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Predominantly White workplaces are environments in which Whiteness is privileged in numerous ways. Studies show workers of color doing self-presentation, emotion work, and other forms of social interaction intended to help ease the difficulties associated with being in the minority. In addition to the expectation that they smooth interactions with White peers, workers of color are assigned positions and tasks which reinforce that racial status quo. In this theoretical article, we attempt to place these various processes under an umbrella term we define as "racial tasks." We examine the ideological, interactional, and physical labor racial minorities perform in mostly White work settings, and the ways these racial tasks vary at different levels of the organizational structure. We consider the ways that the tactics and requirements associated with racial tasks maintain the racial hierarchy of predominantly White organizations and conclude by examining the implications of this work for racial minorities.

This article argues that black workers’ perceptions of racial discrimination derive not just from being in the minority, but also from their position in the organizational structure. Researchers have shown that black individuals encounter an enormous amount of racial discrimination in the workplace, including but not limited to exclusion from critical social networks, wage disparities, and hiring disadvantages. But fewer studies examine the extent to which black workers believe racial discrimination is a salient factor in their occupational mobility or the factors that might explain their divergent perceptions of racial discrimination. Based on 60 in-depth interviews with black medical doctors, nurses, and technicians in the healthcare industry, we show that black workers’ status within an organizational hierarchy fundamentally informs perceptions of the nature and type of workplace racial discrimination. These findings have implications for understanding how racial dynamics at work are linked to mental health, occupational satisfaction, and organizational change.

Many men who work in women's professions experience a glass escalator effect that facilitates their advancement and upward mobility within these fields. Research finds that subtle aspects of the interactions, norms, and expectations in women's professions push men upward and outward into the higher-status, higher-paying, more “masculine” positions within these fields. Although most research includes minority men, little has explicitly considered how racial dynamics color these men's encounters with the mechanisms of the glass escalator. In this article, the author examines how intersections of race and gender combine to shape experiences for minority men in the culturally feminized field of nursing and finds that the upward mobility implied by the glass escalator is not uniformly available to all men who do “women's work.” The author concludes that the glass escalator is a racialized concept and a gendered one and considers the implications of this for future studies of men in feminized occupations.

Although modest gains are observed in the number of African American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican faculty in higher education institutions, systemic issues of underrepresentation and retention remain problematic. This article describes how historically underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in Predominantly White Institutions perceive discrimination and illustrates the ways in which discriminatory institutional practices-such as microaggressions-manifest and contribute to unwelcoming institutional climates and workplace stress. Using a mixed methods approach, including survey data and individual and group interviews, findings show that respondents (n = 543) encounter racial discrimination from colleagues and administrators; experience discrimination differently based on their race/ethnicity and gender; and report difficulties in describing racist encounters. Qualitative data reveal three themes that inform the survey results on perceived discrimination: (1) blatant, outright, subtle, and insidious racism;(2) devaluation of scholarly contributions, merit, and skillset by colleagues and administrators; and (3) the burden of "representing minorities," or a "racial/ethnic tax." Propositions for how to change unwelcoming environments and create safe spaces for professional development to reduce the adverse effects of discrimination among URM faculty are discussed.