Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Discrimination In Employment
Devah Pager did an experiment in Milwaukee for her Phd thesis. She hired a group of young men all with relatively the same age, physical abilities, and characteristics. They were all assigned the same levels of education and work experience and they posed as high school graduates. These men were sent all over the city to apply for entry-level jobs. Two white men were sent in to apply for the same job. One posed with felony drug charges and spent 18 months in prison and was released a month before. Two black men were then sent in to apply with the same situation.
This study found that whites with a criminal record were half as likely to receive a call back from the employer. The results were even more unfortunate for the black men. The black’s calls received equalled the calls received for the whites with a criminal record.
So the question is how do you explain why? Her research shown that it was due to old fashioned racism and employers discriminate unconsciously. To further the research and prove it isn’t due to the location of the study she re-did this in New York and found the same results.
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I am also taking Soc with Professor Simmons and watched that video. I was blown away by the outcome and just how real discrimination is even today. I can understand an employer not wanting to hire someone with a criminal background, but, even subconsciously, judging someone based on appearances is wrong, I believe. Hopefully, her experiment brought some awareness to the public, causing those in hiring positions to double check their process in choosing an employee.
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ReplyDeleteThat post is really eye opening on how discrimination still affects lives today. Im glad you decided to do this post so that more people are aware that racism still exists to this day and that we should do something about it.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know what video that was. I cannot decide how people allow their subconscious to determine their actions; I'm learning that not everyone has the filter that I recognize in myself where I always stop to ask myself whether I'm thinking about something through reason or through prejudice. I think that anyone responsible for hiring others or in other leadership positions need some kind of screening to determine whether those prejudices are there.
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