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The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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equal opportunity; yet, youth were not always sure that equal opportunities exist. White<br />

youth, when asked if a black person with the same qualifications could make as much<br />

money as whites, responded,<br />

<strong>The</strong>y should be able to. I don’t th<strong>in</strong>k it happens that way. I see a lot <strong>of</strong><br />

white big companies with one black person there so nobody calls<br />

discrim<strong>in</strong>ation on them. For some reason I th<strong>in</strong>k that’s wrong, but to them<br />

it’s right, because there is other people work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> with it.<br />

I don’t th<strong>in</strong>k it’s fair, but it just happens.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are those who felt that blacks are held back due to racial reasons. Stories <strong>of</strong> this<br />

type <strong>of</strong> discrim<strong>in</strong>ation were provided <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>terviews by both groups. A 13 year-old<br />

black male, for example, stated:<br />

When I was look<strong>in</strong>g for a job they would always tell me to come back <strong>in</strong><br />

four months or so and then like a week or two later when I was <strong>in</strong> there<br />

shopp<strong>in</strong>g with my mom I saw that they had new white kids work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong><br />

there.<br />

He said that it did not anger him though because, “it is their store and they can hire who<br />

they want.” A 17 year-old white female supplied this example,<br />

My boyfriend has a black friend and they’re both graduated from high<br />

school. <strong>The</strong>y both went to apply for the same job. My boyfriend got the<br />

job, and his friend didn’t. <strong>The</strong>y say it wasn’t because he was black, but<br />

where he works there’s no black people at all...I th<strong>in</strong>k they’re racist.<br />

When asked whether a qualified black person could make as much money as a white<br />

person she responded, “Probably not because they

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