By Nicholas Stix
I’ve been talking about aspects of what I believe has contributed to this situation for years: More and more businesses and agencies have for over 25 years had a no-white-men-need-apply policy.
Circa 1990, I applied for a job as a drug counselor. There was a group interview situation, and at one point the Hispanic guy running things said that because I was white, he would never consider hiring me—in front of everyone, with no fear.
Walk up the Ladies Shopping Mile on Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue, between 14th and 34th Streets. You may see some white men running stores—during the late 1990s, a Jew named Brian ran the Toys ‘R Us on 34th and Sixth, but during the 1990s, you would typically find no white men (and few white women) workers in those stores, unless he counted as disabled. Thus, there was a tall, pale, young, blond-haired white man sometimes cleaning the floor at the Barnes & Noble superstore on Sixth Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd streets—with a gigantic hearing aid riding atop each ear.
So, if you’re an unemployable, working-class white man, what are you gonna do? You have nothing to live for, and you’re going to end up homeless.
“Death Rates Rise for Wide Swath of Adults,” at the Wall Street Journal, which of course does not offer my explanation.
Last Fall on a busy commercial strip in SE Queens (along the F line terminus) I passed by one of those glass bus stops, where the bookends have large ads.
ReplyDeleteThe ad I saw was a photo of a mid-30's hip, dread-locked black - book in one hand, plenty of chalk-writing behind him - in front of a high school class representative of NYC today. The pitch was something like this (regretably I wasn't able to take a photo for proof):
'Too many students of color in this city don't graduate within four years, or graduate at all. They DESERVE a teacher that LOOKS LIKE THEM (emphasis mine).
Call 311 to find out how the NYC Dept of Education can help make their dream a reality'.
Interestingly, after ~ 3 days, the ad was gone.
Other than the total fallacy (idiocy, really) of the claim that one can 'best learn' from a teacher of the same ethnicity as the student, this city-sponsored ad was openly, shamelessly promoting outright discrimination.
In effect stating: 'unless you are either Hispanic or Black or perhaps SouthEast Asian, don't bother applying to the NYC BOE for a teaching job'.
Anyone Caucasian - especially male, especially straight, who walks with an upright-posture - has a snowball's chance in hell of getting any teaching job in the public school system.
As seen in the paper at least a few times every year, the BOE is far more comfortable hiring 'teachers of color', either with criminal histories, or well on their way to committing one within the school system (sexual harassment, drug-dealing, etc).
When dealing with any city, state or Fed agency today - especially in an 'urban' area - 'diversity' is the most important qualification you can have.
A college degree, a Master's degree, is no longer a protective buffer against this racism.