It Really Is All About Race

It's the final week of Black History Month for 2007, and I'm left with an interesting feeling that was prompted by a conversation I was having with someone.

We were talking in general terms when he happened to say that everyone in America had an equal chance to succeed and that there were no excuses for anyone not making a good living. While I could have let it go, I decided to mention that it's not quite that easy for people who are in minority groups in certain segments of this country. One would think there are more opportunities, and indeed life doesn't seem as hard across the board, but there are still major problems that some people face, that are harder to overcome than other problems. This person then said that I always fall back on race as a problem, it shouldn't be considered a problem in today's world, and that I obviously had a chip on my shoulder because I'm black.

Well, I had to take a step back to think about this one for a little bit. It's funny, but I do seem to have this conversation with people from time to time; after all, I do talk about diversity as part of what I do. But it's more than that, as I thought about it. There's a major reality in America, probably around the world, that people need to come to grips with, that's going to keep this country and other countries from ever getting past these things and moving forward.

In America, it's all about two things; money and race. Always, every time, period. Sometimes they're combined, sometimes they're separated, but overall, in my opinion, it's all about these two things.

There, it's said. Now let's talk about it. It seems like I come to this easily, and I probably do, but not without some minor history of my own, and certainly not without statistics of reality behind me. A few years ago, ABC News did an experiment where, first, they sent out resumes to companies where all the applicants had similar backgrounds and experiences. The one difference is that half of the resumes had traditional first and last names, and half had names that most of America considers as black names. Out of all these resumes, 72% of the resumes with traditional names got calls for interviews, whereas only 28% of those with supposedly black names got calls.

They then did a second test where they sent two men, one white and one black, who had gone to the same college, knew each other, and actually had similar jobs already, which means they had almost the same background, to interview for a host of jobs. The white candidate got called back for second interviews for each job, and was offered the position 8 of 10 times; the black candidate didn't get a single call back.

Need more? A former University of Wisconsin researcher named Devah Pager set out to prove a theory of hers, and, in her study, found that black men without a criminal record were less likely to get hired than white men with a criminal record. She was assailed at the time for doing faulty research, so a few years later, as a sociologist at Princeton, she did the survey again, this time with 1,500 private employers in New York City; the results were the same.

Other studies have proven the same thing in other cities such as Chicago, and in private interviews some employers have come right out and said they would never hire a black employee, using words such as "unskilled," "uneducated," "illiterate," "dishonest," and "lacking initiative" in their descriptions.

According to Labor Department reports, nearly 40 percent of young black males are unemployed. Black unemployment still remains the highest of any group in America. Black male unemployment for the past decade has been nearly double that of white males.

Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that Target Corporation, the retail sales giant, has agreed to pay $775,000 to a group of black workers as part of a litigation settlement of the agency's race discrimination and retaliation suit against the company. Similar lawsuits have plagued other large corporations for years.

Even a federal commission, meeting on race and color discrimination in April 19, 2006, came up with these three statements: racial discrimination clearly persists in the labor market, though it is more powerful against some groups of minorities than others; while employer discrimination occurs less frequently than in earlier generations, and no doubt contributes less to persisting racial wage and employment gaps than was once true, its direct and indirect effects likely remain important; the very high rates of incarceration among young black men clearly feed discriminatory behavior by employers.

Of course, I've only talked about employment. Those who have nice jobs and want to move to better neighborhoods still face issues in trying to live their version of the American dream. For instance, blacks experience twice as many mortgage denials as whites. Nationally, less than 50 percent of black families own homes compared with more than 70 percent of white families. Blacks are almost a third more likely to get a high-priced mortgage than white borrowers with the same credit scores, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, a fair mortgage advocacy group.

So, I talk about these things, and, as I said, I have my own history. Yet people want to talk about me in terms of my life now. They want to bring up Oprah, Bill Cosby, other entertainers and sports stars as how things have changed. Let's be serious now. Sure, I'm doing okay these days, but if I hadn't had to deal with some things that came up, including one vice president of a company who told me that he had to seriously consider whether to hire me or not, because I was black and might offend some of the company's clients, I might have been further ahead. No guarantees, of course, but, when all things aren't equal and you know your qualifications should make you stand out, and you can't get a call back after an interview, well, it makes one wonder at times.

You can't compare every day people to athletes and entertainers. Even if you do, you end up talking very small numbers compared to the public at large, and the black public more specifically. How many people in America are going to live up to the standard of an Oprah Winfrey (love her, by the way), let alone black people? That there are some black people who actually succeed on their own terms and have the opportunity to make a significant impact on their own lives and others, without the benefit of being a major celebrity or athlete, deserves way more praise because of the extra effort it took, not in spite of it.

No, I don't sit on race as an issue as a daily thing, but I'm always aware of things. I don't suffer generalizations all that well, especially when they're used to try to negate real problems in the world. No one is going to get a free pass, especially when there still has to be a Black History Month to force people to, at least one period of the year, acknowledge that blacks have made a significant impact on America. Heck, without black people, would there even be an America today, even though it wasn't voluntary? Now, there's an interesting topic to consider.

I really wish more people would have the opportunity to participate in experiments that go on in many cities known as Community Wide Dialogue groups, which I had the pleasure of participating in some years ago. It really opened some eyes in the group, and gave some others a feeling of validation that their side was at least understood by someone. Understanding and communication; it will go a long way to help solve some of the ills of this country, and the world.