Posted on June 13, 2013 |
‘Tis the season of the summer blockbuster, but while moviegoers are treated to the decadence of the 1920s, deep space exploration, and 6x the car chases, the familiar tale of racial discrimination in employment plays on a loop in the background. The City of Chicago and the state of South Carolina are not new characters in this story, but *Spoiler Alert* there is a new plot twist: a year after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released guidance for employers on the proper use of criminal background checks, two employers – Dollar General in Chicago and BMW in South Carolina – are allegedly using criminal background checks to weed out potential and current African-American employees.
The guidance released by the EEOC last April draws attention to the general increase in the number of people involved in the American criminal justice system and the disproportionate impact that it has had on minorities:
In the last twenty years, there has been a significant increase in the number of Americans who have had contact with the criminal justice system. . .By the end of 2007, 3.2% of all adults in the United States (1 in every 31) were under some form of correctional control involving probation, parole, prison, or jail.
Arrest and incarceration rates are particularly high for African American and Hispanic men. African Americans and Hispanics are arrested at a rate that is 2 to 3 times their proportion of the general population. Assuming that current incarceration rates remain unchanged, about . . .1 in 3 African American men [are expected to serve time in prison during their lifetime].
1 in 3 African American men will spend time in prison?! Is this some sort of Wes Craven-created nightmare sequence? Read more »
