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Sunday, December 04, 2011

Where Black students from elite colleges go to work...

I'm going to guess that this article is (via Instapundit) talking about Black students from at least the Ivy League universities, but then I wonder about the ones who go to the big name HBCUs such as Hampton, Spelman, Morehouse, Howards, etc. Anyway what's the story here, you may want to know:
Despite civil rights legislation enacted in the 1960s and ’70s, a lack of federal enforcement of and funding for black employment initiatives kept the parents of today’s college students from making significant strides, Beasley writes – and their children have modeled their career preferences accordingly. There is more occupational diversity among black employees today, but the differences as compared to whites are still significant.

For example, according to the 2000 Census, the top 20 white-collar careers among both black and white employees include elementary and secondary education as well as registered nursing. But break it down further and you’ll find that white people hold proportionately more high-status positions: lawyers, physicians, surgeons, chief executives and financial, general and operations managers. Black employees, in contrast, trend toward “service-oriented, racialized jobs” including counselors, education administrators, preschool and kindergarten teachers and community and social service specialists. Taken together, the differences in employment result in: chief executives being the fifth most common white-collar occupation among whites, but 35th among blacks; lawyers being 10th among whites but 27th among blacks; and physicians being 19th among whites but 31st among blacks.

Thus, Beasley concludes that a persistent lack of black employees within certain fields is the source of “significant economic and status disparities” between black and white populations in America.

Here's a possible answer:
Despite the significant role of history and culture in this trend, colleges are partly responsible as well, Beasley says. And she says one big thing they should do to remedy that is revisit the idea of black-themed student residence halls.

“The issue of housing is relatively controversial because the decision to build black-themed dorms and Hispanic-themed dorms all over in the ’80s and ’90s – in general, they were very well-intentioned,” Beasley says. “But the result of having students be so highly segregated is that they’re missing a lot.”

Some black students in Beasley’s study reported self-segregating their social interactions in part to avoid racism or stigmas they encounter on campus, a habit that has been documented in previous research on predominantly white campuses. (While black students make up 10 to 12 percent of Stanford’s undergraduates, they account for only 4 percent at Berkeley. That number has declined significantly since the system’s Board of Regents eliminated affirmative action in hiring and admissions in 1995.) Students take ample advantage of various race-based groups when they are available.
Is this about networking across racial or ethnic boundaries? That's what it sounds like. 
What opportunities could be available to you if you're unwilling to interact with people who are different than you? That is, why not interact with people who are of a different income from you, of a different ethnic background from you, or even from a different state/city?

This article or the book in question in this article "Opting Out: Losing the Potential of America's Young Black Elite" talks about more mainstream universities that may have a significant Black population. I could also ask if this could apply to the HBCU's of this nation?

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