“There is resentment toward his presidency among some because of his race,” said Edward Verner, a Morehouse alumnus from New Jersey who was laid off as a regional sales manager and has been able to find only part-time work. “This has affected well-educated, African-American job seekers.”
Minorities that do not suffer from such stereotypes are not homogenous in their thinking, voting and activism.
Try job hunting at 45+ if you want to experience discrimination.
“There is resentment toward his presidency among some because of his race,” said Edward Verner, a Morehouse alumnus from New Jersey “
Uh huh........then why did white people elect him?
People really are capable of hiring the best people for the job.
I used to oversee the Mac computer lab at a liberal arts college, and the best guy on the security staff was an African. His first name was 15 letters long, started with MW and went downhill from there. If he applied for a job with me right now, I’d give him a fair hearing.
I thought this was going to be about a White Male, one of the more endangered species.
He’s got a point about deleting memberships off the resume. For instance, I wouldn’t hire anyone who was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for the position of dog catcher.
Funny, though, if it’s a technical or engineering job he’s looking for, big consumer-products companies like P&G, Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive will throw themselves at African-American business-student’s-association-member Barry Jabbar’s feet. Gotta have professional minority-types on the payroll when the diversity-mongers audit by skin color. Might hafta work long, odd hours for years in smelly, chemical-soaked, ugly buildings in some obscure Redkneckville, but, it’s work, hayna? Or no?
“Barry sounds like I cold be from Ireland.” Why, yes, like Barry O’Bama.
Well educated in the era of AA, quotas etc. is subject to interpretation ... the employer’s.
A month or so ago a female British banking exec was testifying before some kind of government inquiry. She made the comment that, in her opinion, banks would be foolish to hire women because of the legal grief those hires have the potential to create by leveraging anti-discrimination laws. Once you let them in the door you’re stuck with them. On the other hand if you hire white males you are never “stuck” with any you don’t like, you just show ‘em the door - nbd.
Ditto blacks - all the government interference in the labor market increases the risks in hiring minorities. You almost hope you don’t get a resume from a minority, and if you do it goes straight to the shredder (”which resume? What are you talking about?”)
These anit-discrimination laws can provoke as much discrimination as they prevent - perhaps even more! - because of the risk they create.
Here is the problem in a nutshell. Unless you are an extremely large Corp., an employer has to think about the ramifications of getting a discrimination charge brought against them.
Everybody’s having a tough time finding a job. Even Mexican “undocumenteds” are having a hard time.
The last time I interviewed candidates for an engineering job, the two best were a white guy and a Turkish woman. The woman had the edge technically, while the guy was hungrier and more aggressive. Either would have been a good choice - until the crash came.
My first choice for a designer was a black guy. He had the best experience, even though he came from a “traditionally black college”. For my purposes, they had a good program. I know I’ve seen a hell of a lot worse.
Both the black designer candidate and the female engineering candidate have recently been in contact. I’m hoping for an improvement in business conditions to allow me to hire either.
Names wouldn’t put me off. An inabilty to speak English, an obvious racist attitude or a history of unattractive activism would.
I wouldn't object to the candidate being black, but I would wonder why he felt the need to segregate himself from the other business students. Yes, membership in an organization such as this could be a red flag that you have a bigot on your hands.
For the record, I wouldn't hire a member of the Aryan Business Students Association either.
Thomas Sowell long ago pointed out that affirmative action and civil rights laws tend to create disincentives to hiring minorities. In the aggregate, the educational credentials of minorities are inflated by easy admissions and grading under affirmative action, and every minority employee represents a potential civil rights claim. In a down economy, these hiring disincentives tend to be more consequential.
Actually, he is right, but for the wrong reason. Corporate HR departments are far less concerned with race, than with homogeneity in everything else. They don’t want personality, or personal distinction, or creativity, they want generic hires.
They want everyone to wear the same suits, to be about the same age, to have the same boring names, to not be too tall or too short, or too fat, or too ugly, or have unusual facial hair or style. They are not hiring for someone to change things, but to do the same things over and over again the same way.
This is important for minorities to realize. This is why his membership in the “African-American business students association” should properly be omitted. Isn’t there just a “business students association” he could have joined instead? In truth, it would have been just as disadvantageous of him to belong to the “Red-Haired business students association”, or the “poodle fancier business students association.”
And yet, when he shows up for the interview, while they will of course notice that he is black, the most important thing is his speech. If when he opens his mouth, he sounds just like everyone else who works there, he will likely be hired. Hopefully he will sound dull, which is what they want.