“There’s plenty of denial out here. The playing field is not level. If you have a ‘black sounding’ name, it's a lot harder. A lot of civil rights era kids who were taught to be proud of our roots are now scrubbing out anything that can identify you by race.” ~ California paralegal Kamika Caitlan Frank used her middle name only and removed 'black-sounding' names from her resume to land a job. (Black Voice News)
Applicants and academic researchers have discovered that "African American job applicants still face major obstacles compared to their white counterparts," and that applicants with "black-sounding names received 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names."
No matter what you call it, it's race discrimination, and it's wrong. Whether your name is Latrelle or Emily, your resume should be evaluated on your qualifications - but the current reality is that a disturbing number of employers are sorting resumes by name.
If any of my readers have made name adjustments to their own resumes just to get a fair shot at an interview, I hope you'll share your insight and your experience.
Source: Black Voice News
2 comments:
Great post, Lynne. I am in complete agreement. I'm a 'child of the sixties' and see a great deal of improvement from when I was growing up, but I am still hoping that the next generation will suffer less from this short of thing. As professionals, lawyers and paralegals must recognize and fight against our own ingrained biases and prejudices. We can do what we do well only when we rise above them.
Thanks for the positive feedback. It's not something I've thought much about, because when I see a resume from someone who has everything it takes to do the job, plus some, I don't care what his or her name is - all I want to know is when they can start.
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