Ethics

Racial discrimination particularly in the labor market continues to be an issue of concern despite the different view maintained by the policy makers and the general public. Although the policy makers and the public maintain that racial discrimination has no position in being a barrier to equal opportunities among the racial minorities and the whites, studies have shown that a correlation between race and employability exists.

Diversity News reported some studies that caused a controversy to what people expected. Gallup polls revealed that racial discrimination still existed and had a great impact in the labor market. Although the majority of the whites (55) never seemed to identify racial minority as a problem in the labor market, the blacks largely admitted that racial discrimination was impacting on the equal opportunity among the blacks and whites during employment.

The Gallup findings were backed by another observation of the black and white ex-cons. In this observation, it was found out that the black ex-cons had a lower probability of being called back for interviews compared to the white ex-cons. Other studies have also found out that the employers response is dependent on the race where the white ex-cons had a higher chance of getting employed than the crime-free black applicants.

Apart from races, names were also found to determine the employers response on the job application with the number of years of experience notwithstanding. The study revealed that the job-seekers whose names sounded white had a higher probability of getting employment. It was found that blacks were supposed to forward up to 15 resumes for every 10 resumes forwarded by whites in order to secure employment. In another observation, the MIT study found out that the white employers had a higher chance of reacting negatively towards the black job-seekers. However, this study did not find much influence on the name of the applicants as much as the race.

In general, the problems of racial discrimination still gloom the equal opportunity provision among the blacks. This calls for the enforcement of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program at the Department of Labor and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to fix some of the loopholes that have been identified in the fight to enforce the Civil Rights Act.