Bootstraps

Bootstraps
by the Liberal Arts Dude

Check out this link to Asian Diversity. It is an organization—a business—that holds events and provides services for job-hunters and other career-minded folks of Asian descent. The highlight is an annual career fair held in a big stadium in a major city attended by thousands of people and where exhibitors from companies and agencies seeking to hire Asian and Asian-American talent go. Does mainstream America know about these types of ethnically-targeted professional development events? I doubt it. It took me several years after graduating college and circulating within the Asian-American community (yes, for those who don't already know, I am of Asian-American descent) before I found out about these events and this organization.

Why am I writing about it you may ask? Well, mainly that this is exactly the type of "pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps" mentality that I admire. In this case, the Asian community is pulling itself up by its own bootstraps with collective action. Enterprising folks found a way to fill the vacuum between the supply of Asian talent and the demand for it. They provide a much needed social service for the Asian community and the larger mainstream society which seeks to diversify their pool of employees. They are not relying on the government to do it for them or demanding concessions from anyone outside their own community. Win-win situation.

To those of Asian descent and other ethnic minorities who don't know about these types of events—they do exist. These organizations are out there and are doing great work amid little fanfare in the mainstream. All you need to do is to get plugged into your ethnic community media and organizations and I bet you will find examples of these collective self-help types of events and organizations that focus on professional development for ethnic minority workers. These community-focused events and organizations are yet another resource to tap for career-minded Liberal Arts graduates.

(Where does that leave white folks? I say white folks can do it too. I have no problems with it personally. I would argue that working class white folks are in the same boat as ethnic minorities in terms of access to the avenues of economic and social opportunities in the mainstream. So I have no problems with working class white folks collectively organizing something to benefit themselves as a population.)

I imagine something like Asian Diversity can be beneficial to Liberal Arts graduates as a population. Imagine a massive annual job fair for Liberal Arts graduates of all races and ethnicities where employers are actively seeking fresh talent from a previously unrecognized and undervalued pool of applicants. Just throwing out an idea to consider for the business-minded out there.

Copyright 2005