Research has shown that Black workers in people-oriented occupations like healthcare, service, and sales are consistently rated lower by customers and supervisors than are White workers, even when their performance is objectively the same. This is not surprising, because Black people are often negatively stereotyped as unfriendly, hostile, and rude. It's always interesting to see actual data to prove what we all anecdotally know to be true, though.
But what's even more interesting––and disheartening––are the following takeaways from three studies summarized in this article by Alicia Grande at Salon.com:
––In one study, people were asked for their impressions of a hotel desk clerk. They saw a photo of either a Black or White person who both had a neutral facial expression, but otherwise the same job qualifications.
- Regardless of the respondents’ own race, education or income, they saw the Black employee as less friendly and more hostile than the White employee.
––In a second study, people watched a video of either a Black or a White sales clerk ringing up sales in a home goods shop. They saw the clerk acting either 1. warm and friendly or 2. just polite. In all videos the sales clerk was efficient and knowledgeable.
- When viewers saw the employee performing less emotional labor — just being polite and efficient — the Black employee was rated as less friendly and a worse performer than the White employee.
- BUT: after watching the "friendly" condition, the viewers rated the Black and White employees similarly. In other words, Black workers had to be overly friendly to be rated as high as White workers, who could get by with just being "polite and efficient."
––The third study was a survey with actual service workers and employers, not experiments like the previous ones.
- They found that the Black workers who were ranked as high as their White counterparts reported having to "amplify and fake their positive emotions when interacting with customers"
- The study found that Black workers had to literally had to exaggerate their smile to be viewed positively
Let's try to remember this the next time we encounter a service worker who seems "unfriendly." Read more about the toll that this emotional labor has on Black service workers here.
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