May is graduation season. Soon, many beautiful Black students will be leaving their undergraduate institutions and, if not going to graduate school, starting the process of looking for a job. It’s an exciting time for so many to start the next step of their lives…but I need to issue a warning.
It seems like this generation of Black students are not ready for life in corporate America, a graduate program or anywhere on God’s green earth where they must report to someone. As a professor at Oklahoma State University, I’ve seen it firsthand.
Many of my students have unrealistic expectations of what it is like to work in the real world. Social media work influencers are giving such bad advice that they will have Black kids starting jobs on a Monday and end up fired by Thursday afternoon.
I want the next generation of Black folks to be successful. So, if you are a student who is about to hit the job market (or know someone who will),…