Author: Stephen McGarry

Yesterday I wrote a blog post about the unfair background checks that target imposed on black and latino applicants and within twenty four hours i see another news report  on racial discrimination on job applications.

Chastity Jones, a black women from Alabama was offered a job as a customer service representative at a call center but the offer was revoked when Jones refused to cut her dreadlocks. The company argued at the time that dreadlocks were messy and thus weren’t company policy and that it wasn’t racial discrimination because her hair was a quality about her she could change instead of something like her skin color. As of now Jones is trying to take her case to the supreme court.

Jones instead argued that the company was “enforcing deeply entrenched work stereotypes that pressure black women to adopt white standards of beauty and professionalism”. Personally I think that it was unfair to revoke the job offer. Since jones was offered the position it means the company thought she was well qualified and suited for that position and to remove that offer just because of a hairstyle seems rude and wrong. I’d like to hear others opinions on this so please comment.

 

Target has just agreed to pay a 3.7 million dollar settlement after being sued for its discriminatory background checks. Apparently, when reviewing job applications, if the applicant was African American or Latino a more in depth background check would be conducted and if the applicant was found to have any criminal history, even if it was years in the past and irrelevant to the position (ex disturbing the peace), they would be denied while caucasians were not.

To make up for this, Target is planning to prioritize hiring Black and Latinos and raise the minimum wage at Target to 12 dollars an hour. While this settlement will increase the number of minorities working at target and their wage, it does little to prevent discrimination and provide more opportunities to American minorities. Therefore, it is not enough. Target should at the very minimum follow in Starbucks steps and educate their employees and managers on racial bias.

Last weekend I was at a tournament near Toledo Ohio. While I was there I played against 4 teams, including Miami University. The Miami I saw on the field was respectable and diverse team that worked together, treated everybody with respect, and displayed a high level of cooperation that allowed them  to take first place after going undefeated in the tournament. However, within a day of returning to Wooster, I saw an article about Miami University that shocked me. Apparently the team I witnessed on the field was not an accurate representation of Miami University.

Apparently, racism is quite common at Miami and has finally aggravated enough people cause protests and a response for the President of the college. Tragically, events like the ones I will discuss are everyday problems for the black students of Miami. Two events that occurred JUST within the last week are listed below.

1: In a group chat, a white student calls black students the n-word. On Tinder, that same white student bragged about what he wrote.

2: On Snapchat, while black students are protesting racism on campus, a student posted a video that says, “who let the zoo out??” followed by monkey emojis.

One student (Miranda Woods) stated “The student culture here is extremely racist,” and “As a black student here, I’m uncomfortable on campus 24-7. I feel out of place.”

This relates to our class as we have seen the damage that this kind of discrimination can cause. Currently in America, the only way to get a job that pays well enough to support yourself and a family is to get a college education. This makes discrimination in education even more terrible because by making these students unwelcome and scared, it makes it even harder for them to get the education they need to thrive.  While the discrimination these students face isn’t as terrible as the types of discrimination we have learned in class, that does not make it acceptable in the slightest. I hope that Miami University takes action and makes an example of these students so I can go back to thinking of them as the diverse, friendly, and cooperative team I saw on the field.

Source: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/04/04/racist-acts-miami-university-fuel-new-black-student-movement/481651002/