Quote: (01-04-2013 09:35 AM)tenderman100 Wrote:
Today, in 2012, it has never been a better time for an African American male to get an education and decide to enter mainstream economic life.
I know. I consult with a lot of companies, big and small. A close relative of mine is the Chief Human Resources officer of a publicly traded company. These firms would LOVE to hire African American males with college degrees, requisite skills, and obvious intelligence. I bet if Athlone walked into most Fortune 500 companies, he would get hired on the spot.
But Athlone is the exception rather than the rule. The marginalization of academic achievement inside the black young male community that Athlone talks about is so embedded that few will take that mainstream path.
The set of circumstances about which Athlone writes about is tragic in so many ways, but this particular aspect of the tragic drama is truly awful. Two or three generations of African American males -- many of whom could be tremendously productive -- are consigning themselves to be economic flotsam and jetsam. And of course the black politicians and pundits -- the Rangels, the Jacksons, the Sharptons, the Maxine Waters of the world -- are either not interested or totally ineffectual in doing some thing about this.
I hate to do this but I am going to have to call you out on this. The line about companies wanting to hire educated black men is complete utter B.S. From my experience I believe that to NOT be the case, companies generally hire people that are like them. I know this first hand and actually read this last week in one of the business magazines, this is the "first" thing they look for.
Secondly, they have done studies whereby they have sent out identical resumes with the same qualifications. One resume is clearly from a white person and the other from a black person, now WE all know who got more calls for interviews.
Now I am not some young fresh out of college guy who believes Obama will save the day and this is a new America (Canada in my case). I have been there, actually worked in Canada and Europe. I am in my 40's and still study because I see/know too many guys who are casualties of this job market.
In my latest gig, I have seen little "Jimmy" get a sweet job fresh out of college because Uncle was one of the managers. This at the expense of more senior candidates that were actually doing the same job. My personal favourite is the guy that calls his mate, says he is tired of his current job and would like to work for our company. A month later he is a manager at our company which is hilarious considering the hiring process consists of 6 interviews.
I also know a cute young white girl without college education who lands a decent job with minimum work experience.
Trust me I have more examples but hopefully you get the drift. I am not whining I am stating the reality not the dream that every young, educated, intelligent black male will always walk into a corporate job.
As for Sharpton and Jackson, I won't touch those puppetts for now.