Across American culture, politics, and even business, expressions of antisemitism have grown louder in recent years. It’s not just high profile statements made by the rapper Ye and basketball star Kyrie Irving or politicians increasingly cozying up to White supremacist groups. Incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault reached a 42 year high in 2021, the most recent year with available data, according the Anti-Defamation League. And there’s evidence that discrimination is seeping into the workplace, too.
I know that antisemitism is on the rise, but the authors of the article seemed to suggest that Judaism is the primary target of discrimination as shown in these studies. However, the article even points out that Muslims experience it even more, yet this is the last time the authors speak on that.
"A 2022 study published in the academic journal Socius surveying 11,356 workers of all faiths found that more than half of the Jewish respondents experienced discrimination at work — a higher percentage than any other religious group, besides Muslims. "
If you look at the study which is the source cited by the article the topic of religious discrimination gets much MUCH wider.
Here’s a some quotes from the study that I’m sure will generate some conversation here:
“The fact that Muslims receive significant attention in workplace discrimination literature may speak to the frequency and intensity with which Muslims experience discrimination in the workplace vis-à-vis other minority religious groups.”
“Finally, recent research suggests that evangelical Christians are especially likely to perceive an increase of religious hatred and social persecution in the United States more broadly over the past decades, even if actual levels of hostility have not increased”
“An African American mainline Protestant woman from Alabama reflected that early on in her work life, about 15 years ago, when she was an office manager of a department store, her coworkers would “insult” her by calling her “Holy Roller.”9 This incident seemed to be precipitated by the fact that she would be “turning my Christian music on to encourage myself and to encourage others.” The fact that her non-Christian colleagues did not appreciate this illustrates how this respondent may also have been an enactor of unwelcome behavior in the workplace.”
"Several of the evangelical respondents described above shared that a sense of hostility or unwelcome at work was significant enough to inform their choice to leave their jobs or to apply for specific jobs. Surprisingly, however, the only respondents in our entire sample who described religious discrimination in terms of preventing career advancement or resulting in firing were white evangelical men. "
“In a final example of the complicated nature of evangelical narratives, a white evangelical man who worked as a truck driver in Ohio described how he believed he was “let go” from a previous job after he requested not to work on Sunday mornings.36 Although he acknowledged this may have been because of scheduling needs, he also felt that those who made the decision “did not like me, because I was a Christian.” However, paradoxically, the same respondent shared later that he felt that Muslims in his current workplace “use their faith as a way—as a victim card, to get whatever they want,” including changes to shifts for religious reasons.”