Dear job/career employers,
Why do you all look over us? Why do you all feel as if we are not as good as the majority? We obtain degrees just as good as they do. Our grades remain up to par, all while, being involved on campus, acquiring leadership roles, networking and working to afford our college tuition and to purchase materials needed for classes. We do whatever it takes to gain that work experience we need, you know those internships we struggle to get because we are looked over as a candidate for them as well.
And I am not saying that we are the only ones who struggle to find a job after college, but according to my research, in 2013, the most recent period for which unemployment data is available by both race and educational achievement, 12.4 percent of black college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 were unemployed. Yet, for all college graduates in the same age range, the unemployment rate stood at just 5.6 percent.
We work ten times harder than most students, because we already know as, “African Americans”, to y’all we are just not good enough. So, as our mothers and fathers has raised us to do, we push through any situation, leap over any obstacle, and if we fall, we get back up and dust ourselves off. We never give up, and definitely not on our dreams. Our ancestors have pushed and we will continue to push for them.
All of us are not the stereotypes we are made out to be and we are more than just our athletic abilities, life dramas, singing/rapping aptitudes and Oprah. We are black educated students and graduates with degrees.
I know in the beginning I asked, “Why do all of you look over us?”, but that, I no longer care about. I am saying in this letter that, once I graduate from my university I want an entry-level career. Not because I think I should have it because I have obtained a college degree, but because I KNOW I DESERVE IT. I have worked hard these three years and I know that for a fact my work ethic is more than just strong, it is incomparable. My skills for my dream career are fully sufficient and my people skills are ideal.
Job/career employers stop being bias, because if you didn’t know – Diversity is what’s in now.
Sincerely,
Your future black college graduate
This article does not represent the views of Her Campus FSU.