White Privilege Among College Graduates

With an unemployment rate roughly double that of their white counterparts, young African American college graduates have even greater difficulty securing employment.  The Center for Economic and Policy Research reports that in 2013, 12.4 percent of African American college graduates age 22-27 were unemployed, compared to 5.6 of all college graduates in this age group, and more than half of those who had jobs were underemployed.  Those with degrees in the highly sought-after STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fared little better, with unemployment and underemployment rates of 10 percent and 32 percent respectively.


Sociologists have provided compelling evidence that discrimination accounts for at least some of these disparities.  Devah Pager, for example, observed that African American applicants responding to help wanted advertisements in one U.S. city were less than half as likely to receive callbacks compared to similar white applicants.  African Americans with no criminal record, moreover, received fewer callbacks than whites with felony convictions.  Studies conducted by economists have yielded similar results.


https://workinprogress.oowsection.org/2015/01/29/stereotypes-social-networks-and-white-privilege-what-the-media-are-not-saying-about-unemployment-among-african-american-college-graduates/


Stereotypes, social networks and white privilege:  What the media are not saying about unemployment among African American college graduates. (2015). Retrieved April 21, 2016, from https://workinprogress.oowsection.org/2015/01/29/stereotypes-social-networks-and-white-privilege-what-the-media-are-not-saying-about-unemployment-among-african-american-college-graduates/