folks who couldn’t catch a break when looking for a job, then a study such as this would have come to the exact opposite conclusion of what it actually found. When the researchers sent out the résumés to prospective employers, it would have been all the “Tamikas” and “Jamals” who got called in by enthusiastic companies bent on hiring black folks, and it would have been the “Connors” and “Beckys” left out in the cold to wonder what in the world had gone wrong. But this didn’t happen, because it never does. And yet, not only did Obama not speak this fundamental truth—that it is still very much the usual suspects who face the obstacles of race-based discrimination—rather, he pandered to the lie in his Philadelphia speech on race, wherein he mentioned, as though it were perfectly valid, white anger over losing out on a position because of a preference given to a minority.27
What does it say that, according to another study conducted by Princeton sociology professor Devah Pager, white males with a criminal record are more likely than black males without one to be called back for a job interview, even when all credentials, experience, demeanor, and communication and dress style are the same between them?28 Or that according to a massive national study conducted by legal scholars Alfred and Ruth Blumrosen, who examined tens of thousands of businesses, at least one-third of all employers in the nation are racially biased and discriminate regularly against job applicants of color, and at least 1.3 million black and brown job-seekers will face racial bias during their job search in a given year?29 Other research would suggest far higher rates of discrimination than even the Blumrosen study was able to find. So, for instance, according to data from the mid-1990s, compiled by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, as many as three-fourths of all businesses covered by civil rights and affirmative action laws were in “substantial violation” of those laws, because of ongoing discrimination against persons of color and women of all colors.30
What about the fact that according to study after study for years—not to mention a healthy dose of common sense—most jobs, especially the most lucrative ones, aren’t filled based on qualifications anyway, or open competition, so much as by networking and word-of-mouth? And what of the racial impact of this truth: namely, that it is disproportionately folks of color who end up “out of the loop” when it comes to such networks, thereby scratched from the start of the race and afforded less opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.31 Indeed it is the matter of social and professional networking that explains, in large measure, why persons of color with the same educational background as whites, and of the same age, doing the same job, so often earn much less.32 So, for instance, a recent study found that Chinese Americans in the legal and medical professions earn, on average, about 44 percent less than their white counterparts, despite equal qualifications and educational attainment.33 Whereas white job-seekers are able to access more lucrative positions, be they professional, managerial, or even blue-collar, thanks to the networks within which they so often find themselves, black and brown Americans, equally qualified as their white counterparts, have to take positions with less capitalized firms and companies, with the resultant lower pay, because they simply aren’t in a position to network with the right people. Although this form of exclusion is not illegal, it does amount to institutional racism—a kind of racism that is perpetuated within structural settings, even without deliberate and bigoted intent, due to the normal workings of long-entrenched policies, practices, and procedures. And for whites, the privileges that flow from the arrangement are substantial.
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