Institutional racism and its oppression of the black employee’s economic freedom

Date
2021-11
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Abstract
Institutional racism can be identified as a prominent factor, amongst numerous others, in the slow progression of the black population in the South African workplace. Consequently, due to the perpetual undermining of the black race and their professional capabilities, this leads to the rather slow (socio-) economic growth and progress of the black workforce and population in the long run. This report considers the extent to which institutional racism still has an impact on the (socio-) economic emancipation of the black worker which ultimately limits their standard of living. The origin of institutional racism from the colonial and apartheid era lay the foundation for the report, the effectiveness of corrective policies and legal frameworks are explored together with the elements of Critical Race Theory and how they are relevant to the issues pertaining to institutional racism in the workplace. Two areas that are specifically looked into are institutional racism against women and black women particularly as well as its presence in the legal profession. From a statistical perspective, theory is translated into numbers – the findings support and demonstrate how indeed there is a large gap between the saturation of the white race and the black race at different skills levels in the workplace as well as in business management and ownership in comparison to the economically active population of each race group. This corroborates the findings of the literary research in that systemic racism is still a major barrier to the elevation and progressions of the black population in the workplace and ultimately in their general standards of living
Description
Research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Laws by Coursework and Research Report at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021
Keywords
Institutional racism, South African workplace, Black race, Economic growth, (socio-) economic, UCTD
Citation
Lubile, Nyota C.S. (2024). Institutional racism and its oppression of the black employee’s economic freedom [Master’s dissertation PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. Wirespace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/38607