African American
Related: About this forumSystemic racism - there's just no end to it...
Last edited Fri Oct 2, 2015, 09:10 PM - Edit history (1)
I heard this segment on NPR this morning:
New social science research explores why the unemployment rate for blacks is persistently worse than the unemployment rate for whites.
Transcript:
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The outlook for jobs has been growing better over the last few years, but there are still many young people looking for work. And things have been especially difficult for African-Americans. NPR social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam joins us now because he's come across some new research trying to explore why this would be the case. Hi, Shankar.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: What's the research?
VEDANTAM: Well, the new research is trying to understand why blacks have experienced significantly higher levels of unemployment and underemployment compared to whites in the aftermath the Great Recession, Steve. Some research shows that black college grads have twice the level of unemployment as white college grads. I was speaking with John Nunley. He's an economist at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. Along with his colleagues, he mailed out more than 9,000 resumes in response to online job ads. And for each ad, the researchers mailed out four resumes with different names. Some of the names were Claire Kruger and Cody Baker - typical white names. Other names were Ebony Booker and to DeShawn Jefferson. These are more typically black names, Steve. Nunley and his colleagues analyzed how likely the different resumes were to trigger a callback, a request for an interview. Here he is.
JOHN NUNLEY: The black name applicants in our study received about 14 percent lower callback rate than otherwise identical white applicants.
<snip>
NUNLEY: In customer-related jobs, we found that black applicants were about 28 percent less likely to receive a positive response or a callback compared to otherwise identical white applicants.
INSKEEP: Wait a minute - why would a company be willing to hire an African-American for a back-office job, but reluctant to hire an African-American to be the maître d' at the restaurant or the salesperson in the car showroom?
VEDANTAM: You know, we actually don't know the answer to that question, Steve. The researchers didn't go to the companies and say why did you select this resume, but not this one? For whatever reason, companies seem to believe their customers prefer to interact with whites rather than blacks. We don't know if this is because companies are biased and mistakenly think their customers prefer to interact with whites or whether customers are actually biased and companies are catering to those biases. Either way, of course, it's discrimination.
<snip>
INSKEEP: Wait, so you're African-American. You got a college degree, maybe a graduate degree. You've got good experience. You're getting ahead in life. But as you go forward, life becomes less equal instead of more.
VEDANTAM: It is certainly the case that more qualified African-Americans do better than less qualified African-Americans. But what they're also finding is that the disparity between whites and blacks grows as qualifications increase. So in other words, if you're an African-American, climbing the hill is a good idea. But even as you climb the hill, the hill keeps getting steeper and steeper. (my bold)
Please go to the link and read - or listen - to the whole piece. I snipped out some parts in an attempt to not violate DU copyright rules.
Nothing that no one here doesn't already know, but hearing about this study that confirms the bias so starkly was particularly striking.
(explanation of edit message at top of post - I did not actually edit this OP, I simply went into edit mode in order to copy this post with the html intact into the pinned thread, Graphic examples of the racially-based social caste system v2.0 as requested by Number23 - and gladly.)
brush
(53,726 posts)It's always fu_king racial in this country.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Number23
(24,544 posts)leftofcool
(19,460 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)JI7
(89,237 posts)This doesn't take away from their many faults. But it shows racism is an issue in itself that crosses many income levels.
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)I needed to read this study for some affirmation after dealing with an idiot
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Best wishes,
sw
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)and know what area you live in so no matter if you name is John Smith they can see where you're living and discriminate by neighborhoods
Number23
(24,544 posts)Would you please post this article in the Graphic Examples of the Racially based caste system thread pinned to the top of this forum?? It's good having all of this stuff in one place.
Thank so much!
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Thank you for your kind words!
CarlaJonesChicago
(23 posts)Racism is alive and booming! Systematic racism doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It's sad because Im a college graduate with no job. My name isn't considered "too urban". Its just disappointing because so many look to America like an older sibling. We can't expect others to respect us. President Obama being elected twice really brought out the worst racism seen in some time. He's been called incompetent like he has no knowledge of government. Names are something we don't have control over nor should it cripple us especially when we are qualified for the position. I guess only white rich people get to name their kids stuff like Apple.