The simplistic binary justification in cases of race discrimination

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the binary polarisation of justification when it comes to accounting for workplace dynamics, particularly in cases of discrimination. Situations where for example an employee of colour makes a complaint and it is dismissed, in their belief due to the colour of their skin, but their employer claims the dismissal is due to the employees conduct, behaviour or ability to do the job. The two forms of justification tend to be pitted against each other.

She then lays out how this binary dichotomy created around these issues has a heavy risk of a false negative, which is an ethical risk in terms of failing to see discrimination when discrimination has occurred but is also arguably a general risk for the health of the institution involved.

She explores three reasons that this binary is false or simplistic:

1. Discrimination is much more likely to happen when the institution finds a problem with an employee of colour 
2. Poor performance, whether it is present or not, is likely to be explained based on race due to fundamental attribution error/group attribution error.
3. Poor performance and discrimination are not independent, they co-relate

She finishes up by recommending that we throw out this binary framework in regards to race, but also potentially to many other areas of life and forms of discrimination.

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