The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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think blacks should work for less because they used to be slaves.”
There were also those who expressed the idea that not all employers are
prejudiced. When a black girl was asked if blacks could make as much money as whites
she said, “Probably not, it depends on who the people are, the boss. There are probably
some people out there who wouldn’t give the black person the same amount of money.”
Future Opportunities
In response to the closed ended questions, about 90 percent of all the youth
indicated hope about the future (Tables 1, 2). In the interviews this optimism was
reflected by both whites and blacks. Even if their circumstances are bad right now, or
they do not know what they want from life, they are sure things will work out in their
favor. They almost all seem to share the attitude of a black youth who said, “1 see myself
as having the opportunity to do whatever I want as long as I want to do it.”
There was a split in the self—report data concerning the outlook for race relations
in the future. Only about 15 percent in both races thought that black opportunities would
get worse in the next 5 years. And yet, when asked about discrimination in the future, 43
percent of the whites thought it would get worse. A similar contradiction occurs with the
blacks, where 38 percent also felt discrimination would get worse (Tables 1, 2). Again,
this would seem to indicate that these youth associate discrimination with violence and
not with employment practices.