It’s funny how a waltz in the media spotlight can radically change the racial equity policies of the 14th-largest corporation in the nation. After news of company executives making racial slurs surfaced recently, Texaco’s corporate brass scrambled to assure the public of its commitment to equality. Texaco, whose race problems are symptomatic of widespread inequality in corporate America, must make comprehensive changes that affect the entire corporate structure before the treatment of its minority employees will genuinely improve.
Texaco did make some progress on race issues over the past decade. Since 1989, the percentage of non-white executives has grown from 15.2 percent to 19.4 percent and the company introduced new equal opportunity programs and conduct codes. But despite those improvements, Texaco’s racial status is still bleak.Only 0.7 percent of company executives who make more than $106,000 per year are black. Employee complaints of racial discrimination are almost systematically ignored. The Labor Department recently ordered Texaco to pay minority employees for wages lost as a result of the company’s unfair evaluation system. And since the New York Times released transcripts of 1994 conversations in which former Texaco treasurer Robert Ulrich made derogatory comments about minority employees, the pressure to address race issues has increased drastically.
Texaco responded last week with an official condemnation of Ulrich’s slurs, a $140 million settlement to minority employees and a promise to implement new affirmative action policies companywide. As part of the settlement, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume is working with Texaco to redesign the company’s affirmative action program. Although Mfume seemed hopeful that the modifications can produce the desired changes, not everyone shares his optimism.
Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition continue their boycott of Texaco, as well as demonstrations at Texaco-owned gas stations and refineries. Their efforts to keep Texaco under public scrutiny underscores lingering questions. Clearly, the swift and substantial settlement eased some of the tension, but was it truly a conciliatory gesture to promote equality or just an attempt to avoid lengthy litigation and preserve Texaco’s reputation?
Suspicions will remain until it becomes clear that Texaco’s pledged policy changes come to pass. Those changes can’t be made unless the company devotes itself to fixing the problem on all corporate levels. From the low-level supervisors who deal with initial complaints to the boardroom where policies are made, consistent standards to promote an equal and bias-free workplace must be enforced. Only if the company’s efforts to reform its commitment to equity far outlast the current public attention will Texaco’s minority employees feel they are gaining an equal footing.
The problems at Texaco are faced by corporate America at large. High-profile proof of racism damaged Texaco’s reputation and forced it into reform. Other companies would do well to take this opportunity to examine and improve their own racial dynamics before they find themselves in Texaco’s shoes.