Anti-black employment discrimination-post some articles here

[zarahan]

Assorted distorters claim employment discrimination against blacks has virtually disappeared
and or downplay said discrimination against blacks, but the reality is different. Post your
articles here re employment discrimination faced by blacks. Note below that courts had to
order COn Edison to finally begin to promote black employees, several of whom were more
qualified than whites.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


FROM: 5TEVE BABSON- WORKING DETROIT: THE MAKING OP A UNION TOWN. 1986



For Willie Stamps, a black janitor at Detroit Edison, history was also a slow-moving affair. Hired into the utility's Buildings and Properties Department. Stamps won election in 1968 as one of 28 Division Chairmen in Local 223 of the Utility Workers of America—making him the first black officer in the local’s 30-year existence. Because, as he later put it, "we recognized that blacks constituted only two to three percent of the Edison workforce in a city which was approximately 50 percent black,” Stamps and his supporters soon after formed the Association for the Betterment of Black Edison Employees (ABBEE). In 1969, they asked management to inaugurate an affirmative action plan of minority hiring.

The company flatly denied there was racial discrimination in its employment and promotion policies. Recently expanded hiring of blacks into clerical positions was sufficient evidence, Edison added, that race played no part in the company’s employment decisions.

But Detroit’s courts found otherwise when Stamps and the ABBEE brought a lawsuit against Edison in 1971. "It is the conclusion of the Court,” wrote District Judge Damon Keith in 1973, "that the company is refusing to acknowledge the obvious.” Noting that, in 1966, only 300 of Edison's 9,500 employees—and only 4 of its 1,700 managers and officials— were black, the Court ruled that the company’s discrimination "has been deliberate and by design.” With few exceptions. the Court found that Edison only hired blacks into "low-opportunity iobs such as.. .Buildine Cleaner. Janitor, Porter, Wall Washer, Elevator Operator, and Attendant,” and that once trapped in these low-wage jobs, blacks were discouraged from transferring to better-paying departments by a web of discriminatory practices.

When, for example, openings for cable splicer, fireman, brickmason, and other skilled jobs in high-wage departments were announced, Edison initially notified only the junior employees already working in those particular departments. And since those departments were exclusively or predominantly white, so too were most of the applicants who sought promotions and training. The same network of inside references gave whites an advantage when they first applied for work at Edison. Over half the white workers interviewed by federal investigators said they had been steered to Edison by word-of-mouth referrals from friends and relatives already working for the company. In the meantime, Edison failed to list job openings with the Michigan Employment Security Commission until required to do so by law in 1971.

Even when blacks knew of and applied for openings in high-wage jobs, they had to pass a battery of tests which were not, in the Court's view, "valid predictors of job performance.” For those who passed this obstacle, personal interviews and unfavorable evaluations by white managers frequently ended their job search. The few who survived even this hurdle then confronted a bitter irony: to transfer from the top of a low-wage department like Buildings and Properties to the bottom of a high-wage department like Transmission or Maintenance, applicants usually had to accept a new "starting wage" that was lower than their previous rate. In addition, none of the seniority protection against layoffs they had accumulated in their old job could be transferred to the new department. To venture a new career, Edison’s blacks had to risk throwing away whatever wage increases and job security they had won in their old positions.

The evidence, concluded the Court, made it clear that "a substantial number of black employees held in low-opportunity jobs had qualifications superior to a substantial number of whites who had been selected for skilled trades jobs.” Judge Keith therefore ordered Edison to increase minority hiring and promotions until 30 percent of the company's overall workforce and 25 percent of its skilled trades were minority workers. Though a subsequent Appeals Court ruling in 1975 reduced the back-pay damages assessed by Detroit’s District Court, Judge Keith’s ruling was upheld in its basic conclusions..
<JAW skilled tradesman and apprentice.

[zarahan]

Excerpt from Pager and Shepard, two college professors:(Pager and Shepard. 2008. The sociology of discrimination- Racial discrimination in employment, housing, credit, consumer markets, Annu. Rev. Sociol 2008. 34:181–209)
QUOTE:

"Employment

"Although there have been some remarkable gains in the labor force status of racial minorities, significant disparities remain. African Americans are twice as likely to be unemployed as whites (Hispanics are only marginally so), and the wages of both blacks and Hispanics continue to lag well behind those of whites (author’s analysis of Current Population Survey, 2006). A long line of research has examined the degree to which discrimination plays a role in shaping contemporary labor market disparities. Experimental audit studies focusing on hiring decisions have consistently found strong evidence of racial discrimination, with estimates of white preference ranging from 50% to 240% (Cross et al. 1989, Turner et al. 1991, Fix & Struyk 1993, Bendick et al. 1994; see Pager 2007a for a review). For example, in a study by Bertrand & Mullainathan (2004), the researchers mailed equivalent resumes to employers in Boston and Chicago using racially identifiable names to signal race (for example, names like Jamal and Lakisha signaled African Americans, while Brad and Emily were associated with whites).2 White names triggered a callback rate that was 50% higher than that of equally qualified black applicants. Further, their study indicated that improving the qualifications of applicants benefited white applicants but not blacks, thus leading to a wider racial gap in response rates for those with higher skill. Statistical studies of employment outcomes likewise reveal large racial disparities unaccounted for by observed human capital characteristics.

Tomaskovic-Devey et al. (2005) present evidence from a fixed-effects model indicating that black men spend significantly more time searching for work, acquire less work experience, and experience less stable employment than do whites with otherwise equivalent characteristics. Wilson et al. (1995) find that, controlling for age, education, urban location, and occupation, black male high school graduates are 70% more likely to experience involuntary unemployment than whites with similar characteristics and that this disparity increases among those with higher levels of education. At more aggregate levels, research points to the persistence of occupational segregation, with racial minorities concentrated in jobs with lower levels of stability and authority and with fewer opportunities for advancement (Parcel & Mueller 1983, Smith 2002). Of course, these residual estimates cannot control for all relevant factors, such as motivation, effort, access to useful social networks, and other factors that may produce disparities in the absence of direct discrimination. Nevertheless, these estimates suggest that blacks and whites with observably similar human capital characteristics experience markedly different employment outcomes.."

------------------------------------------------------------

[zarahan]

Other data- employment- "Black sounding" names need not apply:

One study by economists at MIT found that even when job applicants are equally qualified in terms of experience and education, applicants with white-sounding names are 50 percent more likely than those with black-sounding names to get a callback for an interview. Another found that white male job applicants with criminal records are more likely to get called back for an interview than black men without one, even when all other qualifications are indistinguishable. Even more depressing ,the study fond that the prospective "black" applicants had to have EIGHT ADDITIONAL YEARS OF EXPERIENCE to get the same number of job callbacks as the prospective "white "candidate. The higher the quality of the resume, the stronger the racial bias became. As scholars of the study note: QUOTE:

"We study race in the labor market by sending fictitious resumes to help-wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers. To manipulate perceived race, resumes are randomly assigned African-American-or White-sounding names. White names receive 50 percent more callbacks for interviews. Callbacks are also more responsive to resume quality for White names than for African-American ones. The racial gap is uniform across occupation, industry, and employer size. We also find little evidence that employers are inferring social class from the names. Differential treatment by race still appears to still be prominent in the U.S. labor market."

-- Bertrand and Mullalinathan 2004. Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? American Economic Review. Sept 2004- 991-1013


Well documented reports of discrimination


QUOTE:
"Research buttresses this evidence of wage discrimination with findings of significant race- and gender-based discrimination in hiring... a multi-year, national study on race and sex discrimination in large and midsized private businesses found that intentional discrimination exists in every region of the country and in each of nine occupational categories ...” (Blumrosen and Blumrosen 2002). Even as recently as this year [2012], the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found that FedEx engaged in discrimination against 21,000 applicants in 15 states (U.S. Department of Labor 2012). In short, although the American ideal may be to judge individuals by the content of their character, we have not yet guaranteed equal opportunity in all cases."

--Source: Economic Policy Institute (2012) The Public Sector jobs crisis. www.epi.org/publication/bp339-public-sector-jobs-crisis/


"Controlled experiments, using matched pairs of bogus transactors, to test for discrimination in the marketplace have been conducted for over 30 years, and have extended across 10 countries. Significant, persistent and pervasive levels of discrimination have been found against non-whites and women in labour, housing and product markets. Rates of employment discrimination against non-whites, in excess of 25% have been measured in Australia, Europe and North America. "
-- Riach and Rich 2002. Field Experiments of Discrimination in the Market Place. The Economic Journal-Volume 112, Issue 483, pages F480–F518.

[kel]

Blacks will have to build there own in order to employ their own.

The facts are pretty clear that whites cannot and will not be 'fair' with blacks ......men specifically...when it comes to issues of money and employment.

In the white mind, employment is entertwined with the critical factors of power and status. Thus, they will instinctually deny these opportunities to blacks when and wherever they can unless proactively forced no to. And the energy needed to do such forcing is enormous.

[anansi]

True we need to relearn the lessons from the era right after the civil war when many concentrated on business and education than the political, not saying that politics is not important but everyone here knows without strong economic grounding one get no respect.

[zarahan]

Oct 1, 2018 9:20:43 GMT -5 kel said:

Blacks will have to build there own in order to employ their own.

The facts are pretty clear that whites cannot and will not be 'fair' with blacks ......men specifically...when it comes to issues of money and employment.

In the white mind, employment is entertwined with the critical factors of power and status. Thus, they will instinctually deny these opportunities to blacks when and wherever they can unless proactively forced no to. And the energy needed to do such forcing is enormous.

Indeed you guys are both right. Folk will have to build independent business
and get qualified hardcore for the labor market to overcome the embedded
obstacles and stacked decks. Hence energy is at a premium. Too often, some folk,
males in particular, are wasting too much time in school, and not doing
what they should be doing. Black women are more focused and are getting ahead.
The days when you could drop out of high school and get a long-term job down
at the local factory are gone. Same with the military now- you need to graduate
and have a good record- else they don;t even bother showing your face. The days
when they would take a warm body and give technical training and weapons training
are gone. Same with many low wage jobs- thousands of illegals are ready and willing
to take the work- and they are making a go of it sending billions every year back
to Mexico and other home countries, plus supporting themselves here.

Some boast they can make it on "street money." But even that is more difficult
now with swarms of police roaming around who get promotions based on arrests etc
particularly felonies. Its not so much maintaining the peace now as the numbers and
dollars racked up via tickets, arrests etc. The days when a local arrest
would disappear in moldy paper records are long gone. Even a field stop for
questioning as a witness to something now gets you logged into the nationwide
electronic plantation. An arrest now is beginning to approach a conviction status- it gets
you on to the digital plantation. Employers, vengeful ex-lovers, and a whole bunch if
otheer people can access that. Every stop they are often asking for date of birth
so they can pull you up in plantation records. Even mugshots now can be pulled up online
along with arrests, bankruptcies, etc etc.. Fools think one arrest is nothing.. Its
very much something these days.. Failure to show for one lousy traffic ticket no longer means
a bigger fine- they will now issue arrest warrants- mo money for the plantation when
they catch up with you.. On top of that are an ever expanding list of crimes to charge
people with..

There is only so much energy to go around. YOuth in particular, males especially
need to stop wasting time, given the discrimination above. Black women show what can
be done with their greater focus. The standard objection is- black women have a lot
of problems. Sure, they do, but they are moving ahead with all those problems, because
they are more focused, so as to work around the embedded bias out there.

[kel]

"Too often, some folk,
males in particular, are wasting too much time in school, and not doing
what they should be doing. Black women are more focused and are getting ahead."

Nonsense.

the men understand instinctually that following the track laid out to them will NOT lead to greater wealth, opportunity, and autonomy. Did you not read the article the standard path and counsel WILL NOT work for Black men and most know it. Black women represent no sense of threat to whites and therefore can always have a place in white controlled and owned work places: Staffers, admin, human resources, pink collar, etc. Furthermore, females have lesser to drive to want to rise and compete and  are thus happier with stability of salary over that of increase in title, responsibility and honors. So their preparation for that track is appropriate based on the reality of hiring.

The men actually get it. Their only real play in a capitalist society - if they want maximum autonomy and opportunity - is through entrepreneurship...no matter how small it starts. And at that point, NO ONE can disqualify you for anything - for if you are even moderately successful, you become the one doing the qualifying.

[zarahan]

-

[zarahan]

Oct 6, 2018 11:06:30 GMT -5 kel said:

"Too often, some folk,
males in particular, are wasting too much time in school, and not doing
what they should be doing. Black women are more focused and are getting ahead."

Nonsense.

the men understand instinctually that following the track laid out to them will NOT lead to greater wealth, opportunity, and autonomy. Did you not read the article the standard path and counsel WILL NOT work for Black men and most know it. Black women represent no sense of threat to whites and therefore can always have a place in white controlled and owned work places: Staffers, admin, human resources, pink collar, etc. Furthermore, females have lesser to drive to want to rise and compete and  are thus happier with stability of salary over that of increase in title, responsibility and honors. So their preparation for that track is appropriate based on the reality of hiring.

The men actually get it. Their only real play in a capitalist society - if they want maximum autonomy and opportunity - is through entrepreneurship...no matter how small it starts. And at that point, NO ONE can disqualify you for anything - for if you are even moderately successful, you become the one doing the qualifying.

Rather dubious. WHo says black folk "instinctually" have to be following a negative track?
You seem to conceive of the folk as dull automatons who can;t do better. Nothing
can be further from the truth. And in fact, ELijah Muhammed and Malcoml X repeatedly
said the same thing above about wasting too much time. The critique still stands.
Indeed, Martin LUther KIng himself talked about the need for focus & effort, a few months
before his death speaking to black students.
Here;s King:

And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you--doors of opportunities that
were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be
ready to face these doors as they open.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better
book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds
his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to
study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school.."

old.seattletimes.com/special/mlk/king/words/blueprint.html


As for entrepreneurship- what you say seems naive if you don;t consider the big picture.
Entrepreneurship- it is a valuable part of the package but only one part. Laborism,
whether as unskilled worker moving up over time, or as skilled technical and professional
worker is another big part. All the successful minorities have prospered using LABOR.
Jews expanded in business but also relied heavily on laborism and education. Hence
many Jewish immigrants got their start with factory work, first unskilled, them
moving up in the trades. They meanwhile pursued education relentlessly, enabling
eventual movement up the ladder more. They had it easier than blacks to be sure but
it was not only entrepreneurship. It was a combined arms package. Asians ran the
same playbook, like Japanese Americans in fishing, farming, truck gardening, landscaping
etc etc. It was hard core laborism that created the capital for entrepreneurship.

Too often some people talk about entrepreneurship as if it is some mystical panacea.
It is only ONE part of the picture, and since most small businesses will fail with 5 years,
the running the laborism/education plays parallel withe entrepreneurship is a must for black folk.

[kel]

"All the successful minorities have prospered using LABOR.
Jews expanded in business but also relied heavily on laborism and education. Hence
many Jewish immigrants got their start with factory work, first unskilled, them
moving up in the trades."

You LIE

or stop talking about things you know nothing about.