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Posted on 05/07/2011 7:40:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As graduation season rapidly approaches, black college graduates may face a greater burden in the job market than their white counterparts. Black college graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed as white college graduates.
The recession has only worsened this problem. Unemployment among blacks is disproportionately higher than the rest of the population.
Reasons for this trend include black students are not adequately prepared for the job market. They may have the degrees, but they lack the connections or professional skills to be successful in the workplace.
Students may have the knowledge, but not the resume; or the resume, but not the knowledge. Also, since many current black college graduates are first-generation college students, they may not have the same professional networks within their families that white college graduates may have.
Even when black people have significant professional and networking opportunities, race can still play a role in their employability. The New York Times cited a study that said Caucasian, Asian and Latino managers hired a greater number of white job applicants and fewer black job applicants than black managers did.
Other concerns and signs of more covert, and possibly even unconscious, racism included the tendency to hire candidates with less "ethnic-sounding" names or candidates to whom they felt they were a better fit for the "cultural environment" of the workplace.
The presidency of Barack Obama was also cited as a possible challenge to the employment of black college graduates. Since many people feel that President Obama's election demonstrated the limitless possibilities for black people, black job applicants are more likely to be seen as playing the victim if they express their feelings about racism or cultural bias in the job application process.
In some ways, Obama's election also diminished the severity of the need for programs and opportunities targeted toward cultural diversity in the workplace. Therefore, attempts to level the playing field of opportunity have decreased, leaving many black college graduates to continue to combat discrimination with, what is often viewed as, an old argument and with less ammunition.
Regardless of the reasons for the disparity in employment rates, black college graduates must navigate the job market the way it is now. Lack of opportunity can only be countered by continuing to be proactive.
Pro-activity does not just mean training harder or longer to improve or increase skills and marketability or working consistently to build connections.
If there are no opportunities available, black college graduates must create their own because entrepreneurship is the only definitive solution to the problem of employability. The difficulties associated with working for others decrease if we take steps to work for ourselves.
Well said.....and dead-on.
The hard degrees, normally those ending in “S”, are the ones that you can almost always find a job in. My son graduated from high school in 1996 and ended up with a BA in food/hotel management. This summer he went back to college working towards an MS in ocean engineering. When I asked him why, he said there weren't enough jobs in the food/hotel business, they generally had a very low ceiling, and they were limited tot he US. He felt that Ocean Engineering is a growth industry that is also extremely portable.
Correction: The dash don't be silent.
(Version I heard from a co-worker at a job long ago.)
Cheers!
That is such BS...corporations are just like schools ...they weight to minorities and women in hiring or their Human Resource Nazis will excoriate them and turn traitor and leave to be a professional testifier for the class action lawyer extortionist legions
I attended my oldest daughter’s graduation yesterday at a fairly conservative school here in Nashville ...David Lipscomb University..
A small school ...around 900 grads
The grads were around 25% black and other minorities...especially for grad teaching and social service degrees (yes they break it down beyond just BA and BBA and BS)..and Lipscomb is very expensive for a Southern school (30-40K full ride)...which told me a bit about who must pay full rides and who don’t...looked like a lot don’t pay full ticket...I felt a bit taken to be honest....we got zip anything..even though my daughter is half Brasilian and they advertise grants for latinos..her uber Saxon last name killed it
The crowd was decidedly lower to middle-middle class unlike say Ole Miss in the 70s when I went when the crowd would have been a bit more genteel and dressy...and subdued. There were a few Belle Meade-Brentwood types but not many.
Blacks are loud at graduations.. at least there they were.(and I mean Beatles at the airport 1964 loud)..and whites get louder as it goes on. Quite a change from the 70s when I matriculated...and applause was held till the end
One thing disturbed me was the race lecture we got at this as I said “conservative” school from the speaker..Michael F Adams..University of Georgia..
Do people never tire of trying to make whites act guilty and preen about how morally superior they are now?
Anyhow...it’s a new world.
And I don’t cotton to it much. You kids enjoy and don’t blame me. It’s been like sticking my thumb in the dike for 4 decades now.
One very funny thing did happen....an older lady got her Nursing degree and as she walked..a very loud.. very very Hillbilly twang voice rang form the rafters....shouting...”That’s My Wife Ya’ll”...the whole place broke up...even the chancellor and speaker were guffaawing..my Wife got teary....now that was a cool moment
btw...I hire blacks...can’t afford anymore employees right now...my black landscaper beat any Mexercan I’ve dealt with..fwiw
“The Affirmative Action pedigree is not worth the paper it is printed on for one!”
And that’s the real problem with black unemployment among black college graduates. No one can tell anymore if a black candidate’s credentials are meaningful. Is the black candidate with a college degree someone who did well in college and deserves their degree or were they simply handed a degree because they are black?
Affirmative action has cheapened the value of credentialed black folks and works a tremendous hardship on those blacks who earned their college degrees the good ol’ fashioned way, burning the midnight oil and working their asses off, because black folks with any sort of credentials are now automatically suspect as possibly not having earned their credentials.”
They have perverted the program,Race should not be a deciding factor on admittance ,Like the “wise latina” or buffalo butt obama as examples,they could not make the grade straight up.
“Less govt jobs.”
Bingo. Government at all levels has reduced hiring - and at state and local levels is getting smaller in many cases. Government historically employs blacks at a rate higher than their presence in the general population, so as government gets smaller - or doesn’t get bigger - then blacks are impacted at a greater rate.
Good grief, an applicant playing the race card before they even get the job??? Gee, I really want to hire people that come pre-loaded with a 20 pound chip on their shoulder; they will be a joy to have on the team. (and the same concern would apply to an applicant opining on reverse discrimination.)
I stand corrected...
My heartiest congratualtions on your daughter’s graduation!
I know you are one very proud daddy!
I wish her all of the best in the future.
It appears she’s taking after her daddy in the success department.
I’m not surprised. ;o)
I'd have made a scene, shouted him down, yelled "bullshit" and "That's RACIST" if he'd been lecturing me on that topic. I don't take it like a good white victim anymore. You wanna lecture me? Prepare for feedback!
They might have needed to eject me, but I'm just not gonna sit there and take that bullshit ever again. It's SO OVER.
Worst part is that guy is GOP
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