The Growing Need To Find Employment

by Moe White

Nobody said it would be easy. Finding a job, starting a career, or getting back on your feet during the longest, deepest, and most devastating recession in seventy years is, in a word, tough. And since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, the ruling elite (read the Republican ascendancy) has slashed the “safety net” to shreds, making it harder not only to find a job, but to survive without one.

The safety net for the poor and unemployed used to include welfare (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and unemployment benefits that reflected the real cost of living; the one for working people included such “quaint” rules as a minimum wage, unions, and reasonable job and retirement security. But attacks against “welfare queens” and “welfare Cadillacs” changed all that; leveraged buyouts cashed out pension funds and eliminated millions of jobs; and welfare – what Reagan called “government handouts” – became a benefit only for corporations and the richest 5 percent of the population who run them (often into bankruptcy).

So where does that leave you? In the middle of a scrimmage to keep your head above water, a scrimmage in which more people every day are joining the ranks of the unemployed. The good news is that unemployment grew by “only” a quarter of a million people last month, compared with three-quarters of a million monthly during the twilight of George W. Bush’s administration. But that’s still 243,000 more people to scrimmage with every month in your search for jobs. So how do you reach the goal line?

Who knows you?
There’s an adage that “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” The better question is “Who knows you?” and it points up one of the problems many African American workers face: not knowing the right people. It’s not a question of racial bias, but of contacts; how many business owners do you know, and how many of them are in a position to offer you a job?

Do community leaders know you well enough to give you a good reference? Is a banker or corporate manager or retailer willing to put in a good word with her colleagues, or hire you himself? Do you reach out to potential employers at church or through family ties or long-time friends? Who you know – and who knows you – makes a difference not just when you’re actively seeking work, but when friends hear of a job opening and, because they know you, put you and the employer in touch.

The ties that bind
Communities have always stuck together to help each other out in good times and bad. The majority WASP community has taken care of its own since arriving on the Mayflower, and later immigrant groups – the Irish, Chinese, Italians, Jews, Greeks, and others – have long done the same. Today’s immigrants, mostly Hispanics and, in WNC, Ukrainians, also network among themselves to keep their heads above water, and as with all their predecessors, common language and culture and customs and foods help keep the bonds strong.

If one person finds a job and works hard, and the boss asks if he knows anyone else looking for work, naturally he’ll recommend his friends – and feel at least some responsibility for their performance.

Certainly the black community did the same during the slavery years and after. Neighbors looked after each other, family stepped in to help, the “villages” – like Shiloh and Stumptown – were themselves community resources that everybody drew from and contributed to. So what happens when two communities are desperate for the same jobs, many of which are low-wage? When minority communities are also competing against the well-connected majority? When so much power has passed to employers that supply and demand creates a wage race to the bottom – who is more desperate, who will work for the least amount?

Getting to know you
The worst choice is to resent the other group instead of strengthening your own. The best option is to make the case for you, yourself, as well as for other people you know in the community. Find out where employers spend their time, and join them, get to know them, give them an opportunity to know you. Participate in the church, with elders, with community leaders, by volunteering, being useful and willing and eager to help.

Find out where you fit in, and if you don’t fit in, find out why! Ask an elder what to do to become a resource for others – that is, give to the community before trying to take from it. Listen to what the elders say, learn from them, and be ready to walk through as soon as somebody opens a door.