Publishers Weekly
★ 09/25/2023
Sociologist Wingfield (Flatlining) delivers an authoritative study of racial inequality in the workplace. Drawing from more than a decade’s worth of interviews with seven Black workers in various fields—including academia, medicine, and film—Wingfield demonstrates how the customs and practices entrenched in corporate culture perpetuate institutional racism. Referring to these “cultural, social, and relational aspects of work” as “the gray areas,” Wingfield outlines four types of corporate culture (clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy) and shows the challenges presented to Black workers in each. One subject, Kevin, switched jobs, moving from a bank to a charter school, to escape the problems of one corporate culture (as a “market culture,” the bank’s “emphasis on avoiding tension” left him unable to express problems arising from racial differences) only to face ongoing hurdles in another (expecting a more expressive and nurturing environment, Kevin found the school’s “clan culture” to be performative and exclusionary). Among other concrete solutions, Wingfield advises employers to avoid mandatory diversity trainings, which have no proven positive outcomes and sometimes provoke resentment among white employees, but to instead foster identity-based affinity groups for Black employees, which can help prevent feelings of cultural isolation at work. This vital and accessible study is a must-read for HR departments and managers, and will interest anyone concerned with workplace equality. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
This vital work is important for anyone committed to dismantling racism. Farseeing and eye-opening, Gray Areas exposes – through years of research and credible data – the insidious mechanisms by which our workplaces sustain racism and provides a trailblazing antiracist framework for us all.” — IBRAM X. KENDI, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist
“An informed, incisive consideration of how racial biases at work could be overcome.” — Kirkus Reviews
"Sociologist Wingfield (Flatlining) delivers an authoritative study of racial inequality in the workplace. Drawing from more than a decade’s worth of interviews with seven Black workers in various fields—including academia, medicine, and film—Wingfield demonstrates how the customs and practices entrenched in corporate culture perpetuate institutional racism. . . . This vital and accessible study is a must-read for HR departments and managers, and will interest anyone concerned with workplace equality." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Whether you are a leader, manager, or individual contributor, this book will help you see biases that are often hard to detect, and support you with ideas and practices to address them.” — TARA MOHR, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Playing Big.
“Gray Areas is a must read as we navigate the future of work. Wingfield uses masterful research-based storytelling to illustrate how the gray areas of the modern work world facilitate ongoing racial inequality. Gray Areas provides a thoughtful road map to getting work to work for all.” — EVE RODSKY, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live)
“A groundbreaking book that is both bold in its premise and precise in its exploration of systemic racism in the workplace. Given the current concerted and well-funded efforts to undermine and de-stabilize diversity and equity programs first in education, and next within corporations, this could not be a more urgent and necessary blueprint for progress.” — BAKARI SELLERS, New York Times bestselling author of My Vanishing Country: A Memoir
“Gray Areas solidifies Dr. Adia Harvey Wingfield’s reputation as one of the nation’s leading experts on race, class, and gender inequality in the workplace. [It] takes readers behind the flashy corporate promises to diversify by illuminating the hidden spaces where workplace disparities lurk. Outright discrimination is illegal, yet racial and gender distinctions still shape how workplaces decide who should manage and who should be managed, who climbs the hierarchy, and who gets climbed over. Everyone interested in creating an honest reckoning with workplace inequality should read this book.” — VICTOR RAY, F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies, The University of Iowa, and Nonresident Fellow in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution
"Corporate leaders see their firms as meritocratic, and they may be on paper. But workplace cultures, social isolation, and lack of mentoring work in ways, subtle and not, to keep Black Americans out of the running for the best jobs. At once deeply personal and sharply analytic, this riveting book documents how employers have failed Black Americans. It is ultimately an optimistic call to action — for every wrong she identifies, Wingfield details how we can right it. Bravo!" — Frank Dobbin, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University and author of Getting to Diversity
“Debates concerning race and opportunity in the post civil rights era have became predictable and stale, awash in diversity platitudes on the one hand, and cliches of rugged meritocratic colorblindness on the other. Gray Areas provides a fresh, new way forward. Dr. Wingfield shows us the importance of the “gray areas,” and how these social, relational, and cultural norms of work are the key to addressing racial inequality in the work place. After reading this book, you will understand why the road map to a more perfect union goes through the grey areas.” — Dr. Lerone A. Martin, Centennial Professor and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi
This vital work is important for anyone committed to dismantling racism.”
Library Journal
09/01/2023
In this informative book, Wingfield (sociology, Washington Univ.; Flatlining) demonstrates how workplace environments still facilitate racial offenses and inequalities in what she calls the "gray areas" of relationships, networks, and advancement of Black workers. The book highlights the experiences, gathered through multiple interviews over an extended period, of seven Black workers from various professions: business, medicine, higher education, and gig work, to name a few. Their stories are presented in a reader-friendly fashion, absent of theoretical jargon, making the content accessible to a wider audience. Their experiences are relatable and will resonate with many readers, regardless of their race or ethnicity. Most notably, Wingfield concludes each of the three sections with a helpful summary that connects the main points to previous chapters, plus key takeaways and actionable items aimed at various roles within any given company. This transforms the text into a teaching tool to help implement recommended changes. VERDICT This title highlights the growing need for more qualitative research covering these exact types of experiences across all marginalized groups within the workforce. Both public and academic libraries will want to consider adding it to their collections.—James Rhoades
Kirkus Reviews
2023-07-14
Addressing racial inequities facing Black workers.
In her latest book, sociologist Wingfield, author of Flatlining, argues that a powerful set of implicit attitudes and informal practices limits the opportunities and blights the well-being of Black Americans in the contemporary workplace. The author structures the book around analyses of seven representative figures and their experiences as Black employees who have confronted this “gray area.” The experiences of Constance, a chemical engineer, teach us about the hidden prejudices lurking within science departments in academia and of a generalized reluctance among university administrators to confront systemic forms of discrimination. Via Max, who works in emergency medicine, Wingfield explores some of the challenges Black doctors face when confronting racism in the public they have pledged to serve. Through Alex, a food delivery driver, we discover how working as an independent contractor can seem to provide both autonomy and equal treatment, though the conditions of such employment may in fact obscure significant inequities. Overall, Wingfield makes a convincing case for how entrenched conventions related to hiring, networking, and promotion produce substantial—and often invisible or disguised—barriers in the workplace. “Key aspects of work—from getting a job and establishing workplace norms to advancement and mobility—were not built with Black people in mind,” she writes. Wingfield’s discussion of the evolving dynamics of gig work, and of the sometimes false promises of supposedly progressive environments such as universities, is especially compelling. Also useful is her series of practical suggestions on how workplaces might be restructured to eliminate or mitigate some of the injustices that currently exist. Though the focus on Black workers helps give the author’s argument clarity, an extended consideration of how discrimination impacts other nonwhite groups in the workplace might have been illuminating.
An informed, incisive consideration of how racial biases at work could be overcome.
