As an ethnic person enduring a difficult economy, I wish that the search for new job opportunities was just about acquiring new professional skills or showing leadership capabilities in outside organizations. Often the fact that you're even looking for another job is due to biases, discomfort with your level of competence or confidence and a desire for others to consistently perceive you in a subserviant role. Help! It's tiring to have these perceptions result in a question of "whether you really fit" despite your positive proficiency in your profession. It's too easy to couch these misconceptions as political or simply unexplainable examples of incompatibility that result in your needing to find another position. A sensitive employment market makes a person of color more vulnerable. Like having a target on your back.. Last hired, first fired.. With the preception that you are the member of the team who is most in need of improvement. It takes a lot of energy to always feel like you're on the chopping block. Corporate culture is so entrenched in attacking those who are different. All the golf, late night office hours and well planned meetings with the boss can still fail to eliminate differences that make up who you are. Being different is not a detraction from your value or contribution to the work team or product. It's simply a fact that we're not all the same.