August 31, 2009
While commuting in Houston, one may perceive the majority of Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) bus drivers to be Black. That’s because they are.
Documents obtained from Metro reveal some surprising statistics–80% of Metro bus drivers are Black. This is startling, but accurate nonetheless.
To truly understand the breadth of Metro’s overt discriminatory employment practices, one must first consider the demographics of Harris County. According to estimated Harris County Census data for 2008, Harris County is comprised of the following percentages by race. 
Hispanic – 39%
White – 35%
Black – 18%
Asian – 6%
Pacific Islander – 1%
American Indian – 1%
Harris County is obviously a melting pot within the larger melting pot known as the United States, but Metro employees aren’t even close to reflecting the actual racial percentages of Harris County. With the above demographics in mind, let us now examine the racial makeup of those currently employed by Metro (August 2009).
Black – 61%
Hispanic – 17%
White – 14%
Pacific Islander – 8%
How can any group of people that represent 18% of the population (Blacks), reflect 61% of the total employees of Metro? How can 39% or 35% of the population be reduced to only 17% and 14% respectively?
The above statistics are indeed startling, but these figures pale in comparison when one reviews the actual percentages of Metro bus drivers by race. 
Black – 80%
Hispanic – 13%
White – 5%
Asian – 2%
American Indian – Negligible
Other – Negligible
In summary, Blacks represent 18% of the Harris County population, and yet 80% of Metro’s bus drivers are Black? Blacks represent only 18% of the population, yet reflect 61% of Metro’s total employees.
Readers may also be interested in knowing that Metro bus drivers can earn up to approximately $79,000.00. These discriminatory employment practices are not only surprising and unacceptable, but moderately lucrative to those hired.
It’s very interesting to note that the Federal Transit Administration recently reviewed Metro’s compliance with the Civil Rights Act. The following was obtained from an article written by Carolyn Feibel of the Houston Chronicle-July 31, 2009.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) reviews federally funded transit agencies periodically to check their compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Representatives of the federal agency visited Metro in February, 2009 and issued a final report in July. They concluded that Metro complied with 10 out of 12 requirements.
The FTA stated that Metro must do a better job of evaluating whether fare increases and service changes disproportionately affect low-income and minority customers.
Metro must now prove to the Federal Transit Administration that the fare policy change was not a “pretext for discrimination,” that there were legitimate business reasons for raising the fare, and there were no viable alternatives to the fare increase, said FTA spokesman Paul Griffo.
The Federal Transit Administration’s review also found the transit agency needs to improve services to customers with limited English skills.
The federal reviewers compared Metro bus routes through minority and non-minority neighborhoods. It found that the minority routes had more amenities like shelters, benches and trash cans, to accommodate the higher ridership on those routes.
But after their initial visit, the reviewers said Metro was deficient on eight of the 12 requirements. The agency was able to correct most of the shortcomings quickly.
The federal review also included interviews with nine people representing Hispanic, African-American and Chinese communities. They told the federal officials that Metro had kept them informed of service changes. They also had a positive view of the introduction of light rail.
A Chinese-American told the FTA that Metro needed to do better outreach to the various Asian-American communities.
Harris County has a population of approximately 4 million people and the Federal Transit Administration only interviewed nine, and they didn’t bother to interview White people at all? One must also question how the FTA can conduct a Civil Rights review and not notice the tremendously disproportionate employment ratios in which this artilcle is based.
Harris County residents (taxpayers) should demand an investigation take place and insist that Metro’s overt discriminatory hiring practices be addressed and corrected, including penalizing those found responsible.
No race, Hispanic, White, Black, Asian, nor American Indian, should receive preferential treatment over another, yet this practice is obviously, blatantly occurring at Metro.
Politicafe contacted Metro regarding these disturbing statistics in order to give them an opportunity to reply. After our initial contact, Metro’s media relations department assured us that they wanted to meet immediately in order to discuss this. Four days later Metro said, “We’ve decided not to comment”.
Congresswoman Sheila Lee quote – “Right now, we face one of the biggest recessions our nation has seen since the depression and it pains me to see Houston METRO hindering job creation by not working with Houstonians and small local contractors on many of its initiatives. Now is the time to face our economic hardships head on and hold Houston METRO accountable for job creation and small business opportunity in Houston.” (April ’09; source – 8-Pac Business News Agregator)
See related article on Frank Wilson, CEO of Metro.
Topics: bus drivers, demographics, discrimination, federal transit, fta, harris county, Houston, metropolitan, racial, transit
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Discrimination in Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority (Exclusive) | 
You be sure to report your findings to us! Give ‘em an inch…
Those percentages are appauling! White people could use some Affirmative Action in order to correct these inequalities. I’m going to post this article on my blog, if you don’t mind…
You bring up an interesting observation on the disparity among demographics.
However, it is unfair to call METRO, or any other company discriminatory based solely on one set of statistical variables, one of which is purely raw data. For example, the census information provided does not state what percentages of each group are of legal working age, etc.
One should consider other aspects such as company tenure, qualifications specific to a job, hiring practices and interview processes, and recruiting efforts to name a few.
Did you know that METRO has an aggressive outreach effort to encourage applicants of all backgrounds to apply?
This year alone, the agency hosted and participated in more than 30 job fairs, career days and open houses such as the Houston Chronicle Career Fair, Houston Community College NE Spring 2009 Partnering with Communities Job Fair, Monster Job Fair and many more.
To spread the word, METRO publicizes its job fairs on its Web site, as well as via fliers distributed to a diverse list of partners (such as Asian Pacific American Heritage Association, Workforce Solutions, Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Houston Area Urban League and more).
METRO also places recruitment ads in various publications such as the American Public Transportation Association, El Día, Hispanic Business, Inc., Houston Chronicle, Saigon Tex News, The Employment Guide and others. The agency also has a diversity council which focuses on outreach and recruitment efforts.
The information reported is appreciated as METRO is continuously working to diversity its pool of applicants. Check out METRO’s Web site and learn about career opportunities at the agency. Go to http://www.ridemetro.org and find out if there any positions that would be a great fit for you.
Just one quick clarification – on average, a bus operator makes about $37,000.
Houston METRO,
In response to your comment, realize that in Harris County, if EVERY Black was of working age, and only HALF of the Hispanic population were considered to be of working age, Hispanics would still outnumber Blacks. As demonstrated by Metro data, there are 6 times as many Black bus drivers as there are Hispanic, and 16 times more than Whites! I would say this is more than coincidental.
I would also like readers to see bus driver salaries for themselves by going to the Houston Chronicle website–http://www.chron.com/databases/publicemployeepay.html
The Chronicle has provided a wonderful City and County employee salary database for the year 2007. After arriving at the website, simply select “Metro”. I recommend leaving the “Overtime” and “Total Pay” selections set to “all”.
Politicafe also believes the recruiting efforts Metro proudly mentions above should be seriously reevaluated. Below readers will find the total number of Metro applicants by race for 2008.
Black – 4751
Hispanic – 738
White – 776
Two or more races – 102
Pacific Islander – 14
Instead of Metro defending current employment practices, I believe taxpayers would rather read about the plan Metro will implement to correct that which appears obvious–discrimination.
Frioman, if you’re looking for a smoking gun, I think the fact that black applicants are an overwhelming majority would indicate why there are more black bus drivers than “other.” After all, you can only hire the people who apply for the job. Since you like math and nice tidy, sterile figures let’s come at the argument this way…
If there are 6,381 applicants, and 4,751 of them are black, that would indicate that 75% of all applicants are black. HOWEVER, as you stated only 61% of all METRO employees are black. THAT would indicate that they are 14% shy of perfect math, and in the un-black applicants’ favor. They will, in order to be more ethnically-sensitive, and more importantly, mathmatically-correct, they would need to fire 14% of their non-black employees and replace them with black employees.
There’s your exposé: It’s official, METRO absolutely, positively hates 14% of all black people (but they love the other 86%).
What a wonderful opportunity! One rarely witnesses the application of a double standard right before their eyes.
Our readers know, and Metro knows that we know, it’s the net result that determines whether discrimination has occurred, not necessarily the intent. Employers and universities have become well aware of this mantra.
Are we expected to believe Affirmative Action is not applicable in this instance simply because those adversely affected are White or Hispanic?
I am concerned that Metro does not seem to understand the value of the information shown in this article. Why are more Hispanics and Whites not applying for Metro? Surely it cannot be argued that the job is beneath them, therefore, they simply do not apply. In this day and age everyone understands the value of having a job. I would ask that Metro reevaluate their job fairs and other recruiting practices to determine which segment of the population is targeted.
If any other company had a similar breakdown on race for employees the media would be all over it.
Nice observation. Thanks for pointing this out!!!
[...] at Politicafe says there’s discrimination afoot in Houston’s Metro system and displays stats (and [...]
I find this article to be absolutely ridiculous. It’s not that Metro targets only African Americans, it’s just that they are the only one’s applying for the job. Who cares if there are more blacks? That just means that more blacks apply than any other race.
I am sure if any other race tried to apply, they could get the job just as easily as an African American. What a waste of an article.
Regarding any other race being hired for these positions, the difference is if the current jobs were being held by whites or hispanics — any race besides black, there would be an outcry for change and change would have happened immediately. People would have lost their jobs,there would be marching in the streets, buses overturned, extreme acts to make this situation “right”. That is the difference. History speaks for itself on this very issue. That is why affirmative action was put into place.
Thank you for bringing this issue to light and showing how unfair, discriminatory, and racist the Metro hiring system is. AND — they apparently aren’t going to do anything to make it fair.
All it SHOULD be is fair. This is only the beginning. We will not let this issue die and we will continue to bring this to the forefront until we find out who is responsible for this discriminatory practice at Metro.
That was a brilliant response by Metro. Not only did they admit that they have a disproportionate number of black employees; they also admitted they have a disproportionate number of black applicants. This leads me to conclude only one thing. Their discrimination is obviously intentional. They are obviously targeting black people with their job advertising.
Why aren’t they making an effort to target white people? Why aren’t they going to predominantly white neighborhoods, high schools, and colleges, in an attempt to target white people?
The excuse that ‘black people apply 80% of the time, therefore, black people comprise 80% of the employee population’ does not work. That same argument has been used to explain why there are disproportionate percentages of white people in a workplace, compared to general population percentages, and that argument has been deemed irrelevant.
Employers with disproportionate numbers of white employees have been forced to either compromise on their hiring criteria, and hire all of the few minority applicants they have, regardless of qualifications; or they’ve been forced to figure out a way to increase minority application.
Why is Metro able to get away with this? Why is such a RACIST organization allowed to continue operating in such a hateful, bigoted manner. This disgusts me. We’re definitely going to have to do something about this! Equality is equality, right? Or, is it only equality when it’s equal for ONE group of people. I thought black activists wanted equality; why aren’t they fighting for the equal rights of white people, in this case? Where’s Quanell X? Where’s Brother Derek Muhammad? Where’s Jesse Jackson? Why aren’t they fighting for equal rights of white people?
We need to boycott Metro, until this problem is fixed. We need the entire Metro administration to be fired.
I don’t know if Metro buses need to be burned quite yet, but whatever it takes to fight this institutionalized, government-sponsored racism, needs to happen! The “Wheels of Racism” are turning in the City of Houston.
Need a tissue to dry those crocodile tears?
Black, Brown, or White people receiving preferential treatment is not OK.
Is it acceptable to promote “Buying Black”? Is it acceptable to portray white men, but not Black men as the burglar in Brinks Home Security commercials? Is it acceptable to have 16 times as many Black bus drivers than White? No.
This weekend I heard Councilwoman Joland Jones recount her first job experience. “My first job out of college was great. I was the first in my family to have an office. The first in my family to have business cards. My name was on the door in gold letters. And I had a white secretary”.
What? Did she say that? …..yes.
She then went on to say, “I rode up an elevator with 3 men, three white men”. Did stating their race change the story? Then why go there?
Imagine if a White male said the reverse. And I had a Black secretary. I rode up an elevator with 3 women, three Black women.
This is not acceptable.
Oh yes…this was spoken on the radio.
Black, Brown, or White people receiving preferential treatment is not OK
Sure, but you folks only seem to notice it when a black person appears to get preferential treatment (as if being a bus driver is anything you could call “preferential”). Why exactly is that? It seems that you have an axe to grind.
Did stating their race change the story?
That depends, is Ms Jones old enough to recall being disallowed to drink from a white man’s drinking fountain in Houston Texas? Was she raised as a second-class citizen much of her life, by a family treated as second-class citizens the majority of their lives? Then it matters a whole WHOLE lot, yes. I would say having a white secretary would have been quite indicitive of success for a black woman in Texas back when she got her first job.
“Burn Metro Busses” indeed, I think Crusty is taking this mock “outrage” a little to the ridiculous neighborhood. You poor poor white man, I’ll bet life is just a downright nightmare for you, up there in your white-people ghetto.
This was fun. I can’t wait to see the NEXT installment of “Darky Gets a Hand-Up!”
PP13, I would say that a $70 thousand plus dollars job is a good one to have; especially, not knowing where our economy will go. No axe to grind, just observations. As I said, regardless of what race receives preferential treatment, it’s wrong.
Jolanda Jones using the word “White” in her statements may have resonated with other Black people, but to the average listener, she appeared racist. Why would someone (these days) include a person’s race when telling a story?
She’s about 42 years old. She was 10 in 1977. I really doubt she experienced much, if any of the second class citizen treatment.
Ohhh…….I see. Maybe when certain Black activists demand equal treatment, they aren’t necessarily requesting proportional treatment. Proportional treatment would mean Metro would employ 18% Black. Proportional would mean Blacks would only be on 14% of the TV commercials. Proportional would mean that Blacks are also portrayed poorly on TV commercials.
Blacks are 62% of Metro employees, and 80% bus drivers. Blacks are NEVER the burglar on home security commericals (give me an example if I’m wrong). Blacks are rarely, rarely portrayed as stupid, feeble, foolish, or a buffoon on TV commericals. Blacks appear on approximately 40% of the commercials.
So maybe “equal” and “fair” doesn’t mean “proportional”, and a disproportional advantage is acceptable, as long as it favors Blacks?
I would say that a $70 thousand plus dollars job
You’re propagating false information here. A bus operator makes about $37,000, that point was made in this very posting. Why do Republicans do that? They make a false statement (ie; Obama Wants to Kill your Granny), the other side corrects the false statement, then said Republican pretends like they never heard the answer, and continue along with their original statement… hoping that if they say it enough, and to as many people as they can, it will become true. That’s just freaky, you guys need to stop doing that. Makes you seem crazy.
I really doubt she experienced much, if any of the second class citizen treatment
Most Jews haven’t spent any time in the concentration camps, but I’m guessing they haven’t really forgotten about that facet of their family’s history. So again, I have to disagree with your assessment that she was not affected by Southern Jim Crow.
Proportional treatment would mean Metro would employ 18% Black
Sure. It would also hold true that 13% of Congress would be black (not the case). It would also mean that 13% of all high-powered corporate board positions in America would be held by black men and women, as 13% of America is black. Of course, that is NOT the case – funny, I don’t hear you lamenting that in your blog. What percentage of your job is black? Your kids’ schools, what percentage of their teachers are black? Your banks, what percentage of their CEOs are black? Maybe you should run an expose. Perhaps if you can open up some of those other doors for your Nubian brothers and sisters they won’t HAVE to drive a bus for a living.
In fact, I challenge you to do that. Show me what you’re made of and write a REAL expose, and lay off the small potatoes bus drivers and TV commercials bull****. Maybe you can ask why so many interior decorators are gay, and expose a great big gay-friendly conspiracy. Go to a golf course and find me some black people. Find me 13% of them. If you don’t find ‘em, ask why. I mean that can’t be too hard if you truly do not have an axe to grind, right? The white man doesn’t need another well-intentioned champion, they’re doing pretty well without you sticking up for them I suspect.
You’re right, the average salary of a Metro bus driver is less than $70,000; nonetheless, a driver that is willing to work can make upwards of $79,000. Readers can see it for themselves as mentioned in a previous comment.
So again, I have to disagree with your assessment that she was not affected by Southern Jim Crow.
Hey, we’re all affected by Jim Crow, and we all know there will always be a small percentage of populations that will remain racist–Brown, White, Asian, and Black. Why aren’t Japanese still crying about internment camps? Are we still cold towards Russians? Should we give German Americans special treatment because they were a past enemy?
Is it racism that allows a first generation Vietnamese to become a doctor, yet a 4th generation Black to remain poor?
I’ll reply later with statistics, but for now, I feel as though Blacks are getting at least their fair share of assistance. Compare the government programs below for example. The information was obtained from whitehouse.gov.
Now compare this to the closest Hispanic program below. Note the purpose.
Notice the difference in dollar amounts.
At no fault of Hispanics, it appears as though Blacks are receiving more money, even though the US population consists of more Hispanics than Blacks. Academic outocomes are likely similar between the two, but in fact, I believe Hispanics fare poorer on the total that complete college.
This is just another example of disproportional treatment (in the favor of Blacks).
Why do PooPoo’s want to persecute companies and people, in the name of equal rights and anti-racism for black people; but whenever something is unequally in their favor, or a black person is accused of racism, then all they want to do is “move on,” “get over it,” “focus our attention elsewhere,” or “leave the poor bus drivers alone.”
Do PooPoo’s really want equal rights? Do they really believe in ‘Not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character?’ Or, do they only believe in that stuff when it benefits black people? Do they still believe in “equal rights” when black people are being UNnequally favored? I guess not.
It sure makes it difficult to be sympathetic to the poor black people’s cause, who can NEVER seem to get a leg up, no matter how much gubment money we throw at those ungrateful bast#rds, when their cause is fraught with double-standards. It also makes it a little difficult to believe there is any integrity in black activists’ principles when they plead for “equal rights,” up until THEY are unequally favored.
PooPoo, and all other PooPoo’s out there, I’d wager that this article was not written because the author wants to fire all the black people in Metro. He’s just pointing out the double-standard. In other words, he’s telling all you black activists (and News agencies that support them) to shut the hell up, until you’re willing to have some integrity. If you really believe in equal rights, then you should be going after Metro on behalf of white people.
I’m not a Republican, but I will point out that when Metro declared that their average salary was $37,000, they were using a bit of propaganda, which easily fools folks such as yourself. Republicans may ignore subsequent corrections by folks such as yourself because they have the benefit of real, indisputable evidence (http://www.chron.com/databases/publicemployeepay.html), and they realize it’s futile to argue such points with folks such as yourself.
ALRIGHT, I’VE HAD ENOUGH. BURN THE BUSES!
As it has clearly been pointed out by others that commented on the issue, the data used to support the argument does not show what race applied for the particular position. The cry of racism that I picked up in the article remains to be unfounded, because of old data and the fact that applicants are not required to list their race. If anyone can comprehend this story, they should assume that people of different race did not apply to be a transportation operator.
You go right ahead and burn ‘em, Crusty.
Hell you can burn the whole city, it’s only Houston.
backnschool, Even if the data didn’t show what position hirees applied for, the data clearly shows discrimination. Forget bus drivers for a moment and consider that 61% of the total employees are Black, compared to 17% Hispanic and 14% White. Remember…Harris County only consists of 18% Black.
And no…the data isn’t that dated; furthermore, you’ll notice on Metro’s comment above, they didn’t dispute the data.
Forget bus drivers for a moment and consider that 61% of the total employees are Black, compared to 17% Hispanic and 14% White. Remember…Harris County only consists of 18% Black.
Sure. It would also hold true that 13% of Congress would be black (not the case). It would also mean that 13% of all high-powered corporate board positions in America would be held by black men and women, as 13% of America is black. What percentage of your job is black? Your kids’ schools, what percentage of their teachers are black? Your banks, what percentage of their CEOs are black? Perhaps if you can open up some of those other doors for your Nubian brothers and sisters they won’t HAVE to drive a bus for a living.
If there are 6,381 applicants, and 4,751 of them are black, that would indicate that 75% of all applicants are black. HOWEVER, as you stated only 61% of all METRO employees are black. THAT would indicate that they are 14% shy of perfect math, and in the un-black applicants’ favor. They will, in order to be more ethnically-sensitive, and more importantly, mathmatically-correct, they would need to fire 14% of their non-black employees and replace them with black employees.
It’s official, METRO absolutely, positively hates 14% of all black people (but they love the other 86%).