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A college degree today is the equivalent of the high school diploma from yesteryear. It's become the bare minimum required. The colleges are currently pumping out millions of graduates in sociology and basket weaving degrees.
A degree in "ethnic studies" or "history" is not going to get you a job outside academics regardless of your race.
It's not mythology. If you have a graduate degree in anything, and you're a black woman, you should have no problem falling into a very good job, although being a black male with a graduate degree would take you even further, as there are far more black women with graduate degrees than black men. It's a numbers game, and big companies need those numbers. This includes city, state, and federal jobs as well. If you're seriously having trouble finding good employment, than I would suggest relocating to an area with lot's of white people. If you posted your resume in a city like Portland or Seattle, people would be breaking your door down to hire you. Trust me on this one. My sister has been a human resources manager in Seattle for several large companies over the last 18 years, and she will openly admit that she's had to hire people based on minority status even though she didn't think they were qualified for the job. This was especially true when she worked for a large Automotive dealership that I won't disclose.
That still hasn't been my experience. My city is not majority white, but it's not majority black either. It's only 6.9% black. I've applied to federal jobs all over the country and government jobs in Austin which is a majority white city.
I see that reading comprehension is still a problem on this thread. People are focusing on the "guaranteed" part and aren't even commenting on the significant difference in unemployment rates.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lucky4life
It's not mythology. If you have a graduate degree in anything, and you're a black woman, you should have no problem falling into a very good job, although being a black male with a graduate degree would take you even further, as there are far more black women with graduate degrees than black men. It's a numbers game, and big companies need those numbers. This includes city, state, and federal jobs as well. If you're seriously having trouble finding good employment, than I would suggest relocating to an area with lot's of white people. If you posted your resume in a city like Portland or Seattle, people would be breaking your door down to hire you. Trust me on this one. My sister has been a human resources manager in Seattle for several large companies over the last 18 years, and she will openly admit that she's had to hire people based on minority status even though she didn't think they were qualified for the job. This was especially true when she worked for a large Automotive dealership that I won't disclose.
While there are still government contracts awarded with a preference for minority or women owned businesses, there is no regulatory or financial advantage to any company or government agency to hire a minority over anyone else. Data is collected by the government for the purposes of compiling statistics only. Companies are free to hire the best person for the job, and they can get away with discrimination
if they are racist. I haven't seen what your sister says since about the 1980s when affirmative action was
enforced.
Of course, you know that is not what the article is asserting.
I assume you did read and comprehend the article, so I wonder what your thoughts are on the preference employers showed for hiring a white male with a criminal record as a preference over a black applicant with EQUAL qualifications and no criminal record.
I'm just waiting to hear the spin on that, should be an interesting read.
...Fixed it in the willful, hostile counter-reality that people of that mindset are going to live in no matter what studies show.
Help me understand something. Are some of you saying you understand that African Americans with college degrees are unemployed at twice the rate of Caucasians with college degrees, but you don't care, because you're not getting jobs either?
Except that a black man named Michael doesn't have life as easy as a white man named Michael either, when two people with equivalent educational backgrounds are compared.
I will give you an example. I interviewed for a job with a major Fortune 500 company. Ivy league MBA, very traditional and GENERIC name, in fact MORE generic than most whites with their German, Polish or other last names. Was told that I didn't have the "fit" even though I was told that I interviewed well, presented myself well, was articulate, and brought an interesting background. When pressed I was told that "they couldn't imagine the Treasury working with me".
What exactly does that mean? It wasn't the "you were good but some one had the skills more closely connected to what they were looking for", or "we found a candidate in house"...all acceptable. It was this intangible thing.
This is what MANY black men in particular have to deal with. Now here is the challenge. If one is seeking employment through recruiters they only get paid by placing people. Who will they push? The white male from an affluent suburban back ground, or the black male who is articulate, but whose accent reflects that he grew up in a MIDDLE class black setting?
The woman speaking what I imagine to be "ebonics" is a fool if she thinks that she can speak non standard English in formal settings and remain professional.
Now if she is of Caribbean background and has an accent which can be easily understood by all and you insist that she transforms her speech to sound as if she is a white female from an upper middle class north east suburb then that is another issue.
I am aware that people with Southern accents also face bias. Why if they are articulate and speak standard English?
And who is to blame for the roots of African Americans speaking with "variant" pronunciation? At what point in history, Oh somewhere between the couple hundred years of slavery where there was no formal education and the Jim Crow era, and right now at a time when blacks are still sitting in poor substandard classrooms across the country in majorly segregated schools where kids might be sitting on window ledges because they don't have desks ---while across the bridge, white kids are in well appointed schools funded by the property taxes of white flight neighborhoods????
I'm white, graduated Summa *** Laude in 2009....still unemployed and forced to take temp jobs. In this crappy economy, there are no guarantees.
This is what is called filtering intake of information.
Since I have read so many similar posts, please tell me where the article states that white people have a 100 percent chance of nailing a job if they have a college degree - seriously, I have college level reading skills and I can't find that stat.
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