In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap

[kwassa]

posted here after posting in GD where it will race to the bottom. This is a good article about being too black to be hired.

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?em

December 1, 2009
In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap
By MICHAEL LUO

That race remains a serious obstacle in the job market for African-Americans, even those with degrees from respected colleges, may seem to some people a jarring contrast to decades of progress by blacks, culminating in President Obama’s election.

But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.

College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 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.

Various academic studies have confirmed that black job seekers have a harder time than whites. 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.

A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did.

The discrimination is rarely overt, according to interviews with more than two dozen college-educated black job seekers around the country, many of them out of work for months. Instead, those interviewed told subtler stories, referring to surprised looks and offhand comments, interviews that fell apart almost as soon as they began, and the sudden loss of interest from companies after meetings.

[Brewman_Jax]

1. It was on its way

K&R'd it 'cause the majority don't want to admit that racism didn't end when Obama was elected President.

[Raineyb]

2. I wish I saw it earlier but to be honest I've been keeping my distance

from this site so I haven't bee catching as much.

[Number23]

3. "I've been keeping my distance from this site"

Girl, you and everybody else. I haven't even seen Skinner that much lately.

I'd like to say that this article comes as a surprise but it doesn't. Not one damn bit.

[Brewman_Jax]

4. You would have missed that and the re-post

the first thread got 1 reply, the re-post got a whopping 4 replies. :eyes:

The board is acting consistently on topics regarding non-WASP's. :(

[Blue_Tires]

5. thanks for this...

[firedupdem]

6. Thanks for this article....just thinking about these kids graduating

with student loans and no job opportunities makes me ill.

I won't even go into this one:

Various academic studies have confirmed that black job seekers have a harder time than whites. 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.