AP study: Blacks largely left out among high-paying jobs

The black unemployment rate is still problematic fifty years after both the release of the Kerner Commission Report and Martin Luther King's assassination. In one of his final speeches, King described the “Other America,” where unemployment and underemployment created a “fatigue of despair” for African-Americans. Today, this "Other America" has extended into the highest paid occupations, notably in the STEM fields, in cities ranging from a history of racial discord (Boston) to high cost-of-living (Silicon Valley).

An Associated Press analysis of government data has found that black workers are chronically underrepresented compared with whites in high-salary jobs in technology, business, life sciences, and architecture and engineering, among other areas. Instead, many black workers find jobs in low-wage, less-prestigious fields where they’re overrepresented, such as food service or preparation, building maintenance and office work, the AP analysis found.