Civil Rights And African-American
Unemployment is one of the main issues which have worked against the civil rights and identity, livelihood of African Americans. This problem is said to affect African American population more than it does to their white population counterparts.
Historical Setting within Which Unemployment of the African American Occurs
The last twenty years has seen an increase in the unemployment rates in the western countries including the United States. This phenomenon has led to awakening of policy agendas which are driven towards lowering the rates of unemployment and increasing the job opportunity to the population. The American government has played a big role in this and has managed to lower the unemployment rates to five point three percent during the 1st quarter of the year nineteen ninety seven. Despite this effort, there is still unusual higher percentage of unemployed African American population that stands at 10.9% compared to the white American unemployment rates which stands at four point five percent.
The African American population does not only have the challenge of higher unemployment levels but also this population tends to occupy the lower waged jobs. A study revealed that the median weekly earnings in the year nineteen ninety three of a full time worker was four hundred and seventy eight dollars and three hundred and seventy dollars for the African American employee.
The African American civil rights violation which started during the era of slavery has been the source of racism which is the major cause of the inequalities in the unemployment rates that exist between the White Americans and the African Americans (Collier-Thomas, B., and Turner, J. 1994). This has led to more persistent and discrimination on racial grounds in the in the workplace, it has also led to biasness in the hiring process in the job recruitment programs.
As the white American liberals fail to trace the blame on their own policies failure such as the affirmative action and welfare policies, some of the African American on the other hand lay their blame of lack of jobs on the Hispanic immigration. The blacks tend to think that the uneducated Hispanic people take a way the jobs which the learned African Americans were meant to secure (Collier-Thomas, B., and Turner, J. 1994). White American employers have a misconceived believe that African Americans are lazy, uneducated, shiftless and violent in nature (Moore, R. B. 1992). This is also a core issue that lingers in the minds of many white Americans which makes them to develop a shy association with the black population and by so doing racism becomes stronger and stronger making the gap between the unemployment of whites American and African American very wide (Collier-Thomas, B., and Turner, J. 1994).
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