Blacks with College Degrees face hardships

In an article published in the New York Times published 12/1/09, entitled "In Job Hunt, College Degree Can't Close Racial Gap" there has been new evidence that suggests that Blacks with college degrees have suffered more than Blacks without college degrees. The article cites the statistic that the jobless rate for black male graduates 25 and over is 8.4% compared with 4.4% for white males. The article also cites a study says White, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more Whites and fewer Blacks than black managers.

The impact of this is hardly lost on me. Personally I have been on a rather arduous job search for over a year. I have often wondered whether my race plays a role in me getting hired or even called back for interviews. Many who know me would consider me unashamedly black and clearly opinionated at that. I have walked into interviews after having great phone conversations, felt that things went well to find out that I did not get the job. By no means do I sit down and automatically assume that I did not get the job because of race. But when I see many blacks and other minorities with college degrees from equally amazing universities in situations similar to mine, I tend to wonder does race play some part in the continuing battle for economic equality?

I know the impact of the recession on everyone, but as the old adage goes when the country gets a cold, black people get a flu. And in this recession the flu that Blacks are getting will no doubt erase many of the economic gains that have been accomplished during the past 20 years. The saddest part to the whole thing is that as we continue to tell our young people to go to college and get a degree and want them to believe that they will be fine, the stats show a completely different reality. By no means do I favor Blacks not going to college. In my opinion that is simply stupid, but the way we view a college degree needs to be analyzed even more.

I do believe that with time as the economy rebounds Blacks will start getting hired in positions. But as the scarcity of jobs becomes more obvious and companies have to dig through a pile of qualified candidates, people with names like Akim and Akilah will continue to struggle in comparison to Adam and Ashley. Things will change eventually, but the impact of the damage done may even take longer to recover from.

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