Associated Press
By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer – 16 hours ago
With black unemployment reaching historic levels, banks laying off tens of thousands and law school graduates waiting tables, why aren't more African-Americans looking toward science, technology, engineering and math — the still-hiring careers known as STEM?
The answer turns out to be a complex equation of self-doubt, stereotypes, discouragement and economics — and sometimes just wrong perceptions of what math and science are all about.
The percentage of African-Americans earning STEM degrees has fallen during the last decade. It may seem far-fetched for an undereducated black population to aspire to become chemists or computer scientists, but the door is wide open, colleges say, and the shortfall has created opportunities for those who choose this path.
Full Story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ja9P9ONQI85BmkNNrOFlDKIzVl_Q?docId=8d61edfa9d3f4d9183bb3d574a432cbe
Showing posts with label African Americans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African Americans. Show all posts
Monday, October 24, 2011
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Experiment Finds Race Trumps A Prestigious Degree
Forbes.com
Daniel Fisher
Full Disclosure
October 19, 2010
An experiment designed to test perceptions of affirmative action found that independent observers rated companies significantly lower when they were told the top executives were African-American graduates of prestigious universities, instead of white. The difference went away when the executives were said to have graduated from less selective schools, and when the evaluators were told that the more selective schools exercised race-blind admissions.
The study, by researchers at Clarkson University, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and the May Group Family Fund, suggests that people assume minority candidates receive preferential treatment at more selective schools and discount their professional skills as a result.
Full Story: http://blogs.forbes.com/danielfisher/2010/10/19/experiment-finds-race-trumps-a-prestigious-degree/?boxes=financechannelforbes
Daniel Fisher
Full Disclosure
October 19, 2010
An experiment designed to test perceptions of affirmative action found that independent observers rated companies significantly lower when they were told the top executives were African-American graduates of prestigious universities, instead of white. The difference went away when the executives were said to have graduated from less selective schools, and when the evaluators were told that the more selective schools exercised race-blind admissions.
The study, by researchers at Clarkson University, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and the May Group Family Fund, suggests that people assume minority candidates receive preferential treatment at more selective schools and discount their professional skills as a result.
Full Story: http://blogs.forbes.com/danielfisher/2010/10/19/experiment-finds-race-trumps-a-prestigious-degree/?boxes=financechannelforbes
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap
The New York Times
December 1, 2009
By MICHAEL LUO
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.
But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.
College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.
Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
December 1, 2009
By MICHAEL LUO
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.
But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.
College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.
Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Monday, June 8, 2009
FLORIDA CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES SUED FOR RACIAL HARASSMENT, THREATENING BLACK WORKER WITH NOOSE
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
PRESS RELEASE
6-3-09
EEOC Says Crom Companies Subjected African Americans to Racial Insults, Physical Abuse
MIAMI – The Crom Corporation and Crom Equipment Rentals violated federal law when they allowed the racial harassment of black employees, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today. The EEOC also says the Florida-based construction companies unlawfully suspended an African American employee for complaining about severe racial insults, threats and physical abuse.
According to the suit, a white employee at Crom’s Holly Hill, Fla., location locked a black coworker in a tool shed and then spray-painted the shed door with the word “Jail.” The EEOC said that the same white employee also put a hangman’s noose around the black employee’s neck, hung the noose in his work area, and threatened to decapitate him. Another African American employee was offended when he saw the noose hanging at the Holly Hill site. Crom was aware of the harassment but didn’t stop it, according to the suit. Instead, the EEOC said, Crom suspended the black worker after he complained about the noose and rewarded the white offender with a higher-paying position.
“It is shocking and sobering that such cruelty can still occur at an American workplace,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. “The EEOC will not falter in its quest to put an end to such injustice.”
Racial harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida (EEOC v. The Crom Corporation, Case No. 1:09-cv-00128-SPM-AK) after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.
EEOC Miami District Director Jacqueline McNair said, “Even in 2009, nooses still make their way into work environments. The EEOC will vigorously prosecute cases with this sort of workplace terror.” EEOC Miami Regional Attorney Nora E. Curtin, added, “The nightmarish abuse endured in this case is appalling. The hangman's noose is a haunting symbol of racial hatred and must never be tolerated. Employers must take swift and meaningful action to punish those responsible for such outrageous conduct.”
Crom Corporation and Crom Equipment Rentals sell concrete water tanks and scaffolding and operate throughout Florida and in at least nine other states.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.
PRESS RELEASE
6-3-09
EEOC Says Crom Companies Subjected African Americans to Racial Insults, Physical Abuse
MIAMI – The Crom Corporation and Crom Equipment Rentals violated federal law when they allowed the racial harassment of black employees, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today. The EEOC also says the Florida-based construction companies unlawfully suspended an African American employee for complaining about severe racial insults, threats and physical abuse.
According to the suit, a white employee at Crom’s Holly Hill, Fla., location locked a black coworker in a tool shed and then spray-painted the shed door with the word “Jail.” The EEOC said that the same white employee also put a hangman’s noose around the black employee’s neck, hung the noose in his work area, and threatened to decapitate him. Another African American employee was offended when he saw the noose hanging at the Holly Hill site. Crom was aware of the harassment but didn’t stop it, according to the suit. Instead, the EEOC said, Crom suspended the black worker after he complained about the noose and rewarded the white offender with a higher-paying position.
“It is shocking and sobering that such cruelty can still occur at an American workplace,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. “The EEOC will not falter in its quest to put an end to such injustice.”
Racial harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida (EEOC v. The Crom Corporation, Case No. 1:09-cv-00128-SPM-AK) after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.
EEOC Miami District Director Jacqueline McNair said, “Even in 2009, nooses still make their way into work environments. The EEOC will vigorously prosecute cases with this sort of workplace terror.” EEOC Miami Regional Attorney Nora E. Curtin, added, “The nightmarish abuse endured in this case is appalling. The hangman's noose is a haunting symbol of racial hatred and must never be tolerated. Employers must take swift and meaningful action to punish those responsible for such outrageous conduct.”
Crom Corporation and Crom Equipment Rentals sell concrete water tanks and scaffolding and operate throughout Florida and in at least nine other states.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Mismatched Minorities?
Inside Higher Ed
September 15, 2008
Addressing the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Friday, a panel of researchers discussed whether minority students are doomed to failure if admitted into highly selective science programs on the basis of racial preferences.
The commission’s briefing centered on the “mismatch” theory, which suggests minority students are less successful in science majors when they are placed in colleges with academic standards that far exceed the students’ preparation.
“Race preferences in admissions … are harming the aspirations of blacks,” said Rogers Elliott, professor emeritus of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College.
The controversial mismatch theory purports to explain, in part, why black and Hispanic students are less likely than whites to complete degrees in the so-called STEM disciplines of science.
Richard Sander, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, drew upon data from the University of Michigan’s graduation rates to illustrate the mismatch theory. He noted that for black students who entered Michigan in 1999, 73 percent who were given “no preference” graduated in four years compared with 70 percent of white students with the same credentials. But for black students who were given “large preference,” just 21 percent graduated in four years, compared with 35 percent of whites who were also given a large preference.
In order to determine the level of preference given to applicants, Sander used an index that included standardized test scores and grade point averages. A 50-point difference on the verbal SAT, for instance, would be considered a moderate preference under Sander’s analysis. A 90-point difference would be considered a large preference. (Michigan officials could not be reached for comment, but in previous debates over affirmative action they have rejected the idea that applicants can be grouped by SAT scores alone to judge their relative ability.)
Sander introduced his mismatch analysis of black law school students in 2004. Since that time, his argument that some minority students might be better served at less prestigious institutions has been met with criticism by affirmative action advocates, who say that race-blind admissions in law schools, for instance, would ultimately undercut minority participation altogether.
California Data Shows Mismatch, Sander Says
The University of California System also served as a model for Sander’s research. Citing unpublished data from the system, Sander noted that black and Latino students have far greater success rates in science when they enroll in the California’s less selective campuses. Minority students were about half as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees in science at Berkeley or UCLA, for instance, as they were to earn science degrees from five of the of the other six campuses in the system, according to Sander’s study of those entering between 1998 and 2000.
“All those [data] show very compelling evidence that there really is some mismatching going on,” he said.
Michael Yaki, a member of the commission, was the lone commissioner to publicly criticize Sander’s analysis at Friday’s briefing.
“Part of what we’re talking about is the potentiality of human beings, and that’s not something you can really measure,” said Yaki, a rare Democrat on the Republican-dominated commission.
Richard Tapia, a panelist at the briefing and a math professor at Rice University, expressed concern about steering minorities to less rigorous academic programs – just for the sake of increasing degree production in the sciences. The net result, he argued, will be fewer minorities on faculty at prestigious institutions, which are disinclined to hire professors lacking in academic pedigree.
“Our current path will lead to a permanent underclass,” he said.
Tapia, a Los Angeles native whose parents emigrated from Mexico, renounced the “sink or swim” mentality that some embrace in higher education. Retention and mentoring programs can work for minorities, he argued, if they are given funding and support.
“Treating everyone the same is not good enough,” Tapia said. [To read the entire story, go to: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/15/mismatch ]
September 15, 2008
Addressing the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Friday, a panel of researchers discussed whether minority students are doomed to failure if admitted into highly selective science programs on the basis of racial preferences.
The commission’s briefing centered on the “mismatch” theory, which suggests minority students are less successful in science majors when they are placed in colleges with academic standards that far exceed the students’ preparation.
“Race preferences in admissions … are harming the aspirations of blacks,” said Rogers Elliott, professor emeritus of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College.
The controversial mismatch theory purports to explain, in part, why black and Hispanic students are less likely than whites to complete degrees in the so-called STEM disciplines of science.
Richard Sander, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, drew upon data from the University of Michigan’s graduation rates to illustrate the mismatch theory. He noted that for black students who entered Michigan in 1999, 73 percent who were given “no preference” graduated in four years compared with 70 percent of white students with the same credentials. But for black students who were given “large preference,” just 21 percent graduated in four years, compared with 35 percent of whites who were also given a large preference.
In order to determine the level of preference given to applicants, Sander used an index that included standardized test scores and grade point averages. A 50-point difference on the verbal SAT, for instance, would be considered a moderate preference under Sander’s analysis. A 90-point difference would be considered a large preference. (Michigan officials could not be reached for comment, but in previous debates over affirmative action they have rejected the idea that applicants can be grouped by SAT scores alone to judge their relative ability.)
Sander introduced his mismatch analysis of black law school students in 2004. Since that time, his argument that some minority students might be better served at less prestigious institutions has been met with criticism by affirmative action advocates, who say that race-blind admissions in law schools, for instance, would ultimately undercut minority participation altogether.
California Data Shows Mismatch, Sander Says
The University of California System also served as a model for Sander’s research. Citing unpublished data from the system, Sander noted that black and Latino students have far greater success rates in science when they enroll in the California’s less selective campuses. Minority students were about half as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees in science at Berkeley or UCLA, for instance, as they were to earn science degrees from five of the of the other six campuses in the system, according to Sander’s study of those entering between 1998 and 2000.
“All those [data] show very compelling evidence that there really is some mismatching going on,” he said.
Michael Yaki, a member of the commission, was the lone commissioner to publicly criticize Sander’s analysis at Friday’s briefing.
“Part of what we’re talking about is the potentiality of human beings, and that’s not something you can really measure,” said Yaki, a rare Democrat on the Republican-dominated commission.
Richard Tapia, a panelist at the briefing and a math professor at Rice University, expressed concern about steering minorities to less rigorous academic programs – just for the sake of increasing degree production in the sciences. The net result, he argued, will be fewer minorities on faculty at prestigious institutions, which are disinclined to hire professors lacking in academic pedigree.
“Our current path will lead to a permanent underclass,” he said.
Tapia, a Los Angeles native whose parents emigrated from Mexico, renounced the “sink or swim” mentality that some embrace in higher education. Retention and mentoring programs can work for minorities, he argued, if they are given funding and support.
“Treating everyone the same is not good enough,” Tapia said. [To read the entire story, go to: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/15/mismatch ]
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
NSF: Role of HBCUs as Baccalaureate-Origin Institutions of Black S&E Doctorate Recipients
by Joan Burrelli and Alan Rapoport[1]
NSF 08-319 August 2008
In a February 2008 article in the Washington Post, the presidents of four Maryland historically black institutions raised the issue of the role and relevance of historically black institutions in enhancing educational opportunities for African Americans (Avery et al 2008). This InfoBrief partially addresses this issue by examining the role of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as baccalaureate-origin institutions of black science and engineering (S&E)[2] doctorate recipients. It examines trends primarily during the past two decades and compares HBCUs to non-HBCU institutions, to different Carnegie types of institutions,[3] and to a select group of baccalaureate colleges—the Oberlin 50 (minus Hampton University which is an HBCU).[4] The InfoBrief also examines differences between public and private institutions. The analysis focuses on two types of output variables: the absolute number of doctorates and the institutional yield—the number of S&E doctorates in a given year per thousand bachelor's degrees awarded in all fields 9 years (the median time from bachelor's-to-doctorate receipt for S&E doctorates) prior to that year.
In the late 1970s over 40% of black S&E doctorate recipients received their baccalaureate degrees from HBCUs.[5] This percentage fell to 25% in the first part of the 1990s before increasing to about 33% in 2006. During the same period (1977–2006), the share of blacks receiving bachelor's degrees from HBCUs fell from 36% to 21% (figure 1).
Baccalaureate-Origin Institutions of Black S&E Doctorate Recipients
Black S&E doctorate recipients from U.S. universities complete their undergraduate education at a wide variety of types of institutions in the United States. A small proportion of blacks earning S&E doctorates from U.S. universities had undergraduate degrees from foreign institutions, 8% in 2006 (table 1). An additional 2% did not provide information about their baccalaureate institutions in 2006. Of those with known U.S. baccalaureate institutions, in 2006 a third earned their bachelor's degrees from an HBCU institution and the remainder earned their bachelor's degrees from non-HBCU institutions. The percentage of S&E doctorate recipients earning their bachelor's degrees from HBCUs ranged between 24% and 33% from 1986 to 2006. Among those earning their baccalaureate degrees at known U.S. institutions in 2006 slightly less than one-third (31%) earned their bachelor's degrees from a non-HBCU research university. The remainder earned their bachelor's degrees from non-HBCU other doctorate-granting institutions (15%), master's-granting institutions (12%), or baccalaureate colleges (8%). The baccalaureate origin of 4% was an Oberlin 49 institution.
Baccalaureate-Origin Institutions of Black S&E Doctorate Recipients Normalized for Bachelor's Degrees Awarded
Although only one-quarter to one-third of black S&E doctorate recipients received their bachelor's degrees from HBCUs from 1986 to 2006, when normalized by the number of bachelor's degrees awarded, HBCUs as a group yielded about as many future S&E doctorates per thousand bachelor's awarded as non-HBCU institutions during this period. The trends for both groups were similar (figure 2).
[To read the entire brief, go to: http://nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08319/#avery2008 ]
NSF 08-319 August 2008
In a February 2008 article in the Washington Post, the presidents of four Maryland historically black institutions raised the issue of the role and relevance of historically black institutions in enhancing educational opportunities for African Americans (Avery et al 2008). This InfoBrief partially addresses this issue by examining the role of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as baccalaureate-origin institutions of black science and engineering (S&E)[2] doctorate recipients. It examines trends primarily during the past two decades and compares HBCUs to non-HBCU institutions, to different Carnegie types of institutions,[3] and to a select group of baccalaureate colleges—the Oberlin 50 (minus Hampton University which is an HBCU).[4] The InfoBrief also examines differences between public and private institutions. The analysis focuses on two types of output variables: the absolute number of doctorates and the institutional yield—the number of S&E doctorates in a given year per thousand bachelor's degrees awarded in all fields 9 years (the median time from bachelor's-to-doctorate receipt for S&E doctorates) prior to that year.
In the late 1970s over 40% of black S&E doctorate recipients received their baccalaureate degrees from HBCUs.[5] This percentage fell to 25% in the first part of the 1990s before increasing to about 33% in 2006. During the same period (1977–2006), the share of blacks receiving bachelor's degrees from HBCUs fell from 36% to 21% (figure 1).
Baccalaureate-Origin Institutions of Black S&E Doctorate Recipients
Black S&E doctorate recipients from U.S. universities complete their undergraduate education at a wide variety of types of institutions in the United States. A small proportion of blacks earning S&E doctorates from U.S. universities had undergraduate degrees from foreign institutions, 8% in 2006 (table 1). An additional 2% did not provide information about their baccalaureate institutions in 2006. Of those with known U.S. baccalaureate institutions, in 2006 a third earned their bachelor's degrees from an HBCU institution and the remainder earned their bachelor's degrees from non-HBCU institutions. The percentage of S&E doctorate recipients earning their bachelor's degrees from HBCUs ranged between 24% and 33% from 1986 to 2006. Among those earning their baccalaureate degrees at known U.S. institutions in 2006 slightly less than one-third (31%) earned their bachelor's degrees from a non-HBCU research university. The remainder earned their bachelor's degrees from non-HBCU other doctorate-granting institutions (15%), master's-granting institutions (12%), or baccalaureate colleges (8%). The baccalaureate origin of 4% was an Oberlin 49 institution.
Baccalaureate-Origin Institutions of Black S&E Doctorate Recipients Normalized for Bachelor's Degrees Awarded
Although only one-quarter to one-third of black S&E doctorate recipients received their bachelor's degrees from HBCUs from 1986 to 2006, when normalized by the number of bachelor's degrees awarded, HBCUs as a group yielded about as many future S&E doctorates per thousand bachelor's awarded as non-HBCU institutions during this period. The trends for both groups were similar (figure 2).
[To read the entire brief, go to: http://nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08319/#avery2008 ]
Friday, April 4, 2008
Two Black Americas
The Washington Post
By Eugene Robinson
Friday,
April 4, 2008; A23
Forty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, we sometimes talk about race in America as if nothing has changed. The truth is that everything has changed -- mostly for the better -- and that if we're ever going to see King's dream fulfilled, first we have to acknowledge that this is not an America he would have recognized.
On April 4, 1968, it was possible to make the generalization that being black in this country meant being poor; fully 40 percent of black Americans lived below the poverty line, according to census data, with another 20 percent barely keeping their heads above water. African Americans were heavily concentrated in the inner cities and the rural South. We were far less likely than whites to go to college, and our presence in the corporate world was minimal.
Today, about 25 percent of African Americans are mired in poverty. In many ways, being black and poor is a more desperate and hopeless condition now than it was 40 years ago. For those who managed to enter the middle class, however, most of the old generalizations no longer apply.
There remains a significant income gap between whites and blacks in this country, although it shrinks when educational level is factored in. But the gap in wealth, or net worth, is huge, even when you control for education, age, family size and whatever else you want to throw in. Still, African Americans control an estimated $800 billion in purchasing power. If that were translated into gross domestic product, a sovereign "Black America" would be the 15th- or 16th-richest nation on earth.
Forty years ago, not even 2 percent of black households earned the equivalent of $100,000 a year in today's dollars. Now, about 10 percent of black households have crossed that threshold. George and Louise Jefferson aren't so lonely anymore in that "deluxe apartment in the sky."
Then again, if "The Jeffersons" were being produced today, George and Louise probably wouldn't live in an apartment at all. More realistically, they'd be on a cul-de-sac in a suburban community. In Washington and a growing number of cities, more African Americans now live in the suburbs than within the city limits.
In a sense, then, the most striking measure of how far African Americans have come since 1968 isn't the rise of Barack Obama. It's the story of Stanley O'Neal.
That's not to minimize the prospect that a nation midwifed by slavery could soon have its first black president. But O'Neal did something that would have been equally unimaginable 40 years ago. He rose to become chief executive of Merrill Lynch, one of Wall Street's biggest firms; by all accounts, he was a taskmaster of a boss who cared less about whether subordinates liked him than he did about the bottom line. He placed big bets on mortgage-backed securities, generating record profits for the firm. When he got caught in the mortgage crisis several months ago and was forced to write off billions in losses, he resigned -- and floated back to earth with the help of one of the loveliest golden parachutes Wall Street has seen.
Oh, and his grandfather was born a slave. [To read the entire article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040303122.html?wpisrc=newsletter ]
By Eugene Robinson
Friday,
April 4, 2008; A23
Forty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, we sometimes talk about race in America as if nothing has changed. The truth is that everything has changed -- mostly for the better -- and that if we're ever going to see King's dream fulfilled, first we have to acknowledge that this is not an America he would have recognized.
On April 4, 1968, it was possible to make the generalization that being black in this country meant being poor; fully 40 percent of black Americans lived below the poverty line, according to census data, with another 20 percent barely keeping their heads above water. African Americans were heavily concentrated in the inner cities and the rural South. We were far less likely than whites to go to college, and our presence in the corporate world was minimal.
Today, about 25 percent of African Americans are mired in poverty. In many ways, being black and poor is a more desperate and hopeless condition now than it was 40 years ago. For those who managed to enter the middle class, however, most of the old generalizations no longer apply.
There remains a significant income gap between whites and blacks in this country, although it shrinks when educational level is factored in. But the gap in wealth, or net worth, is huge, even when you control for education, age, family size and whatever else you want to throw in. Still, African Americans control an estimated $800 billion in purchasing power. If that were translated into gross domestic product, a sovereign "Black America" would be the 15th- or 16th-richest nation on earth.
Forty years ago, not even 2 percent of black households earned the equivalent of $100,000 a year in today's dollars. Now, about 10 percent of black households have crossed that threshold. George and Louise Jefferson aren't so lonely anymore in that "deluxe apartment in the sky."
Then again, if "The Jeffersons" were being produced today, George and Louise probably wouldn't live in an apartment at all. More realistically, they'd be on a cul-de-sac in a suburban community. In Washington and a growing number of cities, more African Americans now live in the suburbs than within the city limits.
In a sense, then, the most striking measure of how far African Americans have come since 1968 isn't the rise of Barack Obama. It's the story of Stanley O'Neal.
That's not to minimize the prospect that a nation midwifed by slavery could soon have its first black president. But O'Neal did something that would have been equally unimaginable 40 years ago. He rose to become chief executive of Merrill Lynch, one of Wall Street's biggest firms; by all accounts, he was a taskmaster of a boss who cared less about whether subordinates liked him than he did about the bottom line. He placed big bets on mortgage-backed securities, generating record profits for the firm. When he got caught in the mortgage crisis several months ago and was forced to write off billions in losses, he resigned -- and floated back to earth with the help of one of the loveliest golden parachutes Wall Street has seen.
Oh, and his grandfather was born a slave. [To read the entire article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040303122.html?wpisrc=newsletter ]
Monday, January 7, 2008
Obama and the ghosts of racism
The Boston Globe
By James Carroll
January 7, 2008
"THEY SAID this day would never come," Barack Obama declared in Iowa last week, and the ghosts of this nation nodded. With an African-American competing seriously for the presidency of the United States, the last act of a centuries-old drama begins. Obama's blood tie to the story of American slavery, ironically, comes through his white mother's ancestry, which apparently includes both slave owners and those who fought for the Union to end slavery. That Obama's father was a Kenyan links him more directly than anyone could have imagined both to Africa's past as an exploited continent, and to its present, where the bloody legacy of colonialism plays itself out. (Obama's father was a member of the Luo tribe, like Raila Odinga, the leader of the Kenyan opposition, whose people are protesting the recent election.)
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Oprah tries to give Obama a lift with black voters
In the American memory, slavery and then the war to abolish it are taken to be the two poles of the story, but it isn't that simple. If racial injustice continued to be a hallmark of life in the United States, it was thought to be an inevitable, but essentially unchosen consequence of the "250 years of unrequited toil," in Abraham Lincoln's phrase, that were imposed on kidnapped Africans and their descendants. Nearly a million Americans died in the war to end slavery, and - still in the American memory - the nation has felt badly ever since that slavery's hangover includes discrimination against black people to this day.
The conventional wisdom, given powerful articulation a generation ago by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, is that the plight of African-Americans - from broad family dysfunction, to almost unshakeable poverty, to disproportionate incarceration rates of black males - is a tragic consequence of the social evil that America nobly renounced in the mid-19th century. Black people are socially disadvantaged, according to this narrative, because of the unhealed wound that was inflicted on them across the early centuries. Innately equal, yes, but they have been made a crippled people, which accounts for their still inferior position.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/07/obama_and_the_ghosts_of_racism/]
By James Carroll
January 7, 2008
"THEY SAID this day would never come," Barack Obama declared in Iowa last week, and the ghosts of this nation nodded. With an African-American competing seriously for the presidency of the United States, the last act of a centuries-old drama begins. Obama's blood tie to the story of American slavery, ironically, comes through his white mother's ancestry, which apparently includes both slave owners and those who fought for the Union to end slavery. That Obama's father was a Kenyan links him more directly than anyone could have imagined both to Africa's past as an exploited continent, and to its present, where the bloody legacy of colonialism plays itself out. (Obama's father was a member of the Luo tribe, like Raila Odinga, the leader of the Kenyan opposition, whose people are protesting the recent election.)
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Oprah tries to give Obama a lift with black voters
In the American memory, slavery and then the war to abolish it are taken to be the two poles of the story, but it isn't that simple. If racial injustice continued to be a hallmark of life in the United States, it was thought to be an inevitable, but essentially unchosen consequence of the "250 years of unrequited toil," in Abraham Lincoln's phrase, that were imposed on kidnapped Africans and their descendants. Nearly a million Americans died in the war to end slavery, and - still in the American memory - the nation has felt badly ever since that slavery's hangover includes discrimination against black people to this day.
The conventional wisdom, given powerful articulation a generation ago by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, is that the plight of African-Americans - from broad family dysfunction, to almost unshakeable poverty, to disproportionate incarceration rates of black males - is a tragic consequence of the social evil that America nobly renounced in the mid-19th century. Black people are socially disadvantaged, according to this narrative, because of the unhealed wound that was inflicted on them across the early centuries. Innately equal, yes, but they have been made a crippled people, which accounts for their still inferior position.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/01/07/obama_and_the_ghosts_of_racism/]
Monday, December 31, 2007
A Disturbing Trend in Law School Diversity
A new website dedicated to improving minority representation at US law schools has been launched. "Lawyering in a Digital Age" is a product of a collaboration between the Society of American Law Schools (SALT) and the Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic at the Columbia University School of Law. The website's statistics show that:
*Over the past 15 years, African Americans and Mexican Americans have been applying to law schools in relatively constant numbers.
* These African American and Mexican American applicants are doing better than ever on the leading indicators used by Law Schools to determine admissibility: undergraduate grade point average and LSAT scores.
*The size of law school classes and law schools has increased.
*The percentage representation of both groups has actually trended downward since 1992. In real numbers, there were fewer African American and Mexican American first year law students in the Fall, 2005 class (3595 combined) than existed in Fall, 1992 (3937).
To see the related statistics and charts supporting these conclusions, go to: http://www2.law.columbia.edu/civilrights/
*Over the past 15 years, African Americans and Mexican Americans have been applying to law schools in relatively constant numbers.
* These African American and Mexican American applicants are doing better than ever on the leading indicators used by Law Schools to determine admissibility: undergraduate grade point average and LSAT scores.
*The size of law school classes and law schools has increased.
*The percentage representation of both groups has actually trended downward since 1992. In real numbers, there were fewer African American and Mexican American first year law students in the Fall, 2005 class (3595 combined) than existed in Fall, 1992 (3937).
To see the related statistics and charts supporting these conclusions, go to: http://www2.law.columbia.edu/civilrights/
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The great lie in African-American hiring
DAVID D'ALESSANDRO
By David D'Alessandro October 8, 2007
"I TRIED to hire an African-American, there were just no qualified applicants available, and I really need to fill the job soon."
I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times in my Boston career as an employer, board member, or adviser I have heard and still hear this comment when a management person is unable to fill a key position with an African-American.
It is a great lie.
Most times, managers have not searched diligently, or the headhunters are in such a rush to get their fee that they push the more plentiful experienced white candidates because they know managers try to fill jobs quickly before they lose the position for budget reasons or simply because they need the work done fast.
While that will certainly be denied and does not happen everywhere, it occurs more than one imagines.
But this great lie is widely accepted under the premise that if "at least some effort has been made to recruit a black he/she has done their duty." In other words, the "easy out." After all, business needs to go on. The rationale is "That's not prejudice - we tried."
Not all organizations and companies let managers get away with it that easily, but take a good look around. Certainly, almost every Boston organization has African-American managers, particularly nonprofits, government, and universities. And some have done a reasonable job in placing qualified blacks in senior positions.
But most private companies struggle with this issue. Especially at the upper-middle and senior ranks. Most of these profit companies are run by a phalanx of white guys, a woman or two, and perhaps a black person is in their midst. There may be a few exceptions, but not many. Just peruse the senior executive and board photos in their annual reports. Case closed.
Now exactly why is that? Well, you hear all types of things. Just last week I was in a board meeting and was told, "Highly qualified blacks won't move to Boston because they think it is still a town of great prejudice. They remember the busing issue, Bill Russell's bitterness, and the Charles Stuart case."
That one statement, which I have heard in many versions a hundred times, usually is a debate stopper. A bit like, "Well, if that's the issue, how does our single organization make a dent in such a deeply seated view? Guess we will just have to live with it." Huh?
One of the more fascinating things about prejudice that leads to this inaction is it's easy to believe such statements whether they are true or not. And that acceptance allows people an excuse to not change the dynamic.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2007/10/08/the_great_lie_in_african_american_hiring/ ]
By David D'Alessandro October 8, 2007
"I TRIED to hire an African-American, there were just no qualified applicants available, and I really need to fill the job soon."
I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times in my Boston career as an employer, board member, or adviser I have heard and still hear this comment when a management person is unable to fill a key position with an African-American.
It is a great lie.
Most times, managers have not searched diligently, or the headhunters are in such a rush to get their fee that they push the more plentiful experienced white candidates because they know managers try to fill jobs quickly before they lose the position for budget reasons or simply because they need the work done fast.
While that will certainly be denied and does not happen everywhere, it occurs more than one imagines.
But this great lie is widely accepted under the premise that if "at least some effort has been made to recruit a black he/she has done their duty." In other words, the "easy out." After all, business needs to go on. The rationale is "That's not prejudice - we tried."
Not all organizations and companies let managers get away with it that easily, but take a good look around. Certainly, almost every Boston organization has African-American managers, particularly nonprofits, government, and universities. And some have done a reasonable job in placing qualified blacks in senior positions.
But most private companies struggle with this issue. Especially at the upper-middle and senior ranks. Most of these profit companies are run by a phalanx of white guys, a woman or two, and perhaps a black person is in their midst. There may be a few exceptions, but not many. Just peruse the senior executive and board photos in their annual reports. Case closed.
Now exactly why is that? Well, you hear all types of things. Just last week I was in a board meeting and was told, "Highly qualified blacks won't move to Boston because they think it is still a town of great prejudice. They remember the busing issue, Bill Russell's bitterness, and the Charles Stuart case."
That one statement, which I have heard in many versions a hundred times, usually is a debate stopper. A bit like, "Well, if that's the issue, how does our single organization make a dent in such a deeply seated view? Guess we will just have to live with it." Huh?
One of the more fascinating things about prejudice that leads to this inaction is it's easy to believe such statements whether they are true or not. And that acceptance allows people an excuse to not change the dynamic.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2007/10/08/the_great_lie_in_african_american_hiring/ ]
Saturday, September 22, 2007
African-American Lawyers Working as Temps in Law Firms Signals Possible Trend
Workforce Management
Recruiting and Staffing
High representation in contingent work may be indicative of a broader trend in which African-American lawyers, for various reasons, are opting to work for temporary staffing agencies instead of at law firms. Lack of opportunity could be a factor. By Irwin Speizer ulian S. Brown, president of development at legal staffing company Compliance Inc., in Arlington, Virginia, recently checked up on a job that called for five lawyers to work on a temporary assignment. Four of them, it turned out, were African-American.
"That’s not rare," Brown says. "It turns out that there are a higher percentage of minority attorneys who are temping. Typically, on one of our projects, we will have 30 percent who are African-American."
The rate of participation by African-American lawyers in temporary jobs at Compliance Inc. is the opposite of the situation at most large law firms in the U.S., where only a fraction of the jobs are held by African-Americans. Brown says Compliance Inc., which is owned by international staffing company Vedior, has made no special effort to recruit African-American lawyers. Rather, he believes the situation at Compliance is indicative of a broader trend in which African-American lawyers, for various reasons, opt to work for temporary staffing agencies instead of at law firms.
"I would argue that it is not going well at law firms [for African-Americans], or else they are not getting opportunities at law firms," Brown says.
While some temporary staffing firms say they also have noticed higher participation by African-American lawyers than might be expected, others say they have either not noticed the trend or else haven’t studied the ethnic makeup of their contract workers. The American Staffing Association, which conducts research on the contingent labor workforce, says it does not collect statistics on participation by African-American lawyers.
But Brown and other staffing professionals say that they are convinced that African-Americans and other minorities are clearly over-represented in the temporary legal staffing field.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.workforce.com/section/06/feature/25/10/84/index.html]
Recruiting and Staffing
High representation in contingent work may be indicative of a broader trend in which African-American lawyers, for various reasons, are opting to work for temporary staffing agencies instead of at law firms. Lack of opportunity could be a factor. By Irwin Speizer ulian S. Brown, president of development at legal staffing company Compliance Inc., in Arlington, Virginia, recently checked up on a job that called for five lawyers to work on a temporary assignment. Four of them, it turned out, were African-American.
"That’s not rare," Brown says. "It turns out that there are a higher percentage of minority attorneys who are temping. Typically, on one of our projects, we will have 30 percent who are African-American."
The rate of participation by African-American lawyers in temporary jobs at Compliance Inc. is the opposite of the situation at most large law firms in the U.S., where only a fraction of the jobs are held by African-Americans. Brown says Compliance Inc., which is owned by international staffing company Vedior, has made no special effort to recruit African-American lawyers. Rather, he believes the situation at Compliance is indicative of a broader trend in which African-American lawyers, for various reasons, opt to work for temporary staffing agencies instead of at law firms.
"I would argue that it is not going well at law firms [for African-Americans], or else they are not getting opportunities at law firms," Brown says.
While some temporary staffing firms say they also have noticed higher participation by African-American lawyers than might be expected, others say they have either not noticed the trend or else haven’t studied the ethnic makeup of their contract workers. The American Staffing Association, which conducts research on the contingent labor workforce, says it does not collect statistics on participation by African-American lawyers.
But Brown and other staffing professionals say that they are convinced that African-Americans and other minorities are clearly over-represented in the temporary legal staffing field.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://www.workforce.com/section/06/feature/25/10/84/index.html]
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