Here is an excerpt:  

The Applied Research Center found in its study "Race and Recession," released last May, that communities of color face barriers to employment such as discrimination in hires and promotions – suggesting institutional racism. The center is a New York City-based racial justice think tank with the goal "to popularize the need for racial justice and prepare people to fight for it."

 
Seth Wessler, researcher and writer for the center, said black communities have been suffering an economic depression far longer than the country as a whole. Historically, black unemployment levels have been twice that of whites.

Wessler said there is a disconnect in the American memory of how African Americans have fared economically. It hasn’t even been close to parity – consistently and permanently, he said. The findings say Jesse Jackson was right in his column this week: African Americans are suffering a “silent depression.” 

Wessler said people often imagine racism manifests from one person to another. But racism built into a larger system impacts everyone. 

“We live in a world where opportunity is determined by who you are and by your race,” he said, and he warns that discrimination is built into the hiring processes. His answer to the problem? Like Jackson, Wessler says it’s time to find minorities a place in future industry before those jobs are exported to international markets. 

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