Unequal Opportunity and Whitewashed Resumes

The Defenders Online
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Posted By The Editors January 20th, 2010
By Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Wise words repeated countless times to young people at home and in school every single day. But what should we say to them if one day their hard work meets empty promises, if their dreams are deferred, or their first paycheck of material reward is marked insufficient funds.
What advice should be given now, for example, in this moment of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression? Nearly double the percentage of black people is unemployed today as compared to white job seekers, 16 percent vs. 9 percent, according to the December Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The nearly two-fold employment gap is as troubling and persistent today as it was in the 1930s.
How can yet another generation of ambitious young people—continuing the path of their elders— be encouraged to remain hopeful and optimistic in a time of tremendous economic misery and uncertainty, especially when racial discrimination continues to deny them equal opportunities?
A recent New York Times analysis of current unemployment data shows undeniable evidence that the largest gap between black male jobseekers and white ones is not among underachievers or high school dropouts. The recently widening racial gap is among hardworking, ghetto-defying, college-educated men—the pride and joy of their families and communities. Black men with college degrees have nearly twice the unemployment rate, 8.4 percent vs. 4.4 percent, of their white male counterparts.

Full Story: http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/01/20/unequal-opportunity-and-whitewashed-resumes/