Face of the workplace doesn't reflect society, analysis shows
2:45 PM 9/07/03
Scott Parks and Victor Godinez with data analysis by Paula Lavigne The Dallas Morning News

J. Cunyon Gordon has a secret wish. She's half-serious and half-joking.

"Just one day," the black Chicago lawyer says, "I want to be a white guy like George Bush who looks around and thinks, 'I'm doing all this myself' and where I won't have to think about my race and the role it plays in my life. I'd come back refreshed."

But Gordon would still come back a black woman laboring in a profession dominated by white men.

The Dallas Morning News decided to take a look at workplace diversity in the United States by analyzing census data for a variety of occupations that wield influence and shape society - law, medicine, the clergy, journalism and several other important professions.

The analysis found that the percentages of racial and ethnic minorities in each occupation examined by The News treaded water or slowly sank between 1990 and 2000. The raw number of minorities increased in nearly all job categories but failed to keep pace with minority population increases during the decade.

Physicians and the information-technology sector topped the list in terms of racial and ethnic diversification. A category called "editors and reporters," which includes newspaper and broadcast journalists, ranked at the bottom, along with lawyers.

The U.S. minority population in 1990 was 21.5 percent, while 6.7 percent of lawyers listed themselves as minority - a 14.8 percentage point gap. In 2000, 30.9 percent of the total population was minority, compared with 10.7 percent of lawyers - a 20.2 percentage point gap.

Similarly, minorities in other occupations examined by The News appear to be treading water at best as a percentage of their respective populations.

Gordon, a Yale Law School graduate, says she has spent two decades trying to bring minorities into the law - an endless stream of minority bar association committee meetings and law firm initiatives to hire, mentor and retain lawyers of color.

Now, at age 50, she suffers from a self-diagnosed case of diversity fatigue, which she describes as a condition similar to the combat fatigue that plagues soldiers during war.

"It boggles my mind that this same discussion is still going on after all these years," she said. "You know you are fatigued when you cannot bear to do one more of these panels or committees."

Whites describe a different kind of diversity fatigue that stems from their perception that minorities put too relentless a focus on race issues.

A wide-ranging study, published in 2001 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, asked people in different ethnic groups whether there is too much, too little or just enough attention paid to race and racial issues.

Overall, 45 percent said too much attention is paid to race these days. A racial breakdown found 52 percent of white respondents agreed with the "too much" statement. Only 17 percent of blacks agreed, however. Sixty-four percent of blacks thought too little attention is paid to race.

The ambivalence, confusion and psychological drama surrounding race and diversity extend to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the majority, said the University of Michigan law school could continue its "narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body."

The opinion, handed down in June, seemed to support the proposition that American society still must use racial preferences to make up for historic injustices such as slavery and segregation. But Justice O'Connor wrote:

"We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved here today."

The law school case and a companion case about University of Michigan undergraduate admissions essentially explored the way students are pumped through the educational pipeline and into the work force.

Peter Schuck, a Yale Law School professor, says employers were clearly interested in the outcome of the Michigan case, judging by the extent to which Fortune 500 companies supported affirmative action in court briefs.

"They talked about the importance of workplace diversity and the importance of diversity in education in order to develop a work force that is comfortable with diversity," he said.

But that doesn't mean employers are using affirmative action to hire. It simply means they want affirmative action in education to ensure the best applicant pool for their companies, Schuck said.

Experts cite educational achievement as the primary reason minorities have trouble getting a larger share of good jobs. An achievement gap between minorities and whites exists both in secondary schools and universities. Some of the many school programs that address the issue have been successful.

But the gap still exists for students who want to go to college.

On the SAT, the most common college admission test, whites outscored blacks by an average of 203 points in 2002. Whites outscored Hispanics by 150 points. The SAT gap between whites and minorities has widened a few points since 1996.

Experts say the achievement gap persists through college to produce only a trickle of viable minority candidates for well-paying professional jobs.

The exception appears to be Asians. They tend to occupy the role of "positive minority" in American society - stereotyped as the ones who make the best grades, exhibit the best manners and show the most industriousness.