“Diversity” As A Two-Edged Sword

The New York Times has a front page article today, “In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap,” about the continuing discrimination faced by black college and business school graduates. In place of evidence, however, there is innuendo, implication, perception, etc. Oh well, what do you expect? This is the New York Times writing about race, after all.

The article begins:

Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.

But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.

“If they’re going to X me,” Mr. Williams said, “I’d like to at least get in the door first.”

But was Williams ever actually “X’ed” because of his race? Did he find a job once his résumé had been racially cleansed? Who knows? If the Times does, it’s not telling us.

Next:

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.

Again similarly, was Jabbar Sykes ever turned down for a job because of his race? Has Barry J. Sykes been more successful? Can’t tell from the article. But even if Barry succeeded, as he surely will if he hasn’t already, how can he or we be sure that Jabbar wouldn’t have succeeded as well?

Interestingly, even a famous name-changing Barry (though in the other direction) comes in for some knocks.

Many interviewed, however, wrestled with “pulling the race card,” groping between their cynicism and desire to avoid the stigma that blacks are too quick to claim victimhood. After all, many had gone to good schools and had accomplished résumés. Some had grown up in well-to-do settings, with parents who had raised them never to doubt how high they could climb. Moreover, there is President Obama, perhaps the ultimate embodiment of that belief.

Certainly, they conceded, there are times when their race can be beneficial, particularly with companies that have diversity programs. But many said they sensed that such opportunities had been cut back over the years and even more during the downturn. Others speculated there was now more of a tendency to deem diversity unnecessary after Mr. Obama’s triumph.

In fact, whether Mr. Obama’s election has been good or bad for their job prospects is hotly debated. Several interviewed went so far as to say that they believed there was only so much progress that many in the country could take, and that there was now a backlash against blacks.

“There is resentment toward his presidency among some because of his race,” said Edward Verner, a Morehouse alumnus from New Jersey who was laid off as a regional sales manager and has been able to find only part-time work. “This has affected well-educated, African-American job seekers.”

Again, there’s no evidence here for an anti-Obama backlash. The article does refer to some evidence that what it calls “racial inequities” in employment remain — higher black than white unemployment, even among college graduates; the American Economic Review article arguing that “Emily and Greg” are more likely to get interviews than “Lakisha and Jamal” — but it is more coloration than support for the article’s conclusion about the high remaining racial obstacles to employment, a conclusion based not on evidence of any “overt” discrimination but on far “subtler stories,” such as “surprised looks and offhand comments, interviews that fell apart almost as soon as they began….” Mr. Williams, the University of Chicago MBA, says that when he met representatives of a company in Dallas “[t]heir eyes kind of hit the ceiling…. It was kind of quiet for about 45 seconds.”

Looking closely at the comments of these disappointed job seekers suggests something revealing about the nature of their (and the New York Times’) desires and expectations. Consider, for example:

Whether or not each case actually involved bias, the possibility has furnished an additional agonizing layer of second-guessing for many as their job searches have dragged on.

“It does weigh on you in the search because you’re wondering, how much is race playing a factor in whether I’m even getting a first call, or whether I’m even getting an in-person interview once they hear my voice and they know I’m probably African-American?” said Terelle Hairston, 25, a graduate of Yale University who has been looking for work since the summer while also trying to get a marketing consulting start-up off the ground. “You even worry that the hiring manager may not be as interested in diversity as the H.R. manager or upper management.”

It appears that Ms. Hairston does not really want for race not to be a factor when she applies for a job. On the contrary, she wants the “hiring manager” to be seeking “diversity.” In short, she’s disappointed whenever her race does not count as a plus factor for her. In same vein, look again at this paragraph that I quoted above:

Certainly, [many of those interviewed] conceded, there are times when their race can be beneficial, particularly with companies that have diversity programs. But many said they sensed that such opportunities had been cut back over the years and even more during the downturn. Others speculated there was now more of a tendency to deem diversity unnecessary after Mr. Obama’s triumph.

Assuming these perceptions to be correct, what we have here is not continuing discrimination but loss of the “opportunities” for preferential treatment based on race.

“Diversity,” by discarding the principle prohibiting preferential treatment based on race, has done away with the ability of those who see themselves as victims of diversity’s absence to make principled complaints. Thus the article observes, in a strained effort to hold on to discrimination as the culprit:

Discrimination in many cases may not even be intentional, some job seekers pointed out, but simply a matter of people gravitating toward similar people, casting about for the right “cultural fit,” a buzzword often heard in corporate circles.

But if a desire for “multiculturalism” can justify racial preference in hiring, then surely a desire for “cultural fit” can just as easily. What’s sauce for the goose … etc.

Say What?