Lack of social awareness on the part of businessmen is a greater obstacle to equal employment in the North than is deliberate discrimation, Alan Gartner, national treasurer of the Congress of Racial Equality, said yesterday.

Gartner spoke before the Public Affairs Club of the Business School in place of James Farmer, director of CORE, who was detained in New York City by bad weather.

Bank Work

Gartner, who is also chairman of the Boston chapter of CORE, told of his group's efforts to increase employment opportunities for Negroes in Boston's three largest banks. As recently as last summer, less than 1 per cent of the bank employees in Boston were Negroes, he said.

Although more than 80,000 Negroes live in Boston, only one was employed by a bank in a position of contact with the public, prior to the CORE campaign, Gartner continued.

As a result of intensive negotiations with executives of the three banks, a vigorous recruitment program for qualified Negro bank employees at all skill levels is now underway, he added.

Gartner claimed that the low level of Negro employment in banks was not the result of intentional bias but of a lack of awareness by executives that Negroes are reluctant to apply for a job without being asked, because of the long history of employment discrimination.

"Seek Out Negroes"

"We are not asking business to lower its standards or to hire less competent workers." Gartner continued, "but to seek out qualified Negroes and to examine hiring qualifications to insure that they are fair and reasonable."

Gartner stressed the importance of hiring "visible Negroes," not as "show-pieces," but to increase the flow of Negro applicants. Unless Negroes have reason to believe that a business does not have a policy of discrimination, they are reluctant to apply and risk one more rebuff, he said.

Advertising

Enterprises can also demonstrate their willingness to hire Negroes by advertising job openings in Negro media, by using Negro models in display advertising, and by sending personnel officers to Negro social centers and schools, he added.

Gartner also called for the elimination of the "white middle class culture bias" from the aptitude examinations usually given to all prospective employees.