Why Discrimination is Hard to See at the Individual Level
Readers' comments in response to the Ellen Pao vs. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers verdict , such as those in the New York Times , made me realize how little the general public seems to understand about discrimination and why it is so difficult to see and prove at the individual level. I posted a comment and decided to flesh it out a bit more here. First, discrimination can be rather subtle these days , especially in contexts where people generally know better than to make overtly sexist comments. This means that discrimination can take awhile to catch on to, as any particular incident might seem too small to warrant a complaint, or would make one seem overly sensitive or paranoid for pointing it out. 1 Second, by the time an individual catches on or has had enough -- often when it culminates in being passed over for promotion or a decision to quit -- the treatment is likely to have had the effect of making the individual seem unvaluable and unlikeable to others in the orga