Posted on 11/19/2006 8:39:37 AM PST by shrinkermd
This article explains Black male unemployment by using Chris Dansby as an example. While not ascribed as an editorial--it is on page A1--it does have a point of view common to most radical publications. The article begins with:
"...On the morning of his 25th birthday, Chris Dansby made the same wish that he'd made when he turned 24, 23, 22 and 21: Let this be the day where everything worked out, the one he'd been promised since he was a boy.
He was living for the moment in his girlfriend's apartment, surrounded by nothing of his own. It was her bed he awoke in. Her leftover rice in the refrigerator. Her plastic bowl that he spooned the rice into. Her spoon, her sink, her shower, her iron, her everything except for Chris's clothes, a folder he carried that contained a copy of his résumé, and a wallet that contained no money and the business card of a potential employer who had stopped returning his calls...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Question: “But why was his neighborhood's unemployment rate 16.3 percent while at the same moment, in predominantly white Ward 3, the jobless rate was 1.5 percent? Why, last year, as he grew discouraged, were 70 percent of all white men working, 71 percent of all Asian men, 75 percent of all Hispanic men -- and 60 percent of all black men? And only 49 percent of all black men between ages 18 and 24? And only 43 percent of all black men 18-24 with a high school diploma or less?
Answer: After dancing around and at first having the protagonist taking full responsibility and then listing some common failings of the unemployed Mr. Finkel basically concludes that the academics are right. “…The problem, these academics say, isn't behavioral but societal. Slavery began it, racism continues it, and it entrenches itself every day in neighborhoods such as Ward 8 in forms such as inferior schools, which lead to poor job skills, which lead to employment rates of 43 percent…”
Eventually, we get to Chris Dansby’s employment history which includes leaving an initial good paying job because it was not a career and a dismal family history of his only paternal contact being a distant wave. Also, Chris has a bad habit of not showing up for work (see Jiffy Lube example) and then wondering why he can’t get another job. Incidentally, his mother worked for ten years but now is unemployed and seemingly can’t find a job either. Like her son, his mother dropped out of high school and had children sans a father.
Allegedly, because he had a lousy Christmas Chris quit going to school. Somehow his mother did not know of this action even though he was out of school a year. He did go back but then dropped out when he needed only four classes to graduate. Eventually, he did graduate even though he did have the required classes and became the first high school graduate in his family. He remains ashamed of his diploma since he should have graduated two years sooner.
Besides Jiffy Lube Chris quit another job before he completed ten days. But in his social milieu he was “normal” since the development he lived in every child was similarly afflicted not only with gross social failure but direct tuition that adult life meant heavy alcohol and drug consumption.
Finally, a human resource manager at Chris’s new job points out: “ …To be honest with you, it's been a little disheartening," Torrance Poindexter, the human resources manager, said of the typical applicant he sees. Not because of race, he said, although he'd like a more diverse workforce, but because of demeanor. "There just seems to be a lack of motivation," he said. Applicants arrive late, he said, and show up in sweat pants. They slump in their seat and say, "I'm a hard worker." They say, "I haven't thought about it," when he asks some about their goals. "One guy, he had a toothpick in his mouth," Poindexter said.
So what is the solution? Logical empiricism is not going to solve this problem. Neither is the “blame game.” What is needed is what has always worked for the poor in the past. Something and someone to believe in when those around them cannot be believe in. In a word a spiritual answer. Either Christ or Allah must lead these men out of their social and spiritual degradation. Since most of what passes for thinking in this and other newspapers is based on logical empiricism as well as religious skepticism, answers are going to be found elsewhere.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
The Meaning of Work (Being A Black Man and Undemployment)
Can't Spell...
Years ago, there was a sitcom on TV called "WKRP in Cincinnati".
WKRP was a radio station, which employed DJs, one of whom was black.
One particular episode had this black DJ (I forget the character's name) being a father figure to a neighborhood 12-13 year old boy (also black).
The kid was going on and on about how the teachers in school were holding him back because he was black.
The DJ stopped him and told him point blank: "They're not against you because you're black. The fact is THEY DON'T CARE that much about you to work that hard against you."
And so it is.
While I don't deny that racism exists, I believe the biggest enemy of the block kids is the black community. Education is frowned on in may places. Going to work is being "too white".
There's too much pleasure in victimhood.
Show me a man who shows up for work on time, works hard,stays sober,and doesnt rob his employer blind and I will show you a man with a job.
Show me a man who lives with his girlfriend,and will eventually get her pregnant ,placing them both out of work, who has no work ethic, but whines a lot because he was born black, or poor and white, and I will show you a man who will spend most of his life out of work.
If you want work its out there. It may not even pay a living wage, but there is a job out there. Take it till you can get a better one, or if you are a good worker that employer will look out for you. Lay around the house getting drunk and crying is going to get you nowhere,except written up in the washington Post in an article that cries for you, but dosnt help you one bit.
Sorry. You are right. Should have used the spell checker. regards
Well said.
Very well said.
Chris Dansby could work on his vocabulary and maybe he could find work.
Years ago when I was working as a trimmer operator in a bindery I noticed one of the black kids had taken an interest in the trimmer. I started training him for a job that would have tripled his pay. Unfortunately the comments of "uncle Tom" etc started almost immediately and the kid couldn't deal with it. As he told me, "I have to live in that neighborhood". Some of the other blacks had seen him looking outside the plantation and wouldn't accept it.
On the flipside one of the best bosses I ever had was a black man. He ran into problems with new hires who were black because many of them saw a black man running the show and thought they had it made. His speech to all new hires was great. Something along the lines of "We don't do race in my department. Everybody starts at the bottom and everybody does their share, no exceptions."
I am on your side, just could not help myself. My laugh at your expense, hope no one was too offended.
Your post and comment was right on.
Is there any chance the civil rights industry will go public?
It looked pretty dismal for them late last century after enjoying phenomenal profits for almost a half-century beginning 1960 or so.
Now with the advent of illegal aliens, industry code name "undocumented workers," it looks like boom times again. Some experts say it's expected to last until 2050.
Could this be the next google?
Good one.
Reminds me of the story of the up-and-coming amateur golfer trying to make it to the pros. After he hit a bad shot he was cussing and pounding his club into the dirt.
His caddy turned to him and said, "Settle down. You're not good enough to get angry".
I thought it was a pun: Un-Dem-ployment. Would have been clever too.
" Logical empiricism is not going to solve this problem."
Of course it will. Root hog or die is what we need. In the past, religion was used to focus minds on the afterlife rather than making something of this one. That served to delay the inevitable, but not change it. We are seeing a culture that needs dying, dying.
"People can't dress for the job, keep clean and show up for work early or time and they don't try to put in the work. And they wonder why employers won't even extend them an offer. Go figure. "
I got a better one.
The candidate is personable, dresses well, is educated and qualified for the job. There are at least 100 jobs available for the candidate in the community.
The companies with the jobs are screaming that they are located in a community with high drop out rates and they cannot find talented people to fill the jobs.
The applicant puts in resume after resume, goes to networking meetings, makes phone calls and joins every group where his qualifications are praised by the memberships.
And on the other end is a 23 year old first year HR staffer, configuring a software program that will weed out people who the company deems as unqualified based on bad job descriptions. They won't return e-mails or phone calls and call you a pest for sending resumes to them for jobs you are qualified for.
How would you like to go through life with that?
"Venus Flytrap" is the name of the character you're thinking about, right?
There was the job that he didn't show up to because he didn't have bus fare? If there is a will, there is a way. Chris could have walked to work.
The other is that Chris' home life is surrounded by people who are failing in the employment arena as well. And Chris doesn't seem to be repulsed of them.
No worries. Now that the Dems control congress, all societal injustices will be cured and the poor will become rich.
What are those three keys to success in life?
1.) Come from a family with a Mother and Father.
2.) Finish High School.
3.) Get Married.
Liberals have done all in their power to sabatoge all three of these conditions. It makes people victims, wards of the state, and...need I say...Liberals.
This article is typical liberal pap. Liberals berate anyone who makes negative comments about the grammar used by someone or the way they dress. You are somehow taking away their essence of humanity if you imply that wearing a bandana around your head with a baseball cap over it to a job interveiw while answering interviewers questions with monosyllabic answers is a bad thing and will hurt their chances of landing a job.
Here is an experiment to try: Have the person clean up, take out the earrings, get a haircut, improve his posture and wear clothes that don't make you look like a gang member. Lose the baseball cap and basketball shirt that comes down to the knees. Likewise with the jacket. Wear a clean pair of slacks, shoes (not sneakers) and a button down shirt.
Give them a little elocution tutoring, suggest they insert "Yes Sir/Ma'am" or "No Sir/Ma'am" into their answers, make eye contact in a non-threatening, positive way.
Show up for work every single day you are expected to by your employer, on time.
Does ANYONE think that a black man could get a job if he followed these steps? If what I have said is considered racist, then Bill Cosby is a racist, since he says basically the same thing. I work with black men who do just what I have described (especially the "show up for work" aspect) and they not only can get and hold a job, but are living life and contributing to society as valuable members.
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