A few reasons why we're at 16.5%

I was looking at the unemployment stats and it says that the unemployment rate is 9.7% BUT for blacks the unemployment rate is 16.5%!! It's historical that blacks have always had a higher rate of unemployment compared to the rest of America but this is just ridiculous. It's almost double. I know we're barely coming out of a recession but that number is unacceptable. I think I have a few reasons why a few of my people are unemployed.

My people when you get a call for an interview at a MAJOR investment bank please dress accordingly. I don't care if it's in the mailroom,cafeteria, administrative assistant or lawyer. PUT ON A DAMN SUIT! It doesn't have to be an Armani suit but wear a suit. Women if you decide to wear a skirt please make sure I can't see the dimples in your ass! That's what they make Spanx for. Comb your damn hair and tame down the weave. Leave the excess perfume at home and for the love of God cut your damn monster claws down and paint them a normal damn color. People don't want to see nails 4 inches long with nail art.

I know some people are not raised to know what is appropriate wear etc but I think you have no excuse when you're over 25 and I don't care what your family life was like. If you can text, tweet and look on the internet you can Google what's appropriate wear to an interview.

One of my close girlfriends is a Senior Manager at a biotech firm. Her area is all of NYC,Long Island and Northern Jersey. She has 6 reps under her and NOT one black. During the interview process she always interviews black because like my profession their aren't a lot of US. BUT she hasn't been able to hire a single black person because of straight foolishness. People coming completely unprepared for the interview, inappropriately dressed, not knowledgable on the subject matter and of course LATE! The last dude she interviewed was ONE HOUR late. So after the dude interviewed with the other members of her team. She called him in and asked him if he thought it was appropriate to come to an interview an hour late and dude was like I thought it was at this time and she said how when I sent you a confirmation email and you confirmed. She told him how she just couldn't hire him because he would be a reflection of her.

The few things I listed are some of the reason that black people are unemployed. These reasons are NOT the only reasons but they damn sure are some of them. Oh yes and please stop putting your kids at a disadvantage with names like Quay'Kanisha, J'Terria, Mu'Funkay and Quaku. I know we like to be different but make the middle name different!

I think as a whole we can do better. Not because Obama is President but because we should want to do better for ourselves. Yes, this is a recession, times are hard, companies aren't hiring like they used to BUT you need to fight for that position. Remember if a white person is giving 100% we need to give %125!