First it was racist audio of Bloomberg’s 2015 comments defending the stop-and-frisk policing strategy at an Aspen Institute event was spread on social media by activist Benjamin Dixon.
Now, video has resurfaced with disparaging comments that Bloomberg made on “PBS NewsHour” about black and Latino men while he was promoting the Young Men’s Initiative, a $127 million, three-year collaboration between his own foundation, the Open Society Institute and the city of New York.
The Young Men’s Initiative was designed to improve work opportunities for underserved communities and to “attract industries that can use the people here who are unemployed.” In the PBS interview, however, Bloomberg insulted the same communities his initiative was supposed to be serving.
“There’s this enormous cohort of black and Latino males, age, let’s say, 16 to 25, that don’t have jobs, don’t have any prospects, don’t know how to find jobs, don’t know what their skill sets are, don’t know how to behave in the workplace where they have to work collaboratively and collectively,” Bloomberg said.
Later in the interview, he added, “If you look at where crime takes place, it’s in minority neighborhoods. If you look at who the victims and the perpetrators are, it’s virtually all minorities.”
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6 Responses
Bloomberg was absolutely correct about stop and frisk in 2015 and about minorities in the workforce in his above reported comments on PBS.
TRUTH HURTS.
black and Latino men really have problems fitting into the US social society. I have noticed that most crimes in NYC that involve violence have a high percentage of black people involved. why?
but as above has said, Truth does Hurt….
sad for society when one tells his opinion he is made to be a racist, especially when he is correct.,,,
I could make the same comment about “not knowing how to behave in the workplace” about many Yeshiva graduates. From personal experience, I’ve met a number of Yeshiva guys who graduated from places like Touro who have strong technical skills in their field of study, but don’t know what is or is not appropriate in the general business world. Having spent their life in the Beis Medrash, where questioning your Rebbi’s sevara and arguing with your Chavrusa over pshat is the norm, they have trouble dealing with a situation where such direct confrontation of ideas that you don’t understand or agree with are considered inappropriate.
Now, does that mean that these Yeshiva guys, or, lehavdil, the minority youth mentioned my Mayor Bloomberg, are not able to succeed? Not at all – but it is necessary to acknowledge that there is an issue so that the individuals in question, who are otherwise qualified or can be educated to be qualified, can be trained in proper business etiquette and behavior – which will then enable them to reach their potential and succeed in the business world.
an Israeli Yid
I’m not sure how this is supposed to be negative, he’s giving $127 million to help these people get employment. He’s saying people who don’t have work experience don’t know how to behave in a work environment, now he’s helping them learn.
rt, and Trump has created a job market which has provided the lowest unemployment rates for minorities and African Americans. I guess it’s a double standard with you.