MGMT0110: Business Ethics May-Aug 2021
Name: Nishelle Jeffrey
Student ID #: 20200997
Course Code: MGMT0110
Course Title: Business Ethics
Lecturer: Mrs. Lisa-Ann Kanor-Doublier
Class: Wednesday 1-4 pm
Campus: South
Assignment 1: Individual Reflective Paper (20%)
Theory: Rights Theory
Date Due: Sunday 13th June 2021 by 6:00 pm
Introduction
Ethical Issue: Racism/Discrimination
In this reflective thought paper, I will be discussing Racism/Discrimination using the Rights
Theory one of the Deontological theories as it relates to the unethical business practice of
Racism/ Discrimination in businesses in Trinidad and Tobago.
T&T is a multicultural country one with many races, it consists of Indian, African, Portuguese,
Amerindian, Spanish, Chinese, and different ethnic groups of Indo-Trinidadian (37.6%), AfroTrinidadian (36.3%), and Mixed-Trinidadian (24.2%) yet racism still exists in the country. Too
often we hear a lot of racial comments in the streets and even from political leaders
especially around election time, who are supposed to be setting the examples for citizens of
the country. We often hear a lot of comments from the Africans and Indians of the country,
as there is always an issue with one another.
To reference my point, I would like to draw attention to the article “The racial divide” the
incident that happened between a doctor (Dr. Avinash Sawh) he owns Sawh’s Medi­cal
Associates in San Fernando. Where there was an African woman who wished to apply to be
a nurse at his facility but was turned down because of her race.
Stakeholders involved in the case: East Indian Patients, The medical board, Doctor, Dr.
Fraud Khan, African job applicants, and Dr. Dhelia Gabriel,
Reasons why I think Racism/Discrimination is an ethical issue in business.
I think this issue is very much unethical because it does not help with the betterment of a
business, also it is not fair for anyone to be treated unfairly and feel as though they are an
outcast or being embarrassed based on their race or culture. It is affecting society’s moral
principles. It also put everyone in the country especially the Afro-Trinidadians in suspense of
being treated or even applying for a job in an institution that is racist or consists of racial
people, they can feel unwanted and can cause a lot of trauma.
How Racism/Discrimination affects businesses in t&t.
In Trinidad and Tobago racism affects the employment rate as a lot of people would not want
to hire people from another race or even people may not want to work for a person of a
certain race. It can also affect the trust in businesses that a lot of people may not trust a
person of the opposite race to support them in their business and so it will not only divide the
business sector but also the entire country. People may not feel comfortable with the way
they are being treated but will be afraid to open up and say something. Currently, we are all
in a Global Pandemic and there are cases where people do not want to support Chinese
businesses or associate themselves with the Chinese because they believe that they brought
the virus here and is afraid of them based on what they think, and would make a lot of racial
comments towards them.
What are Rights?
Rights are entitlements or claims that individuals possess, it focuses on people’s actions and
the way they treat others. If rights are breached, they can impact negatively on the person
who did the breaching especially if it is a right that is against the law.
Rights can be categorized as; Legal rights and Moral rights, In Rem and In- Personam
rights, and Negative and positive rights.
Legal and moral rights- Legal rights are rights enforced by law example; The rights of a
citizen (The right to religion) whereas moral rights are those that people naturally have
example The right to integrity is the right to work without being mistreated or belittled.
In rem and In Personam- In Rem rights are against humanity they are referred to as legal
action directed towards property for example, If you are a buyer of a new property and have
to make payments towards it that is an agreement between you and the owner however
when the property is bought, he has no right to come and claim ownership or interfere or
come in the house uninvited.
Whereas In Personam rights they target one person or group to the contract, If you are a
buyer of a new property and have to make payments towards it that is an agreement
between you and the owner and no one else in the world but you are entitled to the property.
Negative and Positive Rights- A negative right encourages a person to refrain from actions
that will affect their well-being such as the right not to be stolen from, whereas positive rights
provide us with goods or services that positively impact us Such as the right to religion.
One of the Three theorists of rights are Immanuel Kant his interpretation of Rights
Therefore, there is one fundamental innate right: the right to be free from the constraint of the
will of others. This means that you should have the right to freedom and that no one should
limit you from doing what you want to do. We saw where Dr. Sawh was infringing the rights
of Africans by not allowing them to work in his business which is contributing to limiting their
potential.
From this fundamental right, Kant derived additional subsidiary rights, including the right to
equal treatment, equal opportunity, and the ownership of property. In the article “The racial
divide” we saw where these rights were breached.
Case: The Racial Divide (Trinidad Express Newspapers)
Trinidad and Tobago thought that after becoming an Independent nation in 1962 that all
racism and problems with colonialism will end but In 1970, black people were still being
denied jobs and positions because of their color, we were faced with white over black racism,
it is now brown over black.
However, in some instances this situation never changed with some individuals in
Trinidad&Tobago because up to this day we still have racism/discrimination being in little as
in schools where children would not want to play with children from the opposite races and
they did not just pick up that on their own, it is from what they are learning from home and
going to school and practicing it, at home their maybe relatives that will make racial
comments or even tell them that they are not allowed to play or associate with people of
opposite races, in the workplaces there will be employers refusing to hire opposite races or
even hire them but they will be poorly treated.
Recently there was an incident where Dr. Sawh decreed that anyone applying to be a nurse
in his employ had to submit a photograph because “some of his East Indian patients did not
want nurses of African descent treating them”. He even went ahead to threaten the nurse so
that she would not report him to the labour board as he is aware that what he is doing is not
right. This statement that he made was very racial and discriminated against the African
race. Dr, Sawah is showing that he is racist and does not care for the black (African race) he
is studying him and his East Indian patients. He also makes a lot of racial comments as he
referred to African police officers as being “uneducated and dunce n......”. Then Sawh
apologized for his behaviour, promising that “in the future, he would hire nurses based on
their qualifications, and not their race”. He said, “I thought that was the law of the land”.
Which I think was not a real apology since his racial feelings are what he feels deeply and
therefore it was not a genuine apology.
Another incident happened where the Ministry of Health fired Dr. Dhelia Gabriel, a medical
intern assigned to the Port of Spain General Hospital, “after a video surfaced on social media
of her using racial slurs towards a patient and her colleagues” (November 13). She says the
ministry “took away her future” by that decision. Here again where we can see where racism
is taking place.
I would commend the ministry for their actions of firing Dr. Gabriel as these actions should
not be accepted in society and especially in a work environment, In the workplace, you
should keep your personal thoughts to yourself and focus on work and equally treating
customers as this will impact positively on the business and yourself, they should do the
same with Dr. Sawah as he is infringing the rights and blatantly disrespecting Africans.
The Rights of the Afro- Trinidadians that were violated.
The right to Work- This right gives citizens of a country the freedom to choose whether or
not they would like to join the labour force, also states are obligated to pay fair wages and
equal pay for equal work. We are seeing where the rights of the Africans who are interested
in working are being violated which they have the right to work. Dr. Avinash Sawh breached
deprived the applicant of this right because of his racist thoughts and he is not the only
person that does this, by him doing this action he can discourage many black people from
joining the working field because they can have trauma from previous or instances that they
would have heard or gone through because this is only one of the many instances that have
happened.
Right to Equal treatment – This states that all citizens have the right to equal/ Fair
treatment from any public authority in the exercise of any functions. The doctor is not being
fair with the treatment of hiring employees he is discriminating against people's race by only
hiring one kind of race to work for him. It should be the same way that he would the about
hiring East Indian doctors it should apply to Africans as well, he should not be asking
applicants to send photographs of themselves to show what they look like to get a job
because there is more to a job than just looks, it is about how well you can apply and work in
that field Dr. Sawah by discriminating can be turned down very well educated, qualified,
skilled and honest workers but he chooses not to be fair and rather hire East Indians.
The Right to Equal Opportunity Act
Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered
by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be
explicitly justified. The same Opportunity that east Indians are getting to work in the
institution is the same that Africans should get there should be no doubt or discrimination
based on what someone looks like in a picture does not necessarily have to be true, but the
doctor does not care about being impartial he only cares about the East Indians.
Moral Justification
Dr. Fuad Khan is trying to make it seem as though what doctor Sawh is doing is right
because he worked for himself and not for the ministry of health. According to Khan, this
behaviour would not be subject to disciplinary action because “his action is not exactly
defined under the Medical Board Act”. But that he could of maybe get away with before in
early 1887 when the bowels of colonial where racism was rampant It now states: “Any
person who established to the satisfaction of the Council that he holds a -diploma... and that
he is of good character and a fit and proper person to practice medicine shall upon
application... be entitled to be a member of the Board.” and it never said anything about not
hiring a person based on their race. Therefore, the nurse not only was her right but was very
much entitled to the job because she met the criteria but was turned down based on race. He
even went along on to say that it was right to be racist in private which is wrong no time you
should be racist there should only be one race and that is the human race.
Justice/Laws Broken
In 2020 racism is against humanity and also what was said by Dr. Sawh those racial
comments is Abusive language, also he breached “the elimination of all forms of racism
within our ranks”.
Dr. Sawh based on his actions and behaviour went under investigation. He should be
relieved of his position because he cannot be trusted with African people because he is
racist, this can be harmful and detrimental since he is racist it will reflect on the business as
well that his employees can also be called racist, which can mean that they would not want
any Africans existing because of whatever personal thoughts that they have.
Conclusion
In conclusion in this article here saw where black people are being unfairly treated and
discriminated against as people do not want to hire them just because of the color of their
skin, it goes to show that a person can do absolutely nothing and get mistreated. These
people are not only in search of jobs, but they are also just as qualified as the white (East
Indians).
In fact, an employer's main responsibility is to make sure that the workplace is safe and that
anyone working in or visiting the workplace is not exposed to hazards or harmed by the work
and also should treat each worker fairly in payment and treatment.
Also, he should have thought more about his business because a lot of African people would
not want to come to his business simply because they can think that he would do harm to
them or even the nurses that work for him he can also lose great customers that he had
before of the East Indian race who maybe was not racist and did not condole in that kind of
behaviour. Since they were so against the African race patients would not feel comfortable
even going there. The doctor has the right to run his business the way he sees fit I agree but
there is also a way to do so the right way without bringing down other races and people.
Racism not only happens in the private sector it also happens in the public maybe more. The
Dr. should have practiced not bringing personal thoughts into business and focus on having
a successful business by doing what is ethical. He also should not have been so quick to
judge based on a person's look because a person's look does not necessarily define their
race. He should have thought more about unity between races he could have had a very
successful business with both races working for him, treating everyone fairly, giving them
opportunities, and hiring based on qualification and skills. And even though he had those
racial thoughts he could of try seeking help to work on it as we live in a multicultural country
with many different races as well and we all have to try putting aside differences and get
along somehow.
Sites
Cudjoe, Selwyn. “The Racial Divide.” Trinidad Express Newspapers, 15 Nov. 2020,
trinidadexpress.com/opinion/columnists/the-racial-divide/article_6ba02932-26da-11eb-8bf74fa10d6a35f0.html.
Kerrigan, Dylan. “Transnational Anti-Black Racism and State Violence in Trinidad.” Society
for Cultural Anthropology, Kerrigan, Dylan, 24 Feb. 2019,
culanth.org/fieldsights/transnational-anti-black-racism-and-state-violence-in-trinidad.News.
“The Racial Divide | Trinidad and Tobago News Blog.” Http://Www.Trinicenter.Com/, 16 Nov.
2020, www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=54373#more-54373.“Trinidad and Tobago’s
Public Health Care System Works to Expand Services While Coping with Labour Shortages.”
Oxford Business Group, 18 Sept. 2015, oxfordbusinessgroup.com/overview/trinidad-andtobagos-public-health-care-system-works-expand-services-while-coping-labour-shortages.