While perusing the Facebook updates on my phone (admittedly a new obsession of mine), I ran across a mind boggling post. Anyone who knows me, knows that my mouth always keeps me in trouble and in my 25th year of life I have learned to just let things go. But I just could not let this one ride. I tried to find the original post so that I could copy and paste verbatim, but this summary will have to do. So this guy goes on to tell the world that instead of women complaining that there are no good black men on their economic level, that women should bow out of the job market and stay home so that men can obtain the jobs. That because women have these positions, it is serving as competition and taking away jobs for men. By us staying home, black men would have jobs and families would see economic gain. Excuse me for a second as I go and throw up.
Ok I'm back. A woman who decides to forfeit her role in the workforce in order to stay at home with the family is not the issue here. There are many women who have decided to do so for a variety of reasons and most of those women arguably work just as hard, if not harder than many women in the workforce. As I said that is not the issue. The issue is, at least from my standpoint, that it is assumed that women are the reason many black man are not gainfully employed and by being successful we are depriving men and our families from higher economic gain.
Firstly, A diploma (preferably from some kind of higher education institution) is now a requirement in the job market of today. With jobs being at a low and competition being at a high, the need for credentials is imperative. Without a high school diploma you are three times more likely to be unemployed as compared to those with a college degree. With that said, according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 38% of black men have completed a college degree as compared to 50% of black women. Now, unless we are sabotaging the admission process and engaging in some elaborate scheme that inhibits men from graduating, I am having a hard time following his rationale.
Secondly, I will not even go into the staggering numbers of single-parent homes in which women are the sole breadwinner. In these cases I would argue that staying home and letting a man have the job would not evoke any kind of economic gain for the family.
Lastly, while black women are on the climb in terms of graduation rates and job entry, we are still a minority as it compares to our white male counterparts. So while my applying to the job increases the competition pool as he eluded to, my staying out of it does nothing to guarantee him, or any other man for that matter, the job. Then where does that leave us, both broke and unemployed? Maybe his next post should ask White men to stay home or Black men to stay in school. Either way hunny, women are not the problem.
D.I.V.As, if there is anyone in your life who is intimidated by your success, let them go now!!! Continue getting those degrees, making that paper, and shining like the stars you are! See you at the top, Let's Get it!!!!!
Wale- Ambitious Girl
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