This may come off as more of a vent, but I see white new grads, some with less nursing and healthcare education than myself, getting jobs, some of them highly coveted specialties. Yet here I am, with a BSN, magna cum laude, three years health care experience, new grad getting pushed aside. I interview well, but apparently not good enough. I am starting to feel bitter and can't help but wonder if my race might play a role. Other black new grads (BSNs too) are having a much harder time getting a job than white new grads.
Any black nurses want to comment on this phenomenon?
I am starting to look outside of my state, but I am not sure where to start. Preferably a place that is diverse.
And anyone who ignores and dismisses racial inequality and pretends white privilege doesn't exist and that all black people are just a bunch of whiners who play victim is incredibly...racist.
I don't think anyone in this thread has said any of those things. However, I don't believe being Black is the first thing you need to look at when turned down for a job unless you have evidence to the contrary, in which case you have a legal grievance.
However, you have not cited any grievances, just suspicions. Yet you knee-jerk to blaming your situation on a racial issue. Do you not think there is anything wrong with that?
Now, if you had overheard something, or knew something for sure, I would agree with your angst, but you don't. You're just presuming that your hospital dislikes you because you're Black. Then you are upset when people say "No...maybe that's not it" and launch into a diatribe about "White privilege" and how noone but a Black person would know if discrimination were occurring, even though people like me have lived in places where a White face is a rare thing to see, and somehow avoided persecution, and never adopted that mentality.
Basically, you've adopted a "victim stance" with no evidence, and then lashed out at those who question it.
Is this okay? Do you somehow see it differently?
Okay...explain. Please describe also how you know you were racially profiled and discriminated against, if so.
Where have all white people been condemned? Saying that white privilege exists doesn't condemn a group. I appreciate the white people who recognize racial inequality and don't minimize or dismiss the experience of people of color. Those ignorant enough to dismiss and ridicule the black experience, however, will be called out.
"The Black Experience"...
See, I figure each person's experience is unique. Not dependent upon their skin-color. For example, none of my friends have had any problems at all getting a job, except for one White guy. Maybe he should start a diatribe about being a White minority is costing him jobs?
I am a new graduate with a name on my resume that is for sure a black woman's name. However even with no experience I have gotten a call from almost every hospital I applied to. In fact I have already gotten 3 job offers. I'm not sure what is going on with you. Are you seeming interested in the position? Are you willing to do med surg? Smile a lot during interviews and let the interviewer lead It works every time for me.
I have no problem doing Med-Surg. It isn't my first choice, but it is great experience for new grads. I am interested in any position willing to hire me, lol.
I have no problem doing Med-Surg. It isn't my first choice, but it is great experience for new grads. I am interested in any position willing to hire me, lol.
I know bills may be mounting, but be picky. It took me 3 months to get my first job. I was the last person in my class hired (Behind the students of multiple other nationalities...), but I also got EXACTLY what I wanted. Hold out for and only apply for jobs you WANT, if it is at all financially possible.
See, I figure each person's experience is unique. Not dependent upon their skin-color. For example, none of my friends have had any problems at all getting a job, except for one White guy. Maybe he should start a diatribe about being a White minority is costing him jobs?
What makes you think that the black experience only refers to one kind of experience?
And thought you were done with the "pity party"...you are still here. Why do you care so much to invalidate or minimize me? Is it that important to you? What do you get out of making people feel like their feelings and experiences don't matter or exist?
I don't have to explain anything to you, nor should I have to "prove" anything to someone who blatantly disregards people of color and racial inequality so callously.
Sorry, but that would be a waste of time. You clearly aren't open to learning something, so why bother?
I don't think anyone in this thread has said any of those things. However, I don't believe being Black is the first thing you need to look at when turned down for a job unless you have evidence to the contrary, in which case you have a legal grievance.
However, you have not cited any grievances, just suspicions. Yet you knee-jerk to blaming your situation on a racial issue. Do you not think there is anything wrong with that?
Now, if you had overheard something, or knew something for sure, I would agree with your angst, but you don't. You're just presuming that your hospital dislikes you because you're Black. Then you are upset when people say "No...maybe that's not it" and launch into a diatribe about "White privilege" and how noone but a Black person would know if discrimination were occurring, even though people like me have lived in places where a White face is a rare thing to see, and somehow avoided persecution, and never adopted that mentality.
Basically, you've adopted a "victim stance" with no evidence, and then lashed out at those who question it.
Is this okay? Do you somehow see it differently?
Okay...explain. Please describe also how you know you were racially profiled and discriminated against, if so.
Where have all white people been condemned? Saying that white privilege exists doesn't condemn a group. I appreciate the white people who recognize racial inequality and don't minimize or dismiss the experience of people of color. Those ignorant enough to dismiss and ridicule the black experience, however, will be called out.
The term white privilege as a blanket is an ugly one. Another poster a few pages back mentioned that, I agree with her.
A tidbit from my life: Right now, my white son is waiting to hear from an Ivy League college. His scores are off the charts, he got a 34 on his ACT. One of his best friends and "rivals" is a black female, who applied to same Ivy League Early Action, while my son did Regular, and she got in. They both do band together and are in honor societies, both scholastic and musical. He does 3 seasons sports, she does 2. She is Student Council Pres, he is not in SC. People are saying that if my son doesn't get in, it's because the spot went to her...not because of her accomplishments, but because she is a black female. It makes my stomach churn. My son would never think that way, he is genuinely happy for her. If my son and I have heard this talk, so has she. The talk makes us SICK. Because this girl is poised and lovely and mature and has always been quality, and her accomplishments are being reduced to her color (and sex)by ignorant people in this town. Just a comment or 2, nothing major, but it is.
I know bills may be mounting, but be picky. It took me 3 months to get my first job. I was the last person in my class hired (Behind the students of multiple other nationalities...), but I also got EXACTLY what I wanted. Hold out for and only apply for jobs you WANT, if it is at all financially possible.
Nooooooo! Take any job and work it for a year at this point. Med Surg is GREAT. I'm serious. it teaches you everything.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
"The Black Experience"...
See, I figure each person's experience is unique. Not dependent upon their skin-color.
With all due respect, African-Americans do experience life differently than people from other racial-ethnic backgrounds. An article, linked below, succinctly describes the black experience. It also briefly mentions the profound emotional pain that we, as a people, feel when members of other races minimize or invalidate our experiences.
With all due respect, African-Americans do experience life differently than people from other racial-ethnic backgrounds. An article, linked below, succinctly describes the black experience. It also briefly mentions the profound emotional pain that we, as a people, feel when members of other races minimize or invalidate our experiences.
To acknowledge that Blacks experience things differently is to also acknowledge that they may be better or worse suited for certain things than other ethnicities. So...how exactly does one pay respect to the fact that the world looks different through Black eyes, while at the same time pretending that this doesn't matter by treating the Black equal to the White/Yellow/Purple, while also making sure to treat the Black in such a way as to remain cognisant of the fact that while you are treating them the same, you can't exactly understand them or...treat them the same...because they aren't seeing the same world, or feeling the same things, so to speak?
It sounds a lot like "separate but equal" to me. Something my town did away with in the 1970's.
So instead of mire myself with all of that, I just expect the same from everybody, and it's served me great. If had professional superiors and inferiors and friends and acquaintances of most major ethnicities on this planet, and enjoyed every bit of it. Never once did I bother with trying to segregate or "view the world differently" in apathy with them in an "emotional" sense, but rather, in a logical sense, such as the actual story below (as told to me by LeRoy), demonstrates.
That said, I do have a friend. LeRoy is his name. He's a Black guy. Grew up with him in highschool, and think a lot of him. His interactions with the police have indeed educated me to the fact that Blacks need to view the world differently...as it can indeed view them differently.
Which then brings us to this...is LeRoy racist?
One time LeRoy saw a cop and another guy fighting. Both were White looking males. LeRoy felt that the cops would be racist and that he could be shot or otherwise accosted if he helped the officer (LeRoy is a big guy and used to train in multiple martial arts and can hold his own and could have solved the problem quickly, I have no doubt). So LeRoy just watched, as another bystander had already called 911. Sure enough, the officers responding FIRST approach LeRoy like HE was the problem. So, you see? LeRoy was racist in his decision...but he was also RIGHT. The officers were racist in profiling LeRoy as part of the problem, but then, 50% of officers killed are killed by Blacks, which are 13% of the population. So the officers were racist, too...but statistically they were also playing their cards safe.
Both parties were racist, and both went home safe that night.
Racism is a complex and dirty matter, made all the more dirty by people who approach it overly-emotionally, and those who abuse the "race card", as well as those who openly and from a position of power debase others based on their skin color.
Really and truly though, I think the only solution for OP is to find a potential manager/boss with integrity and a willingness to hire someone with her qualifications, and go from there. The question of race, in my book, has always been a question of PERSON. If I meet an honest, genuine, GOOD person, I could care less what color or background they have. If you meet an honest, genuine, GOOD person, and you let their color or background dissuade you from that relationship, whether personal, romantic, or professional? You are only costing yourself.
For the record, I am the one who brought up privilege in this thread and I am white. "White privilege" is not a simple concept that is born of "reverse discrimination". Those of us who are younger did not experience the civil rights movement at its beginning. We can't even begin to understand the implications of racial segregation and degradation that existed only a couple of generations before us. We have come a very long way since then. White privilege has decreased, but to deny it exists only means you've missed it. You were looking the other way, or you didn't recognize it when it was in front of you.
That young lady's court case regarding the Texas universities - is it at the Supreme Court because the lower courts didn't agree with her position? Something to consider. Maybe she wasn't discriminated against.
I hate the term "reverse discrimination". Discrimination is discrimination. If a white person is discriminated against, it doesn't get its own special term. We don't get our own word just because we're white.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Which then brings us to this...is LeRoy racist?
No. Your friend LeRoy is racially aware. There's a huge difference between racial awareness and racism. A true racist wouldn't befriend someone who belongs to a different racial-ethnic background.
Both parties were racist, and both went home safe that night.
Both parties were being racially aware, a.k.a. exercising vigilance regarding the race-based realities that permeate American society.
JWG223
210 Posts
I don't think anyone in this thread has said any of those things. However, I don't believe being Black is the first thing you need to look at when turned down for a job unless you have evidence to the contrary, in which case you have a legal grievance.
However, you have not cited any grievances, just suspicions. Yet you knee-jerk to blaming your situation on a racial issue. Do you not think there is anything wrong with that?
Now, if you had overheard something, or knew something for sure, I would agree with your angst, but you don't. You're just presuming that your hospital dislikes you because you're Black. Then you are upset when people say "No...maybe that's not it" and launch into a diatribe about "White privilege" and how noone but a Black person would know if discrimination were occurring, even though people like me have lived in places where a White face is a rare thing to see, and somehow avoided persecution, and never adopted that mentality.
Basically, you've adopted a "victim stance" with no evidence, and then lashed out at those who question it.
Is this okay? Do you somehow see it differently?
Okay...explain. Please describe also how you know you were racially profiled and discriminated against, if so.