Minority professionals an ‘untapped market’

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Feb. 13, 2006 | 12:31 p.m.

When Darrell Jones was in his late teens in a small town near Kansas City, Kan., it occurred to him that he didn't want the day to arrive when his little nieces and nephews would be "looking up to someone who was now dead."

Jones had two Glock 9 mm pistols, a gang to run with ... and no future.

He traded being a gangbanger for a linebacker in high school. He became the first person in his family to go on to college.

Then one day he connected with a fifth grader in an elementary school classroom he visited to do some student-teaching for an education course.

"Teaching chose me; I didn't choose it," he said, and five years later, at 26, he is a kindergarten teacher at Imprints Day School, a local private school.

Now a long way from Kansas and his former life, Jones is also part of the Las Vegas Valley's population that no one tracks - minority professionals. Many observers say that population is either growing or being noticed more, or both.

"The affluence of minorities is on everybody's radar ... there are more minorities and they're doing better" said Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst at Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas economic and fiscal research firm.

Nevada Supreme Court Justice Michael Douglas, who in 2004 became the first black man in Nevada's history to hold that position, said he has seen "some of the glass ceilings disappear" during his career - and recalled when there were about 15 licensed black attorneys statewide in the early '80s, a number he puts at four times that amount today.

Last month a new magazine appeared on the scene to tap into the market of minority professionals.

Called "Urban Avenue," its goal is to "embrace the achievements of ethnic professionals," according to Publisher Arnold Bell.

"It's an untapped market," Bell said.

"How many publications are featuring positive information for people like myself?" he added.

Bell is a 36-year-old black man who worked in advertising before starting his new venture, which will be free and have a bimonthly press run of 30,000.

While Bell is confident his magazine will have readers, he had no demographic numbers to back up his optimistic forecast.

In fact, there is little solid research out there to show how Hispanics and blacks - the two largest minority groups in the valley, at 25 and 10.8 percent of the total population respectively - are doing when it comes to earnings over time.

UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research publishes an annual survey called Las Vegas Perspectives that includes questions about household income.

In 2000, 32 percent of black households responding to the survey said they earned above $50,000 a year. In 2005, that number was 38.5 percent, according to Bob Potts, assistant director of the center.

Hispanic affluence increased at a slower pace - from 36.4 percent to 40.6 percent during the same period, but that number may reflect a large migration to the state of low-wage earners, he said.

Still, Aguero said, the issue may not be so much whether the group of minorities earning more money is growing, but that they are finally being noticed.

He said there may have long been a sort of "passive racism" at work, "where there are groups of people who believe that if minorities succeed, it's a phenomenal thing."

"Those folks (minority professionals) have always been there - many businesses just turned a blind eye to that area of the economy before," he said.

That is now changing, he said, citing executives of a major retailer who recently came to his firm for information about Hispanic homeowners.

At the same time, on a day-to-day basis, the experience of Hispanics and blacks may be difficult at times, regardless of how much money they're earning.

Justice Douglas recalled being stopped by a Highway Patrol officer while driving his Porsche some years ago. He was not speeding and had not run a red light, he said.

At the time, he was a deputy district attorney.

"The first thing he asked me was, 'Whose car is this?' I looked at the officer. I showed him my registration and so on, with my Deputy DA badge folded inside.

"When he saw that, he said, 'OK.'"

Douglas said that story illustrates that minorities still face stereotypes.

Jones, meanwhile, says he knows he has "something no one can take away - a degree."

"I (also) know I am a role model to them," speaking of his nieces and nephews. I'm paving the way for my family after me."

And he has an added ambition - being a singer - which he'd like to pair with his teaching career, by singing about working with children.

Though he's earning more than the $4.50 an hour he made working at a shoe store when he first came to Las Vegas two-plus years ago, he wants to get out the message that teachers are important and should be paid better.

"Hell, I could be teaching future billionaires or presidents," he said.

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at timothy@lasvegassun.com.