Racism, Again: Why Drug Tests Are Helping Black Americans Get Jobs

[The Straight Story]

Policies that encourage drug testing potential employees are not, generally speaking, viewed as means for achieving greater racial equality. As the ACLU states on its website (emphasis added), "Not only do these policies constitute a significant and unjustified invasion of privacy, they also single out those living in low-income communities and disproportionately impact people of color."

A new study supports this: Drug tests do disproportionately impact people of color, but not in the way the ACLU implies. Rather, economist Abigail K. Wozniak finds, drug testing is actually boosting employment for blacks, particularly those who who are relatively unskilled.

How's that? To put it simply: In the absence of information, it seems that employers are susceptible to making racist assumptions about who uses drugs and who doesn't. This suppresses black employment. But in places where drug testing is more common, black employment rises, seemingly given a bit of a lift by the opportunity to prove against stereotype that one is not a drug user.

Data going back to 1979 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health show that "for most of the survey's history, blacks and whites have reported drug use at nearly identical rates" (though there is some variation in which drugs the different groups favor). It is believed that drug use is underreported, but there's no reason to think that underreporting is more rampant among blacks. From 1990 to 2006, an average of 13 percent of whites and 12 percent of blacks attested to "some drug use in the past month." For those with no college education, the rate is 19 percent for both blacks and whites.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/is-drug-testing-boosting-employment-for-african-americans/361885/

"In the absence of information, it seems that employers are susceptible to making racist assumptions about who uses drugs and who doesn't. " - no surprise there. Folks often create a bias against a whole group based on how they perceive a few. I am guessing some would say though that since they see stories in the news each day involving drugs and people of color it must mean they all are somehow complicit.

Funny how that all works....

[okaawhatever]

1. Now, let's see if MSM will pick this up and help reduce racism with facts. Will it happen? nt

[SevenSixtyTwo]

2. So the ACLU is racist?

The company I work for drug tests everyone. Has nothing to do with race.

[Fumesucker]

3. Stick around

There's a lot of history behind this post..



Oh, and welcome to DU!

[SevenSixtyTwo]

6. Thanks!

I'll lay back and read.

[WillowTree]

4. Of course not.

The presumption is that employers do employment drug testing at least in part to disqualify a disproportionate percentage of black applicants/employees, assuming that they would more often fail the tests. Turns out that the results are not as expected and the practice could actually be helping some people of color. Chances are better than not that the ACLU just hasn't come across that information yet.

And by the way, companies that do test must test all employees. To do otherwise would be too blatently obvious and would cost them dearly.

[bettyellen]

5. it is unfortunate we need drug testing to help level the playing field.... unintended consequences

and all that. I was just explaining this study to a friend who assumed POC use more drugs because of arrest rates.

[bravenak]

7. Exactly.

I once had an argument with a neighbor and she called childrens services and said i was on drugs.
They automatically believed her. I had to test for two weeks with somebody watching me and staring at my vag. So humiliating.
A white friend of mine had someone call on her, they showed up, talked to her for 15 minutes and she never heard from them again. Never tested her, even though she is a meth addict. She's in jail as i am typing this.

Assumptions are made about you when you are black and benefit of doubt is given when you are white.

[bettyellen]

8. That is sad, wow. I remember a coworker telling me I could never be good at my job because I was a

woman, and men "had it in the genes", LOL. He believed that!
Later, when they offered me a full time job, I negotiated as tough as I could.... I knew this guy (my peer) wanted to manage me into looking mediocre, at best, while my output was on average 1 1/2 X to double his per week. (He was cheating doing freelance projects during work hours.)

I was handling my much larger load- 2/3 of the business in categories he did not know how to do- all without his help or advisement, so I said he cannot be my manager, we are equals here- okay? And they hired me, stuff went fine for about a year till the guy found out I made something like 20$ a week more than him.

He went off the rails, tried to plot a raise and promotion for himself where he would "manage" me. They told me this at a meeting, I said absolutely not- we know I am handling more of the business in areas he is completely unfamiliar with. I handled your vast expansion in the past two years. He raged and threw shit around, started to try and sabotage me. He stole my assistant who I had trained and gotten raises to double her salary in two years (!!) and turned her against me. I had to document everything. Those two together still did less work than I did, and he knew I could easily prove it. He found out I had a good job offer and went after it, and they hired him after offering me the job. Well, they got what they deserved, and it wasn't me.

But yeah, the insult of 20$ a month angered him so much, that he blew up the whole department. Six months later, we had all quit because things got so ugly.