ABSTRACT
In the postindustrial global era, or the Information Age, a high school diploma no longer assures you a decent job or even a livable wage. There are fewer and fewer of the “good’’ manufacturing and government jobs that once were stable, provided benefits and were unionized. The nature ofworkhas changed. The rewards to knowledge andhighly technical skills have skyrocketed while rewards for traditional craft skills have stagnated or declined. The need for flexibility or versatility, good communication skills, some level of self-management, and other, often called “soft skills,’’ also has increased. Soft skills, those that are not particularly technical or industry specific, are more “people-oriented’’—including customer service, team building and collaboration, problem solving, learning by doing, and leadership skills. A college degree is now more often the signal that an applicant has the required skills or the ability to attain them; yet it is more difficult and more costly to earn than a high school diploma. At the same
time, contrary to conventional wisdom, racial and ethnic job discrimination has actually increased in some cases because the latter types of skills are more difficult abilities to discern and are subject to stereotyping (see Darity & Mason, 1998; Nembhard, 2000; Williams, 2000). Moreover, the “hard’’ technical as well as the “soft’’ people skills are not evenly taught or evenly acquired across different populations (for a variety of reasons discussed later). The consequences of this shift in the nature and requirements of work in the “new’’global Information Age are particularly severe for AfricanAmerican youth, and in general young people of color, because they continue to be left behind both academically and economically.
