Bergmann, Barbara. In Defense of Affirmative Action . New York: Basic Books, 1996: 50-1

So far, in reviewing the labor market situation for women and blacks, we have been looking at their treatment on the job, that is, where they are placed and what they are paid. We need also to look at their ability to land jobs. An important aspect of the labor market disadvantage suffered by African Americans is their high unemployment rate. People are counted as "unemployed" in government statistics only if they are actively looking for work. In good times and bad, unemployment rates for African Americans are twice as high as those for whites. The problem is particularly acute for eighteen- to nineteen-year-old black people, who suffer unemployment rates above 30 percent. When they leave school, it is very hard for them to find jobs, and when they lose a job, they are typically in for a long spell of unemployment before landing the next one.

The results of a recent research project reveal the extent of discrimination against young black men in hiring and give an insight into the connection between that discrimination and their high rate of unemployment. The Urban Institute assembled pairs of young men to serve as "testers." In each pair, one tester was black, the other white. Entry-level job openings were chosen at random from the newspaper, and a pair of testers was assigned to apply for each opening.

The researchers made the pairs of testers as similar as possible, except with regard to race. Testers were matched in physical size and in the education and experience they claimed to have. An attempt was also made to match each pair in openness, energy level, and articulateness. The testers were actually college students, but most of them posed as recent high school graduates and were supplied with fictional biographies that gave them similar job experience. They were put through mock interviews and coached to act like the person they were paired with to the greatest possible extent. The testers were then sent to apply for low skill, entry-level jobs usually filled by young high-school graduates in manufacturing, hotels, restaurants, retail sales, and office work. The job titles ranged from general laborer to management trainee. The testers were instructed to refuse any job offered them so that the other member of the pair could have a chance at it.

The black testers posing as job seekers were carefully coached to present qualifications apparently equal to those of their white counterparts. In reality they were all, black and white, excellently qualified for the jobs they applied for. The Urban Institute researchers found that the young white men were offered jobs 45 percent more often than the young black men. This result clearly reveals that some employers were not treating male minority job seekers equally with white males of similar qualifications.

The same researchers paired white Anglo testers and Hispanic testers who were fluent in English. Again, the pairs of young men were matched to minimize the differences between them; the only apparent differences were the slight accents, somewhat darker complexions, and Spanish names of the Hispanic testers. The Anglos received 52 percent more job offers than the Hispanics.

Carl Gutierrez-Jones,

Department of English

University of California

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu