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pocketful-of-rainbows
Unemployed Black Woman Pretends to be White, Job Offers Suddenly Skyrocket
November 15, 2012 | Filed under: BizTechNews | Posted by: bowatkin If you don’t believe that racism in the job market is real, then please read this article by Yolanda Spivey. Spivey, who was seeking work in the insurance industry, found that she wasn’t getting any job offers. But as an experiment, she changed her name to Bianca White, to see if employers would respond differently. You’ll be shocked and amazed by her phenomenal story. Yolanda Spivey Writes: 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.
We had Yolanda Spivey on The Young Turks a couple months ago to talk about this experience.
Source: techyville.com
Marijuana use among young adults has increased substantially over the past two decades. But black men are disproportionately arrested and imprisoned for it. Nationally, black people are arrested for drug-related charges 10 times more often than white people. A new report in the Chicago Reader says that in the Midwest metropolis, that rate is 15 to one. Conversely, black people actually use drugs like marijuana at a lower rate than white people - 5 percent among black people versus 9 percent of white people, according to Time.
When people talk about legalization, they often frame it solely as a drug issue. Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, which means researchers aren't even allowed to test what its effects may be. Marijuana proponents say marijuana is less dangerous and addictive than cigarettes and alcohol.
But legalizing marijuana - or at least decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana - would also have a significant impact on the black community. As of 2001, one in six African American men had served time in prison at some point in their lives. Jail time often leads to inmates trying harder drugs, joining gangs, and becoming victims of violence and rape. Having a drug conviction on your record can make it harder to get a job. All of these issues contribute to larger issues within the black community, like disproportionate unemployment and poverty. Legalizing marijuana could be a way to alleviate that.
Should we reframe marijuana legalization as a race issue? Or should we argue for or against it solely based on the drug's pros and cons?
Should we look at marijuana legalization as a race issue?
Who's being hurt the most by Chicago's public school closures? You guessed it: low-income and overwhelmingly black and Latino students. TYT discusses it with Professor Tricia Rose and Chicago Alderman Leslie Hairston here.
The NYPD is not looked at as a helpful force in any shape, form or fashion. ... Being black in Brooklyn — black, male in Brooklyn — we're always, we're basically taught as children to be terrified of the cops.
Investigative filmmaker Keith Beauchamp and producer for "The Injustice Files: Hood of Suspicion" on the Discovery Channel talks with Michael Shure inside "The War Room" about the long history of racial profiling in the United States.
Cenk Uygur talks to Michael Skolnik, GlobalGrind.com Editor-in-Chief, about how a Brooklyn vigil honoring 16-year-old Kimani Gray turned into a protest. Gray was shot and killed by undercover NYPD officers. Skolnik attended the protest and says major news reports calling participants thugs who turned violent is disrespectful: "There were a lot of young people who were there… who were exercising their constitutional right to peacefully protest and assemble against the 67th precinct, who they think is responsible for killing their friend."
Skolnik says the both Gray's death and the resulting protest show that there's no trust between New York City's minority residents and the police force.
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Porn star Kristina Rose on racism in the adult film industry
Find out the answer tonight @ 9e/6p in our new Vanguard documentary, "Showdown in Klan Town."
Our newest Vanguard documentary, "Showdown in Klan Town," premieres tonight at 9e/6p on Current TV.
The latest entry in our ongoing "WTF, America" series features a New York assembly member who dressed in blackface for a Purim party.
"I’d just like to say to all you lovely southern Republicans who make a point of being racially insensitive — sorry, ya'll. You’ve been upstaged by a northeastern Democrat." —John Fugelsang
Nearly 50 years ago in a Birmingham, Ala., church, five little girls were getting ready for that day’s youth service when an explosion shattered the room they were in, killing four of them.
It was 40 years after the tragedy that Doug Jones prosecuted two of the former Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the bombing. Jones comes inside “The War Room” to talk with Michael Shure about the prosecutions that consumed five years of his life.
TYT guest hosts Ana Kasparian, Michael Shure and Michael Hastings, Current contributor and BuzzFeed correspondent, talk with Jayar Jackson and Hermela Aregawi about a VW ad scheduled to run during the Super Bowl that some say is racist because it features a white actor with a Jamaican accent.
Louisiana meteorologist Rhonda Lee tells Cenk Uygur ("The Young Turks," Monday-Thursday @ 7E/4P) about defending herself against racially motivated comments on Facebook and then being fired from KTBS News for it. KTBS claims Lee was warned not to engage commenters because it went against policy, but Lee says that never happened. “The first comment about my hair — I brought that to management’s attention in the first place,” Lee says. “And I offered to help form a policy of some kind and [suggested] maybe we could start blocking the more offensive posts on there.”
Source: current.com
Yolanda Spivey is an African American woman who tested U.S. hiring practices by duplicating her own resume under a profile for a nonexistent white applicant named "Bianca" on Monster.com. In one week, Spivey says her real profile prompted two companies to contact her, but her otherwise-identical white counterpart received approximately nine phone calls.
“What I take away from it is that it’s just proof that racism still exists in the job market,” Spivey says. A Princeton study shows that even white felons are more likely to get positive responses from potential employers than black applicants with no criminal record. Rose says, “This is the reality, but the story we hear is about how lazy African Americans are.”
Watch Yolanda tell her story here, and tune in to 'The Young Turks' Monday-Thursday @ 7E/4P on Current TV.