The Hypernormalization of Race in Contemporary Workplaces

This chapter discusses the way in which race relations and discrimination have been hypernormalized in contemporary society. With globalization and overwhelming evidence of increased productivity when a diverse workforce is in place, it is paradoxical to notice the difficulties in linking practices and rhetoric in organizations with such evidence. The issue becomes more apparent when government grand narratives, particularly in the capitalist world, call for migrant labor to help industry and nation building. Yet, not sufficient institutional structures are put in place, nor their implementation adequately enforced to guarantee long-term adequate and sustainable well-being for a large number of newcomer groups who are then racialized and ghettoized. This raises questions of whether racism and disadvantage are consciously normalized in so-called democratic systems which profess equality in their philosophical and political rhetoric. The rest of the chapter expands on Western thought and its contradictions about race, the construction and normalization of racism through colonial practices as well as the issue of systemic racism and its normalization in contemporary workplaces and labor relations. These themes running in the help to lay out the case for a hypernormalization of racism, including its manifestations, meanings, and effects.