The New York Times, along with other publications have recently been talking up the latest study that suggests that racial bias is playing a major role in high Black unemployment. Here is a clip from the NY Times article.

Similarly, Barry Jabbar Sykes, 37, who has a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, now uses Barry J. Sykes in his continuing search for an information technology position, even though he has gone by Jabbar his whole life.

“Barry sounds like I could be from Ireland,” he said.

If Barry still resides in Atlanta, why would his name need to sound non-Black?
Atlanta has long been a mecca for professional Black folks and it has been that way for a very long time. So according to popular belief, he should be fine, right?

Wrong. Like every other state across the nation, Georgia is being hit pretty hard by this recession. Bottom line, in this economy employers are being guided more by the bottom line than the hue of their workforce.

Another thing. Government (local, state and federal) has been a huge employer of Blacks for a very long time. Has that trend stopped recently? Career website The Black Perspective has a multi-page article encouraging Blacks to consider Fed jobs. They even tout how the Federal government has more employees than Wal-Mart –pdf). You will also find many Blacks in blue collar jobs in the private sector. The manufacturing sector, for example has especially been hit pretty hard for the past few years and is responsible for much of the high unemployment amongst Blacks in states like Michigan. The above PDF file also lists 40 companies in the private sector that have been known for not only hiring Blacks, but supporting many community functions and programs throughout the Black community. So again, it makes it very hard to believe that somehow a good swath of the private sector is suddenly cutting off Black folks as the economy worsens.

I particularly do not care for studies like this one because they rarely take into consideration that not only are Blacks typically employed in vulnerable sectors, but also the fact that our 13% demographic make up when compared to the White demographic will always portray us at a disadvantage. In other words, 5% of Blacks is not the same as 5% of Whites.

There is no question that bias does exist in the workplace. I just don’t see how it is playing a major role in higher Black unemployment rates in this economy.