Published in Jun 2018

Private labor market does not absorb stigmatized populations at fair wages and conditions

There are reams of studies that show that the private labor market does not absorb stigmatized populations at fair wages and conditions.

We don't know why. There are assumptions about cultural clashes or soft skills or whatever, but I think it comes down to the structure of competition in the private labor market.

Think of private firms like gangs. You don't want trustworthy people in a gang. But folks can't be completely dirty, either. You want people who are dirty in the Right way. Folks who are appropriately partisan, who will further the firm's particular interest, at the expense of justice or truth or whatever.

People who are okay with the variety of injustice that happens to be good for the way the firm likes to compete. Stigmatized populations can't be trusted to be appropriately corrupt, especially to be effective in an economy that depends on an ethically dubious order.

I see a lot of black people on the job market make pains to communicate, "Really, I'm okay with your dirty ways" in a way that white employers can believe.


By Irami Osei-Frimpong