ISU Sociology professor Gloria Jones-Johnson
From the Des Moines Register:
Many theories have been proposed over the years for why blacks encounter such barriers to employment in Iowa - the ideas include lower rates of educational achievement and higher incarceration rates...
[State Representative Wayne] Ford, who works with many unemployed people at Urban Dreams, a Des Moines human services agency he founded 21 years ago, says one in four of his clients failed to finish high school. More than half have some kind of criminal record.
Assuming a cause-and-effect relationship between high dropout and incarceration rates among blacks and low levels of employment is unwise, though, said Gloria Jones-Johnson, a professor of sociology at Iowa State University.
She said she thinks Iowans prefer this explanation because it allows them to dodge the issue at the root of the problem - cultural bias.
"It's hard for whites to talk about racism, especially in a state like Iowa where race is taken for granted," she said. "They can very easily emphasize education and other things. But these numbers suggest that something is structurally wrong. It's very pervasive, and they're in denial."
Yeah, you wouldn't want to make education or other things like, I don't know, a criminal record or past stable work history an important factor in hiring somebody for a job. Iowa should ban those sorts of invasive questions.
It's all good, but make sure you're watching at the 8 min & 15 sec part.
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