And how it can land you a Job
Sunrise
(From Myrtle Beach, SC)
For the last ten years of my life, I cannot account for the innumerous applications that I’ve filled out that asked me for my racial makeup. EOE, Equal Opportunity Employer, at the bottom of the page always made me wonder if I was being given a fair chance as a white male. After all, white males are the one race and gender that has not been discriminated against over the life of the United States, thus I’m put at a disadvantage—particularly since whites are still the majority in the US.
However, my recent hiatus in Myrtle Beach has offered a new perspective—one of opportunity for my self and people like me. I’m a college graduate after all—one that has diligently searched for professional employment for more than a year without so much as an interview. The economy, I tell myself, and the news reinforces. But I realize it’s a bundle of factors—one being my chosen major, English, which may not be specific enough. It may be easier if my degree said technical something—a nice label to ensure I fit somewhere.
I’ve come to Myrtle Beach to escape the ultra conservative mid-west, which prides itself in its above average schools and white majority. And now I’ve realized that’s precisely why I can’t find a job at a corporation—I’m too much like everyone else in Missouri, and national corporations want to be represented in a way that reflects the national diversity—not the local one. Therefore, theoretically, if a guy like me walks into a branch office in a neighborhood that’s largely made up of minorities, I will be considered quite thoroughly for a job.
Employers seem to frown upon those unwilling to leave their cradles—the comfort of their own people, their own culture; they aren’t willing to take risks.
And I think I can give people advice in regard to finding employment—and that is to integrate not segregate. And that’s not to say it’s absolutely necessary, but right now the job market is tough. Graduates have to be willing to be malleable and innovative.
Here in Myrtle Beach the workforce is made up of a variety of nationalities—the college students from Russia, legal and illegal Mexicans and other Central Americans, and Black Americans. The lack of American white male workers gives opportunity to such; I’ve experienced this first hand. People are surprised to see that I’m both white and American when I ask for applications—the managers are excited to hand one to me.
I can tell when I talk to the locals in Myrtle Beach that they are well educated—more so than in other minority areas I’ve been to. I’ve looked at the Myrtle Beach District Schools’ website—their high school curriculum is outstanding. The classes they offer students are diverse, typically found on college campuses. Such shows how diversity can benefit society.
Graduates who are willing to move to areas where they are the minority will land jobs, and possibly improve society in areas where the education system fails its students.
It’s important for graduates to follow the opportunity, and opportunity exists where improvement is needed.
