Census Data: Racial Disparities Persist in Higher-Paying Jobs

By: Hope Yen

WASHINGTON - Blacks and Hispanics lag behind whites for higher-paying jobs at the largest rates in about a decade as employment opportunities dwindled during the nation's economic woes and housing slump.

Census data released Monday show an increasingly educated U.S. work force whose earnings didn't always seem to match up with its potential.

"The lesson of most economic downturns is minorities are the last hired, first fired. They lose jobs more quickly, and they will be the last to recover," said Roderick Harrison, a demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank that studies minority issues.

Among those 25 and older last year, 86.6 percent had graduated from high school, up from 85.7 percent the previous year. It was the biggest increase since 1992, with record percentages of people earning diplomas across all racial categories.

Census Data: Racial Disparities Persist in Higher-Paying Jobs....

NYC SUBWAY SEARCHES LABELED RACIST: Anti-terrorism effort gives way to racial profiling.

Their original purpose was to combat potential terrorism. But there are now reports that random searches designed to catch terrorists have deteriorated into racial profiling of Blacks and Hispanics on New York City subways.

For example, a recent report in the New York Daily News found that 88 percent of those who are stopped and searched in the city's subways are Black or Latino, although they make up only 49 percent of subway riders.

In sharp contrast, white commuters, who constitute 36 percent of all subway riders, only make up 8 percent of those subjected to "stop-and-frisks."

One commentator has labeled the current stop frisks "a practice of blatant racism is nothing new for the New York Police Department. Above ground, the NYPD patrols oppressed communities like an occupation army, harassing and frisking people for simply walking down the block."

However, the police have counter argued their disproportionate presence in these communities is needed because of their higher crime rates.

The subway stop-and-frisks and "random" bag checks were first implemented in October 2005. At that time, the Bush administration fixed the city's "terror alert" to orange, the second highest level.

Politicians pushed the need to report "suspicious" persons. With thousands of signs reading "if you see something, say something," New Yorkers were instructed to join in the so-called "war on terror" and the culture of fear and mistrust which critics say it produces.