Northampton County, NAACP working to increase minority hires

Northampton county, NAACP talking

Northampton County officials and the Bethlehem chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are doing something important to encourage minority hires and create a more racially diverse county work force.

They’re getting together, reviewing hiring practices and talking.

This last part might seem self-evident, but it’s sometimes lost when terms such as racial inequality and hiring barriers are placed on the table. NAACP officials have been frustrated by the lack of progress in minority hiring at all levels. Government officials don’t like being targeted as obstructionists, especially when they are looking to diversify labor forces but don’t get enough applications from blacks, Latinos or members of other minority groups.

So it’s a good sign that Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem NAACP, and John Stoffa, Northampton County executive, are looking at this. Since September, a group from the NAACP and county human resources officials have gotten together to talk about the availability of county jobs, how they are advertised, how people can apply, how the county can reach out to people who might not be aware of job opportunities.

Lee recently questioned the inclusiveness of the county’s job efforts: “When you come to the courthouse, you don’t see a lot of African-American faces.”

Stoffa conceded the point: “We probably need more diversity than what we have.”

Lack of diversity in employment can result from shortcomings on both sides. Traditionally, governments resorted to political favoritism and nepotism in filling jobs — and to the extent this process is dominated by whites, men or any group, it favors those groups. That might not be a form of overt racism or gender bias, but it has the same effect. Cronyism and nepotism are close cousins of racism.

Northampton County, which is committed to having a qualified, diverse work force as part of its mission statement, advertises jobs on its Web site and in newspapers and must adhere to career service regulations in hiring. The extent to which the county and other public work forces are representative of the populations they serve depends greatly on communication — getting notices of job openings to people who might not see them, getting qualified applicants to apply. And hiring them.

NAACP organizations in Bethlehem and Easton are well-positioned to do this. Keeping in touch with county officials and helping with job recruiting can go a long way to eliminating racial barriers in hiring, real or perceived.

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