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whites were well underrepresented in this sector (5% and 18% respectively), and
Blacks were massively (76.6%) overrepresented. In the semi-capitalistic, personal
service jobs that dominated the sector, Blacks had a near monopoly (84.4%).
Unlike cities to the north, in Baltimore there were very few European immigrant
maids and domestic servants.

The similar pattern of racial-ethnic polarization prevailed in trade and
commerce. The high proportion of Black workers in this overall sector (35.2%) is
largely explained by the overwhelming degree (71.4%) to which Blacks dominated
the ranks of unskilled laborers, porters, and helpers, who represented 40% of the
sector's workers. Contrastingly, clerks in stores, which represented 42.1% of the
jobs in this sector, were overwhelmingly white native-born workers (88.5%).
Foreign-born whites were way underreprcsented in laboring ranks (2.5%), and just
modestly underrepresented among clerks (8.1%). The deliverymen among the
commercial workers, however, seem to break the pattern: they will be dealt with
below.

The ethnic division of labor among transportation and communication
workers is more difficult to discern. In this sector, all three groupings are employed
close to their proportion in the working class as a whole, with white U.S.-born
workers modestly higher, and white foreign-born and Blacks moderately lower. As
in other sectors, Blacks in transportation are overrepresented in the least
prestigious, least skilled, least compensated, and most casualized jobs, including the
unskilled ranks of railroad workers (48.1% Black), the laboring ranks of road and
street workers (56.9% Black), and the longshoremen (69% Black). Sailors and
seamen, which, along with longshoreman comprise almost all of the water transport
category, can be added to this list despite the fact that Blacks are modestly
underrepresented in this category at 213% because this is a comparatively high
concentration ot Blacks in an industrial occupation.

There is, however, a difference. Unlike other sectors, foreign-born whites