[ilbegone]

“The differential in unemployment between blacks and non-blacks in the U.S. is perhaps one of the most dramatic indicators of discrimination in this society.”

I don't know. Does it have to do with an expectation of some sort?

I recently worked with a black man who went right to work without having to be prodded, and was a lot of fun to be around as well. I would hire him in a minute if I had a company.

However, we became overmanned, and he was let go in favor of another black man who is rather lazy and somewhat obstructs the wheels of progress presumably because the lazy guy was there first - first hired, last fired. Is this a form of discrimination? What if it were I, a white guy, who was either first hired or last hired, would that be some form of discrimination as well if I were two checked instead of the lazy guy or the other way around?

The man who was let go told me a story about one of his sons, that he had tried to get his son into the entry level occupation of our trade. The son's response was "I'm not digging holes for the white man". The fact that his father makes relatively good money and rarely would be digging holes was evidently not a factor in the young man's decision. However, the son is now serving a life sentence in prison rather than making good money digging holes or anything else.

Some years ago, I worked for a black man who owns his company. The man treated me good, and there was no fault between us when I left his employment. I saw him again last year, and worked out of the same place as his crews did as he was a sub contractor to my employer. Everyone on his crews were black, far more so than when I worked for him. Being the good man he is, does that mean he is discriminatory in that he didn't have "diversity" on his crews, or was it because whites and browns chose not to work for the man? Or did the chips just fall that way?

As for the allegation of discrimination which implies racism, I will discuss that far more seriously when the rhetoric goes beyond "institutionalized racism" and the leading cause of death among young black males is no longer that of being murdered by another young black male.