美国国家公共电台 NPR Some Black Americans Turn To Informal Economy In The Face Of Discrimination

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Race and our perceptions of it affects what happens in the workplace. NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a poll. And most African-Americans who participated said they had experienced discrimination at work in hiring, in pay and in getting promotions². NPR's Sonari Glinton looked into that. And he found that when faced with those obstacles, many people choose to get out and strike out on their own.

SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE³: It's an October heat wave in Los Angeles, and Dennis Jackson is making the best of it selling solar panels. Jackson has essentially⁴ always been an entrepreneur. He started in landscaping and moved to solar panel installation.

DENNIS JACKSON: Both the reason I chose landscape and solar - there's not many black people in the industry. There are some black guys that are landscapers, and we look at each other as unicorns⁵ because there's not many of us.

GLINTON: Jackson is 40. He moved to LA in his teens from Detroit. Now, there have only been a few brief times when he's had a boss.

JACKSON: When I first started, I did have a boss. And I didn't like having a boss. It's harder this way.

GLINTON: Jackson has a very small operation - five employees and some independent contractors⁶. And in many ways, he says he's always had the entrepreneurial spirit. It's his way of avoiding the glass ceiling.

JACKSON: You know, so a piece of me says, yeah, I'm not going to have to go through that because I'm going to write my own ticket. I'm going to write my own ticket to not have to face, you know, discrimination.

GLINTON: NPR and Harvard have published a survey that says 56 percent of African-Americans say they've been discriminated⁷ against in the workplace. Now, this is when they're being considered for promotion¹, applying for jobs and raises. Marc Morial heads the National Urban League, and he says discrimination can deter⁸ African-Americans from applying for certain jobs.

MARC MORIAL: I'm not going over there to apply for a job because I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to go over there and apply for a job because I heard they don't like blacks. I'm not going to go over there and apply for a job 'cause after all, I've applied⁹ for five jobs in the last two months, and I haven't gotten one. There's a lot of that that goes on in the real world, particularly among younger workers.

GLINTON: Now, the unemployment picture for black men has improved significantly since the Great Recession. But Marc Morial says what's hidden in these low jobless numbers is that many black men have simply fallen out of the workforce¹⁰. Now, there's a whole menu of problems that lead to giving up. Race affects networking, education, mobility¹¹.

STEVEN PITTS: First thing is the issue isn't really perception. It's reality.

GLINTON: Steven Pitts studies labor¹² at UC Berkeley, and his expertise¹³ is employment in black men. Pitts says there's real evidence of discrimination against African-American men in the workplace. And in response, black men especially look for alternatives outside of the traditional job market.

PITTS: It can be simply the hustling¹⁴ - right? - where I need somebody to fix my car and I call a friend of mine to fix my car - right? - or someone who's painting my house or those sort of things. So the employment economy is not so much just the idea of on-the-corner drug stuff. It's a vast array of economic activity that simply isn't governed by traditional labor laws.

GLINTON: Pitts says many black men face real barriers, whether it's a criminal record or the need for a license¹⁵ to get a particular job. But there's been a shift overall, including for white workers. The idea of getting one job and working for 35 years is a thing of the past for almost everyone.

PITTS: For the last 30 years or so, we've seen a rise in informal economic activity. And we've seen a rise in kind of the shift in labor market activity away from an old model to a newer model.

GLINTON: Pitts says the hustle¹⁶ which has been vital to the survival of black men for centuries - this is a shift the nation is going to have to embrace eventually. Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Culver City.

1 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

2 promotions   

促进( promotion的名词复数 )； 提升； 推广； 宣传

参考例句：

• All services or promotions must have an appeal and wide application. 所有服务或促销工作都必须具有吸引力和广泛的适用性。
• He promptly directed the highest promotions and decorations for General MacArthur. 他授予麦克阿瑟将军以最高的官阶和勋奖。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 unicorns   

n.（传说中身体似马的）独角兽( unicorn的名词复数 )；一角鲸；独角兽标记

参考例句：

• Unicorns are legendary beasts. 独角兽是传说里的野兽。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Assemble50 Elder Druids, 30 Silver Unicorns and10 Green Dragons do defend it. 募集50个德鲁伊长老，30只银色独角兽和10条绿龙用于防御。 来自互联网

6 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

8 deter   

vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住

参考例句：

• Failure did not deter us from trying it again.失败并没有能阻挡我们再次进行试验。
• Dogs can deter unwelcome intruders.狗能够阻拦不受欢迎的闯入者。

9 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

10 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

11 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

12 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

13 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

14 hustling   

催促（hustle的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Our quartet was out hustling and we knew we stood good to take in a lot of change before the night was over. 我们的四重奏是明显地卖座的， 而且我们知道在天亮以前，我们有把握收入一大笔钱。
• Men in motors were hustling to pass one another in the hustling traffic. 开汽车的人在繁忙的交通中急急忙忙地互相超车。

15 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

16 hustle   

v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌)

参考例句：

• It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city.看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
• I had to hustle through the crowded street.我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。