Problems and Needs of Negro Adolescent Workers

Abstract

Lack of work, partand short-time employment, low-paid, blind-alley jobs-these three are among the unlovely brotherhood lying in wait for' young Negroes today, lurking just outside the doors of high schools, vocational schools and colleges. That young worker is fortunate who does not find one of these, possibly all three, dogging his footsteps many a mile down the road that leads to steady employment, job experience and security. These hazards, of course, are by no means restricted to adolescent workers. The problems and needs of young Negro workers follow the same pattern as those of their seniors, differing chiefly in intensity of need and the degree of philosophical resignation with which problems are met. Young Negroes, to be both inclusive and specific, need everything. They need jobs; they need training for jobs; they need courage to pursue training for jobs that might never appear; they need knowledge and intelligence to prevent their courage from lapsing into a blind and futile stubbornness. The fact that universal recognition is accorded the plight of young workers today is not necessarily a sign of early remedial action, for reactions to that recognition are as varied as the wisdom and instincts of the observers. To some, the destructive unemployment among young Negro workers is only a symptom of general conditions keeping over four million young workers of all races between the ages of 15 and 24 out of school and out of jobs. To others, wide-spread joblessness among Negro youth is indicative of the hopelessly inadequate educational and training processes available to Negroes. To still others, lack of economic opportunity for Negroes is a sign of a sick national economy and of the need for revamping our political and economic systems. From all aspects, however, agreement is common on this point-job opportunities for young Negro people must be improved in order to insure the security of the Negro population and beyond that, the stability of our national economy. The trouble with these explanations is that they seem to assign blame for a specific, immediate condition to vague and intangible forces too powerful for individuals to sway; forces that are open to successful attack only by highly organized groups, with success deferred until some unpredictable future. Such observers forget that although most social problems develop out of group conditions, they are important in the last analysis only as they affect the individual. They overlook the fact that the individual himself can be helped to withstand and repel hostile social forces by developing sufficient strength within him and among sustaining influences in his community. These observers ignore the role of agencies in the community that are created to help the individual and