The Real Truth About Blacks and Unemployment…
October 6, 2011 by Staff
Filed under News, Opinion, Sista Talk, Weekly Columns
(ThyBlackMan.com) Before I begin, let me quote the late, great, Booker T. Washington who said, “Of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful and degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human being to hate another by reason of his race or color.”
For two years, I have been unemployed. In the beginning, I applied to more than three hundred open positions in the insurance industry—an industry that I’ve worked in for the previous ten years. Not one employer responded to my resume. So, I enrolled back into college to finish my degree. After completing school this past May, I resumed my search for employment and was quite shocked that I wasn’t getting a single response. I usually applied for positions advertised on the popular website Monster.com. I’d used it in the past and have been successful in obtaining jobs through it.
Two years ago, I noticed that Monster.com had added a “diversity questionnaire” to the site. This gives an applicant the opportunity to identify 
their sex and race to potential employers. Monster.com guarantees that this “option” will not jeopardize your chances of gaining employment. You must answer this questionnaire in order to apply to a posted position—it cannot be skipped. At times, I would mark off that I was a Black female, but then I thought, this might be hurting my chances of getting employed, so I started selecting the “decline to identify” option instead. That still had no effect on my getting a job. So I decided to try an experiment: I created a fake job applicant and called her Bianca White.
First, I created an email account and resume for Bianca. I kept the same employment history and educational background on her resume that was listed on my own. But I removed my home phone number, kept my listed cell phone number, and changed my cell phone greeting to say, “You have reached Bianca White. Please leave a message.” Then I created an online Monster.com account, listed Bianca as a White woman on the diversity questionnaire, and activated the account.
That very same day, I received a phone call. The next day, my phone line and Bianca’s email address, were packed with potential employers calling for an interview. I was stunned. More shocking was that some employers, mostly Caucasian-sounding women, were calling Bianca more than once, desperate to get an interview with her. All along, my real Monster.com account was open and active; but, despite having the same background as Bianca, I received no phone calls. Two jobs actually did email me and Bianca at the same time. But they were commission only sales positions. Potential positions offering a competitive salary and benefits all went to Bianca.
At the end of my little experiment, (which lasted a week), Bianca White had received nine phone calls—I received none. Bianca had received a total of seven emails, while I’d only received two, which again happen to have been the same emails Bianca received. Let me also point out that one of the emails that contacted Bianca for a job wanted her to relocate to a different state, all expenses paid, should she be willing to make that commitment. In the end, a total of twenty-four employers looked at Bianca’s resume while only ten looked at mines.
Is this a conspiracy, or what? I’m almost convinced that White Americans aren’t suffering from disparaging unemployment rates as their Black counterpart because all the jobs are being saved for other White people.
My little experiment certainly proved a few things. First, I learned that answering the diversity questionnaire on job sites such as Monster.com’s may work against minorities, as employers are judging whom they hire based on it. Second, I learned to suspect that resumes with ethnic names may go into the wastebasket and never see the light of day.
Other than being chronically out of work, I embarked on this little experiment because of a young woman I met while I was in school. She was a twenty-two-year-old Caucasian woman who, like myself, was about to graduate. She was so excited about a job she had just gotten with a well-known sporting franchise. She had no prior work experience and had applied for a clerical position, but was offered a higher post as an executive manager making close to six figures. I was curious to know how she’d been able to land such a position. She was candid in telling me that the human resource person who’d hired her just “liked” her and told her that she deserved to be in a higher position. The HR person was also Caucasian.
Another reason that pushed me to do this experiment is because of the media. There’s not a day that goes by in which I fail to see a news program about how tough the job market is. Recently, while I was watching a report on underemployed and underpaid Americans, I saw a middle aged White man complaining that he was making only $80,000 which was $30,000 less than what he was making before. I thought to myself that in this economy, many would feel they’d hit the jackpot if they made 80K a year.
In conclusion, I would like to once again quote the late, great, Booker T. Washington when he said, “You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.”
The more America continues to hold back great candidates based on race, the more our economy is going to stay in a rut. We all need each other to prosper, flourish, and to move ahead.
Staff Writer; Yolanda Spivey
Also connect with this sister via Facebook; Y. Spivey.
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Where do some Black people live, under a rock? Studies have been done showing that White employers readily admit that they hire White people first. They also state that they would hire a White ex-con with no degree over a Black with a college education. In other words, they look out for their own. We need to stop acting like this somehow goes against nature. The answer is not forcing your way in to work for these people, but getting your own businesses. God bless the child that has it’s own.
I happen to believe your story to be true, but without proof it’s irrelevant because we all already believe it. Please post the evidence: pictures, emails, file a lawsuit, and for God’s sake name names! Which businesses were caught engaing in discrimination? We need actionable information not gossip.
Yolanda. You have done what most of us fail to do. You have acted with action and not emotionalism. When we learn to do what you have done and stop crying, then and only then will we move forward.
The Black churces in America have $60 B in the white banks. Have you ever heard of a bank doing anything for the Black community? It’s the law folkes that they return a portion of that money back to the community.
C OORRELL even though you are right you are wrong. People like you should be a silent example and keep your thoughts silent.
We need encouragement not fault finders. Be more like Yolanda, get in the bus with us or get off. That old I got mine you get yours should have died with Slavery.
You just figuring this out? This has been going on for years!
I love this article Yolanda because it reflects on how society view African Americans. For years, we have been considered weak, poor and uneducated. However, we have reached remarkable goals as well, such as OBAMA being the first African American president. Life is a journey for all of us and I salute you for doing this experiment. Moving forward, I would use this experiment as a stepping stone to promote and advocate for social change. Keep up the good work because you have great potential and when “one door closes another one opens.”
A.G. Gaston, Madame CJ Walker are the names of a few who just said “f*ck it” i’m doing my own thing.” <–Paraphrase, of course.
If no one wants to hire, that's alright. In America, in life, what you can dream, you can achieve. You have the skills, you have the vision, go do. It's always, in my opinion and experience, when a company refuses to hire, there's greater things in play and intended for the one who was not hired. And all the time, the greater things tend to taste sweeter!
Yolanda, please tell me this experiment will get more attention. I agree with John, something is terribly wrong. I get wanting to know race for the sites statistics, but the employers aren’t interviewing fairly having that info and are stopping you before you get your foot in the door!
What I find odd about the monster.com policy is that I thought all the big employers were NOT supposed to see their potential employees visually and do all hiring by phone to avoid charges of a) favoritism b) nepotism c)racism, d) hiring attractive people only, etc.
I’m a bit surprised that Monster would make a diversity questionaire be a requirement. It almost sounds…wrong?
Hey Monica,
The word was used correctly. You are the second person to bring this to my attention–if you look the word up, you will see that it is used amongst people that are older and of Scottish decent. It’s just a style of writing and not necessarily incorrect grammar. Please read the following http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/06/mines.html and thanks for the support.
“In the end, a total of twenty-four employers looked at Bianca’s resume while only ten looked at mines.”
Please note that the correct word in this sentence is “mine” not “mines”.
Black people have more power than they think. Our buying power will reach 1 trillion$, this represents the 16th wealthiest nation in the world. We have to find a way to make sure that this money stays in our community. Now 97% of it goes to the mainstream. Believe me Jewish people and the Asians always make sure that their money stays in their community. We have to do the same!!!
Tell me something I already didn’t know. The bottom line is we as “Black” Americans are as much at fault for our reputations as those that judge us without truly knowing us. Just look at our culture and how our men would rather wear their pants off their butts and our women are running around getting tattoos all over their bodies. Just look at how many will comment on LIL Wayne on your facebook as oppose to the economic crisis that plagues us and/or President Obama’s push to equal out the playing field for all Americans. The bottom line is your resume is the first avenue for potential employers to discriminate. If your parents named you Bonquita, Daequan, or some other crazy name then you should thank them very much because they just screwed you. If you went to an HBCU just so you can “be around your people” then you screwed yourself. If you don’t have a critical skill, a higher education at the Master’s level or higher, or is not flexible, then you will not get hired. As a black man, I know and believe that I was borne with three strikes against me…young, black, male. Over the course of 33 years, I know three things have been instrumental in mitigating those strikes…self discipline, perseverance, and education. Until more of us become enlightened on cases as such and learn that what each of us do, at all times, truly affects the next, then we will continually be faced with institutionalized Racism.
WOW! Great article and insight Yolanda! I think you should try to get as much exposure for you article as possible. Consider reaching out to Keith Olbermann on Current TV. Also, consider going on one of these interviews as Bianca and taking either a film crew or a hidden camera with you and upload onto youtube…just a thought.
Thanks DG and Patsy,
I too feel that entrepreneurship might be the best route at this time. I appreciate the support.
Wow! Thanks Yolanda for sharing your story. I am taking the same path than DG. I want to become an entrepreneur. I am willing to work three times harder than everybody but not for the mainstream but for myself. They always exploited us and probably always will.
That is such a sad commentary, but I have experienced it myself. I consistently see people with less talent, less credibility, and less capacity than me get positions that I am more than qualified for at a higher salary.
That is why I have turned to entrepreneurship.