In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap (Link/Story)

[r3tro 3]

Stuart Scott revolutionized HI Lights on a nationwide level via ESPN 2 1993
Bryant Gumbel defied the color barrier in 1975 with NBC
Oprah revolutionized Tabloid TV since 19983
Stephen A is hired for his insight
How can being mentioned as 1 of them be a put down?
And I believe using them as part of a put down is not wise

MF Doomer I hear plenty of it from Affluent Well-Spoken people and its stopped being surprising after the 3rd time

J23S and kix4kix I believe the same thang...

 

[jfmartimcdandruff]

just a coincidence

 

[poblack]

Originally Posted by RedMan

My question is why didn't he intern with a company during the summer and through his skills shown during his internship land a job upon graduation?

Who said he didn't intern?

 

[knightngale]

it is kinda obvious

 

[hellaones]

I just read a similar article but I can't seem to find it now but I'll keep looking.


brb

 

[-Red-]

Sadly this doesn't surprise me in the least... but some of those statistics are enraging:

The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates - 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.

A study published several years ago in The American Economic Review titled "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?" found that applicants with black-sounding names received 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names.
And people tend to downplay the significance of race

.

...which, by the way, has happened during every era of U.S. history from the era of slavery to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement so it's really notsurprising.

 

[jehul]

Mr. Williams recently applied to a Dallas money management firm that had posted a position with top business schools. The hiring manager had seemed ecstatic to hear from him

, telling him they had trouble getting people from prestigious business schools to move to the area. Mr. Williams had left New York and moved back in with his parents in Dallas to save money.

But when Mr. Williams later met two men from the firm for lunch, he said they appeared stunned when he strolled up to introduce himself.

"Their eyes kind of hit the ceiling a bit," he said. "It was kind of quiet for about 45 seconds."

The company's interest in him quickly cooled, setting off the inevitable questions in his mind.

Discrimination in many cases may not even be intentional, some job seekers pointed out, but simply a matter of people gravitating toward similar people, casting about for the right "cultural fit," a buzzword often heard in corporate circles.

 

[dagreatj]

Last Hired.... First fired....

The plight of the Negro Man

 

[troponin c]

 

[essential1]

The problem with racism (overt, covert and institutional) is it will never go away, unless it is discussed. But there are barrier to sed discussion. I.e. theridiculous reaction to any statement of a black man or woman merely pointing out something offensive or racist, or expressing feelings.

 

[eight2one]

none of that surprises me.

 

[blknaitch]

Blacks hit hard by economy's punch
34.5 percent of young African American men are unemployed

By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 24, 2009

These days, 24-year-old Delonta Spriggs spends much of his time cooped up in his mother's one-bedroom apartment in Southwest Washington, the TV blaring soap operas hour after hour, trying to stay out of the streets and out of trouble, held captive by the economy. As a young black man, Spriggs belongs to a group that has been hit much harder than any other by unemployment.

Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment in the District, home to many young black men, rose to 11.9 percent from 11.4 percent, even as it stayed relatively stable in Virginia and Maryland.

His work history, Spriggs says, has consisted of dead-end jobs. About a year ago, he lost his job moving office furniture, and he hasn't been able to find steady work since. This summer he completed a construction apprenticeship program, he says, seeking a career so he could avoid repeating the mistake of selling drugs to support his 3-year-old daughter. So far the most the training program has yielded was a temporary flagger job that lasted a few days.

"I think we're labeled for not wanting to do nothing -- knuckleheads or hardheads," said Spriggs, whose first name is pronounced Dee-lon-tay. "But all of us ain't bad."

Construction, manufacturing and retail experienced the most severe job losses in this down economy, losses that are disproportionately affecting men and young people who populated those sectors. That is especially playing out in the District, where unemployment has risen despite the abundance of jobs in the federal government.

Traditionally the last hired and first fired, workers in Spriggs's age group have taken the brunt of the difficult economy, with cost-conscious employers wiping out the very apprenticeship, internship and on-the-job-training programs that for generations gave young people a leg up in the work world or a second chance when they made mistakes. Moreover, this generation is being elbowed out of entry-level positions by older, more experienced job seekers on the unemployment rolls who willingly trade down just to put food on the table.

The jobless rate for young black men and women is 30.5 percent. For young blacks -- who experts say are more likely to grow up in impoverished racially isolated neighborhoods, attend subpar public schools and experience discrimination -- race statistically appears to be a bigger factor in their unemployment than age, income or even education. Lower-income white teens were more likely to find work than upper-income black teens, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, and even blacks who graduate from college suffer from joblessness at twice the rate of their white peers.

Young black women have an unemployment rate of 26.5 percent, while the rate for all 16-to-24-year-old women is 15.4 percent.

Victoria Kirby, 22, has been among that number. In the summer of 2008, a D.C. publishing company where Kirby was interning offered her a job that would start upon her graduation in May 2009 from Howard University. But the company withdrew the offer in the fall of 2008 when the economy collapsed.

Kirby said she applied for administrative jobs on Capitol Hill but was told she was overqualified. She sought a teaching position in the D.C. public schools through the Teach for America program but said she was rejected because of a flood of four times the usual number of applicants.

Finally, she went back to school, enrolling in a master's of public policy program at Howard. "I decided to stay in school two more years and wait out the recession," Kirby said.

On a tightrope


The Obama administration is on a tightrope, balancing the desire to spend billions more dollars to create jobs without adding to the $1.4 trillion national deficit. Yet some policy experts say more attention needs to be paid to the intractable problems of underemployed workers -- those who like Spriggs may lack a high school diploma, a steady work history, job-readiness skills or a squeaky-clean background.


"Increased involvement in the underground economy, criminal activity, increased poverty, homelessness and teen pregnancy are the things I worry about if we continue to see more years of high unemployment," said Algernon Austin, a sociologist and director of the race, ethnicity and economy program at the Economic Policy Institute, which studies issues involving low- and middle-income wage earners.

Earlier this month, District officials said they will use $3.9 million in federal stimulus funds to provide 19 weeks of on-the-job training to 500 18-to-24-year-olds. But even those who receive training often don't get jobs.

"I thought after I finished the [training] program, I'd be working. I only had three jobs with the union and only one of them was longer than a week," Spriggs, a tall slender man wearing a black Nationals cap, said one afternoon while sitting at the table in the living room/dining room in his mother's apartment. "It has you wanting to go out and find other ways to make money. . . . [Lack of jobs is why] people go out hustling and doing what they can to get by."

"Give me a chance to show that I can work. Just give me a chance," added Spriggs, who is on probation for drug possession. "I don't want to think negative. I know the economy is slow. You got to crawl before you walk. I got to be patient. My biggest problem [which prompted the effort to sell drugs] is not being patient."

The economy's seismic shift has been an equal-opportunity offender, hurting various racial and ethnic groups, economic classes, ages, and white- and blue-collar job categories. Nevertheless, 16-to-24-year-olds face heavier losses, with a 19.1 percent unemployment rate, about nine points higher than the national average for the general population.

Their rate of employment in October was 44.9 percent, the lowest level in 61 years of record keeping, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment for men in their 20s and early 30s is at its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies.

Troubling consequences


Unemployment among young people is particularly troubling, economists say, because the consequences can be long-lasting. This might be the first generation that does not keep up with its parents' standard of living. Jobless teens are more likely to be jobless twenty-somethings. Once forced onto the sidelines, they likely will not catch up financially for many years. That is the case even for young people of all ethnic groups who graduate from college.

Lisa B. Kahn, an economics professor at Yale University who studied graduates during recessions in the 1980s, determined that the young workers hired during a down economy generally start off with lower wages than they otherwise would have and don't recover for at least a decade.

"In your first job, you're accumulating skills on how to do the job, learning by doing and getting training. If you graduate in a recession, you're in a [lesser] job, wasting your time," she said. "Once you switch into the job you should be in, you don't have the skills for that job."

Some studies examining how employers review black and white job applicants suggest that discrimination may be at play.

"Black men were less likely to receive a call back or job offer than equally qualified white men," said Devah Pager, a sociology professor at Princeton University, referring to her studies a few years ago of white and black male job applicants in their 20s in Milwaukee and New York. "Black men with a clean record fare no better than white men just released from prison."


taken from an article in the Washington Post last Tuesday link

 

[mytmouse76]

"Black men with a clean record fare no better than white men just released from prison."


absolutely ridiculous...

 

[lilstarz07]

you want me to go on a whiney rant about how im white and cant get the ideal job i want with my degree? ... pull your skirt down, some people just cantinterview and arent worth the hastle ...

 

[mytmouse76]

Originally Posted by LilStarZ07

you want me to go on a whiney rant about how im white and cant get the ideal job i want with my degree? ... pull your skirt down, some people just cant interview and arent worth the hastle ...

it was only a matter of time...

 

[Betonblck]

Originally Posted by LilStarZ07

you want me to go on a whiney rant about how im white and cant get the ideal job i want with my degree? ... pull your skirt down, some people just cant interview and arent worth the hastle ...

Start your own thread then. Otherwise just be quiet and learn something.

 

[king of erv]

this lilstar dude cant even see the bigger picture.

dudes like him probably the reason things like this well probably never change

 

[behemothcoa]

we need to start a revolution against white america









































Just playing i love white women

 

[put em up]

*waits for naive white guy to come in and state dumb and ignorant comment*

 

[josebronx]

 

[nanbeezy]

That's why if I give my kid an Afro-centric name, his middle name with be something of like Michael. In Corporate America, a name like Delonte isdefinitely going to one of the first resumes in the trash.

 

[letsgetit22]

Originally Posted by LilStarZ07

you want me to go on a whiney rant about how im white and cant get the ideal job i want with my degree? ... pull your skirt down, some people just cant interview and arent worth the hastle ...

Did you even read the story?

Mr. Williams recently applied to a Dallas money management firm that had posted a position with top business schools. The hiring manager had seemed ecstatic to hear from him, telling him they had trouble getting people from prestigious business schools to move to the area. Mr. Williams had left New York and moved back in with his parents in Dallas to save money.

But when Mr. Williams later met two men from the firm for lunch, he said they appeared stunned when he strolled up to introduce himself.

"Their eyes kind of hit the ceiling a bit," he said. "It was kind of quiet for about 45 seconds."

The company's interest in him quickly cooled, setting off the inevitable questions in his mind.

I doubt the outcome of that had anything to do with his interviewing skills.

 

[regent park]

I always wonder if articles like this make the situation worse (if it can get any worse). Makes me think that if white managment were to read this
it would piss them off and take it personaly.

I believe it may have been Samuel L Jackson who was asked in an interview years ago , "how do you stop racism??" and his reply was
"Stop talking about it" ........................ Might be a step backwords but the more you remind people of it , the more they think about it.

 

[mangudai954]

Moreover, this generation is being elbowed out of entry-level positions by older, more experienced job seekers on the unemployment rolls who willingly trade down just to put food on the table.


Oh word? I thought it was the exact the opposite as the employer figures that person will be ghost as soon as they find a job in their respective field. Astime goes on though I suppose there are more and more people becoming unemployed and unable to find work so it probably doesn't even matter anymore.

 

[justscoreda100]

Originally Posted by mytmouse76

"Black men with a clean record fare no better than white men just released from prison."


absolutely ridiculous...

In another article I read it stated that black men with a clean record and a collegedegree fared no better than white men just released from prison.

I just sat their like

after reading that. Its not overt racismthat's the problem. Almost 80% of the jobs available are never listed to the public. They are filled through word of mouth and connections. Since most ofthose who are in position to hire people are white, it's not surprising that they hire mostly white people. There just aren't enough black people inhiring positions. And in some extreme circumstances black people in those positions use the same discriminatory hiring practices as some whites.

My mom always used to tell me: "Since your a black man you have to work twice as hard as others". Sad, but its a cold reality.