Race

This report shines a light on the experiences of frontline workers of color, the pathways from the front line to the middle class, and the skills workers need to advance. It also offers steps companies could take to improve job quality and better support frontline workers of color to develop and progress in their careers.

Black women continue to face discrimination in the workplace attributed to their hair texture or hairstyle. However, as Ashley Alese Edwards notes in Glamour, “It’s not really about hair, and it never has been.” This is an issue of racism. This kind of discrimination results from explicit and implicit biases, microaggressions, and racially discriminatory policies—in this case, “racialized standards of professionalism” that disproportionately affect Black women.