[shabda]

> On average, are two white people more employable than two black people?

Instead of above, the question you need to ask is "On average, are two white people who are applying to your job more employable than two black people who are applying to your job ? I don't believe the answer is yes. A person who has overcome the statistics you quote has the same ability and employability regardless of race.

[carussell]

> Instead of above, the question you need to ask is [...]

Yes, excellent point. (And we can go further still.)

I've been calling this the "fallacy of ignored instantiation". Personally, this is something I've been ruminating on for a while and have meant to do a writeup on it for a couple years now. Hopefully, though, that name is descriptive enough that a certain crowd would, upon hearing it alone, understand almost exactly where I would go with it.

(Alternatively, if anyone knows of any good treatments that already exist on this topic, please let me know.)