluated as a universal one. A universal law is actually the categorical imperative, one of the definitions of which we have written above. Interpreting this definitions and taking into consideration the meaning of racism problem we can definitely say that Human Rights Declaration can be considered a universal law and should be followed, which prohibits any demonstration of racial discrimination.
Another formulation that was in Kant’s attention and that is also closely connected to the categorical imperative is the ‘Kingdom of Ends’ test. In fact, this formula also requires people, as rational beings, to act in accordance with the law. This law, according to this formula, should be accepted by the society and the authorities, each and every of which is a rational being and has a will, as, according to Kant, we all do possess those qualities. As the result, we are morally obliged to follow the rules that are approved by rational community, and that would represent the kingdom of ends (Plato.stanford.edu). It is quite hard to apply that test to the racial profiling issue. However, as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as one of the legal authorities, prohibits any kind of racial discrimination, we can consider this law to be approved by rational beings. Therefore, we should accept this law and we would be moral if we follow it, eliminating racism in the workplace.
One more test that can be phrased as Kant’s ‘agent-receiver’ test can be applied to the racial profiling in the workplace issue. An agent, or the one who is performing an action, is a rational being, and a receiver, the one on whom this action has an influence, is a rational being too, because, according to Kant, all humans are rational beings (Sevenpillarinstitute.org). We can apply the Golden Rule to this test, and, therefore, we can say that an agent should treat the receiver morally right, which is, in accordance with the law. Thereby, relying on this test, we can one more time prove that, according to Kant, racial profiling would be an immoral act and should be eliminated.
Drawing the major conclusion from the discussion of Kantian Ethics and from the application of the three categorical imperative tests to the racial profiling issue, we can see, that from any side, Kant would be against this practice and would not support it in any way in the current situation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Golden Rule also come in support for the denial of racial profiling in the workplace. There are laws that are approved by society and by legal regulations, and we all are morally obliged to follow them, according to Kant. Without any doubt, we can say that Kant’s deontology would not support racism, and would consider those, who practice racial profiling, to be morally wrong and their actions to be not based on duty.

References

Cavico, F., & Mujtaba, B. (2009). Chapter 8: Kant's Categorical Imperative. InBusiness ethics: The moral foundation of effective leadership, management, and entrepreneurship (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Deontology - Kantian Duty-Based Ethics. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/morality-101/kantian-duty-based-deontological-ethics
Johnson, R. (2004, February 23). Kant's Moral Philosophy. Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/#KinEndFor
Muhammad Ali Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://www.muhammadaliquotes.org/
Respect- No to racism - Social responsibility. (2014, January 2). Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://www.uefa.org/social-responsibility/respect/no-to-racism/index.html
The effects of racial profiling. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/paying-price-human-cost-racial-profiling/effects-racial-profiling
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2015, from http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html