Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It.

Labor and race have shared a complex, interconnected history in America. For decades, key aspects of work—from getting a job to workplace norms to advancement and mobility—ignored and failed Black people. While explicit racial discrimination is now illegal, and organizations make internal and public pledges to honor and achieve “diversity,” racial disparities persist as Black workers remain less likely to be hired, stall out at midlevel positions, and rarely advance to the top ranks of organizations. This book introduces the concept of “gray areas” to explain the sociological dynamics of work that continue to impede Black employees’ progress in the workplace. Following narratives of seven Black workers in fields ranging from academia to medicine to entertainment, Gray Areas shows unexpected ways that basic aspects of work are themselves major contributors to racial inequality