Years before affirmative action was in jeopardy, Wilson advocated race-neutral policies to alleviate inequality by getting the disadvantaged -of all races –into good jobs. His ideas, drawn from years of research into Chicago poverty, get at crucial factors-some profound. Some strikingly mundane–often overlooked in the debate over affirmative action:
There are low-skill jobs available for the urban poor. The problem is, the jobs are often in suburban industrial parks, and it’s tough for applicants to get to such places from the inner city. Subsidized car pools, shuttle buses or new public-transit lines would help connect the very poor with jobs.
City schools rarely treat language and grammar as essential to economic advancement. “English and all that ain’t really necessary in the job market.” a data-entry clerk told Wilson’s researchers. But all service-sector jobs and even most manufacturing jobs require better communications skills than did low-wage jobs of an earlier generation. Tutoring programs should worry not only about occupational skills like welding but also about teaching young people how Lo be articulate.
Young black males often complain that today’s service sector jobs, such as taking telephone orders, demean them. Those workers often don’t do a very good job anyway: both black and white employers complain that they have bad attitudes. Rather than forcing rebels into have-a-nice-day-type jobs, Wilson suggests training them for work that offers more independence. Two likely targets: long-haul trucking and the construction trades.
Innercity youths are often so isolated from job markets that they don’t know how much the rules have changed since their parents first looked for work. One common misconception is that the job with the highest starting pay is the best job, since the seniority system will inflate the wages once you’re in the door. Wilson says job counselors should teach young people that employers reward performance over seniority. And hauling office mail at IBM offers more chances for advancement than a better paying job in a foundry.
Teen pregnancy all but dooms the job prospects of most young women. Wilson has found that if you get teenage girls to focus on their careers is early as ninth grade, they’re less likely to have babies. That’s because they may not be inclined to throw it all away if they have some real sense of what “it” might be. At Chicago’s all-black Fenger High School, a two-year-old program emphasizing schoolwork as a means to a good job-not just graduation-has had dramatic results. Not one of the girls has become pregnant.
