Does wardrobe discrimination keep blacks jobless?

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The new jobs reports is in and shows that 103,000 jobs were created last month and the unemployment rate is still stuck at 9.1 percent. For black people, the jobless rate stands at 16 percent. As we await the congressional debate over President Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act, it is evident that we can not afford to wait on action from Washington to address this crisis. But what course are we left with?

A story in the Daily Mail UK reports: “Volunteers in a U.S. study tended to label someone as white if they were dressed in a suit — even if the face had dark skin — and labeled someone black if they were dressed in working overalls.”

theGrio: 103,000 new jobs in September; black unemployment dips

The study, conducted by researchers representing Tufts University, Stanford University and the University of California, “not only were the faces dressed in suits more likely to be seen as white, and those in scruffier clothes black, but even when a white face was dressed down” the volunteers first instinct was to label the face black, before changing their response. The test was conducted by showing participants computerized images and their answers were tracked through the movement of the mouse.

This study reveals more about the deeply embedded racial prejudices held in a society still reeling from the effects of slavery, Jim Crow, and now the prison-industrial complex. Black identity has been shaped through damaging racial stereotypes and stigmas and white identity has been defined through the opposite.

How does this relate to the jobs crisis? With job growth sluggish and black folks typically last in line to acquire what few jobs are available, it becomes imperative that black people do all in their power to compete in the job market.

If race is a hindrance to hiring, but perception of race can be altered through choice of clothing, the logical line of thinking would follow that if black people are interested in changing the perception of themselves and getting the jobs so desperately needed to pay bills and avoid poverty, dressing “white,” or more professionally, for job interviews would make them more palatable to employer’s sensibilities. It’s a lesson taught at any job fair or politically conservative HBCU, though likely in much more politically correct language.

It’s true that appropriate attire is necessary for job interviews. We have to be cautious when it comes to championing the politics of respectability as a pathway to equality. It’s the type of thinking that says that barriers of race can be overcome by black folks’ adherence to the written and unwritten social rules governing behavior and decorum.

Essentially, we can walk, talk, dress and work our way out of oppression. And while that idea certainly holds some appeal, it obscures the effects that racism has on the opportunities and resources available to black folks, as well as on the collective psyche and sense of self-worth. Assimilation and appropriation of the dominant cultural norms can go only so far. Racism is much more deeply entrenched in the fabric of American life than a simple whitewashing of one’s identity can solve.

It reminds me of the debate over sagging pants. Across the country, local governments have adopted legislation that fines those who choose to wear their pants below their waistline and expose their underwear, while schools, especially predominantly black schools, are cracking down on the nearly two-decade-old fashion trend.

When students’ achievement is linked to their sartorial choices, we potentially ignore the very real and prevalent institutional impediments to quality education, particularly with regards to black youth. If it were true that all it takes for grades and test scores to go up is a parallel and concurrent movement of their pants, we could afford to dismiss factors such as poverty, inadequate funding, teacher training and curriculum failures.

Similarly, when we say that the secret to finding a job lies mainly in ones ability to dress appropriately for an interview, we absolve the corporations and business owners who hold job creation and hiring power of the responsibility for eliminating manufacturing jobs (that have long been a cornerstone of black economic growth) and dubious hiring practices. It’s easier for a white person with a felony record to obtain a job than a black person with no convictions. We’ve only given the problem wing-tip shoes.

In a blog entry entitled “Black Nationalism for White People” over at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coats wrote, ”[Frederick] Douglass’s final autobiography is filled with a moral critique of his own community. But it’s obviously paired with a recognition of the history and nature of racism.”

Thinkers and activists ranging from Malcolm X to bell hooks have had similar approaches to addressing the concerns of black America. An ethos of personal responsibility has always run through black freedom/equality movements, but more often than not it has been in concert with the call for an end to racism and racist institutions. The Bill Cosby school of thought is too simplistic to produce real change.

Putting on a suit does not change the immutable fact of skin color and all that baggage that it comes along with.