College Degrees Don’t Close Hiring Gap For Black Job-Hunters
From the NY Times:
Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.
But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.
“If they’re going to X me,” Mr. Williams said, “I’d like to at least get in the door first.”
Similarly, Barry Jabbar Sykes, 37, who has a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, now uses Barry J. Sykes in his continuing search for an information technology position, even though he has gone by Jabbar his whole life.
“Barry sounds like I could be from Ireland,” he said.
That race remains a serious obstacle in the job market for African-Americans, even those with degrees from respected colleges, may seem to some people a jarring contrast to decades of progress by blacks, culminating in President Obama’s election.
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_A_ Your comment is right on the nose. A lot of black people, the Uncle Toms, are always trying to deny racism and will defend the white people to the core. Those of us who are down to earth with reality understand that America is majority white and racism will never go away. MOST WHITE PEOPLE HATE BLACK PEOPLE AND WOULD RATHER SEE THEM DEAD, IN JAIL OR SICK THAN GAINFULLY EMPLOYED AND CONTENT. WHITE PEOPLE ARE GRATIFIED BY OUR DESPAIR. The Chairman of Bank of America, Walter Massey, is a Morehouse alumnus. If I attended Morehouse I pitty the fool who doesn’t hire me if they see it on my resume. That hiring manager would not only be racist but perfectly stupid.
Anyway, black people must know that their future will lie in their entrepreneurial spirit. Trying to climb a corporate ladder or getting a job in corporate America that is inherently racist is like going nowhere fast. Black people must hustle. We spend 1.2 trillion in this country every year. DO THE MATH. There is money in the black community but we are too busy giving it to the Asians and the whites trying to keep up with the Jones’. INVEST IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY AND SPEND IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY. That will turn things around for black people. Our unemployment percentage would be -0-. You can’t get water from a rock. INVEST IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY. It just makes sense.
I find this article somewhat humorous. First of all, if anyone is rejecting your resume because they see you’re a part of the AA Bus Student association or because of your name, then I’m sure they won’t have any qualms rejecting you if you are successful in fooling them into giving you an interview. Racists don’t usually change their heart just because there face to to face with you…I would think a math major could easily deduce that. Also, are you going to remove “Morehouse” from your resume as well, or tell them you were part of a cultural exchange program from Ireland? The real funny thing is, he is probably one of these guys a few years back telling us that racism in America doesn’t really exist if you only work hard enough, you can make it. Now reality has kicked him in his azz…I wish the brother luck though.