Black Men & Education

Black Men & Education
M.D. Wright
12.16.09

Arrite, I'mma get off real quick no homo, but after reading one of my friend's blogs earlier, and having a conversation with one of my boys about my plight since I left my last real job (August 2005), I gotta get this off my chest.

What is wrong with America? Capital gains taxes through the roof, corporate taxes further alienating big business, making it tougher for those companies who WOULD create jobs (let's be real, most companies would continue to outsource even with capital gains back down to 15% and corporate taxes back below 40% -- they would only create jobs here with MASSIVE INCENTIVES to do so, and creating jobs and paying the underclass a "reasonable wage" is NOT an incentive to them, so don't be naive) to do so. Women land interviews at a rate of about 40% more than men do, and land jobs at an ALARMING 80% rate than men in 2009.

Think about that for a minute: For every job posting in 1997, there was an average of 2-3 people applying for and interviewing for it. Meaning, you had a good 33% chance of getting the job. Now for every job posting, about 12-15 people apply for and interview for it. Obviously longer odds. Here in New York City, those odds are even longer; with every job posting yielding 25-30 applicants who garner interviews.

Of those, you already see that most of the hired hands will be women and non-Black men.

The interesting corollary here is actually rather complex and manifold. Especially within the Black community. You hear Black women flaunting their ability to be "Independent" now more than ever. You hear stories of good, hard (rather SMART-working, in my case, anyway), educated, innovative Black men getting put down because they don't have a bevy of material possessions or a cache of cash. But what these women forget is that guys like myself get passed over for jobs now or LOST our jobs so that many of these women would have the jobs THEY have today. Yet, we get accused of being "intimidated" by their education or success. I could see how that is valid in some men's cases, but for someone who simply isn't being given a shot, the sentiment is more "greatly annoyed" than "intimidated" (because not even multimillionaires and CEOs of Top 50 companies -- of whom I've met and interacted with on numerous occasions -- intimidate me; surely a woman who is at most my EQUAL is not going to do so, just because she is where I was 7 or 8 years ago financially and materially-speaking.

If you are a Black woman, it is not the time to put Black men down. It is the time to further ENCOURAGE and assist them in finding the right open door. Yet, the opposite is happening far more often.

Regardless of all this, one thing continues to FLUMMOX me -- how is it that I was able to get better job offers with a high school diploma and just a few college credits under my belt when I was applying for jobs in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in the late 90s? Or when I was at Aetna and rival insurance companies were offering me several thousand just to jump ship -- but now that I have a Bachelors degree (REGARDLESS OF THE ECONOMY, because this was going on even when I was undergrad from 2005-2007 while things were still good)I can't even get an interview, much less the job?

Makes you think, huh?

DISCUSS.