Indiana University School of Social Work, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Aug;10(4):1985-1996. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01380-w. Epub 2022 Aug 5.
Racial workforce diversity has been suggested as a critical pathway to address persistent racial mental health disparities. However, structural racism has been noted to diminish such workforce diversity efforts. The purpose of this critical review is to identify the mechanisms through which structural racism operates in organizations, including mental health organizations, to undermine workforce diversity efforts and reinforce inequities.
Using the theories of racialized organizations, the current review critically draws on literature underscoring the racial character of organizations as mezzo-level racialized structures that may systematically activate and uphold white privilege in the mental health workplace.
Findings suggest that in the context of institutionalized white dominance, workers of color within mental health organizations may experience race-based cultural exclusion, identity threat, and racialized workplace emotional expression, and be burdened by racialized tasks. The workers of color may also become the means for organizations to attract communities of color due to their diverse characteristics, yet workers' effects to address disparities in mental health are minimized due to potential racialized organizational forces, including the whiteness of organizational leadership and color-blindness.
Structural racism may create resistance to the efforts and effects of a racially diverse workforce within mental health organizations. This review calls for a race-conscious framework that drastically shifts the traditional organizational structure to an inverted hierarchy (i.e., client-centered management) to maximize diversity efforts in the mental health organizational workforce to address racial disparities in mental health.
种族劳动力多样性被认为是解决持续存在的种族心理健康差距的关键途径。然而，结构性种族主义被认为会削弱这种劳动力多样性的努力。本批判性评论的目的是确定结构性种族主义在组织中运作的机制，包括心理健康组织，以破坏劳动力多样性的努力并加剧不平等。
使用种族化组织理论，本评论批判性地借鉴了强调组织的种族特征的文献，这些组织作为中观层面的种族化结构，可能会在心理健康工作场所系统地激活和维护白人特权。
研究结果表明，在制度化的白人统治背景下，心理健康组织中的有色人种员工可能会经历基于种族的文化排斥、身份威胁和种族化的工作场所情感表达，并承担种族化的任务。有色人种员工也可能成为组织吸引有色人种社区的手段，因为他们具有多样化的特征，但由于潜在的种族化组织力量，包括组织领导层的白人化和色盲，员工在解决心理健康方面的差距方面的作用可能会最小化。
结构性种族主义可能会对心理健康组织中种族多样化劳动力的努力和效果产生抵制。本评论呼吁采用一种种族意识框架，从根本上改变传统的组织结构，采用倒置的等级制度（即客户为中心的管理），以最大限度地提高心理健康组织劳动力中多样性的努力，以解决心理健康方面的种族差距。
