It’s against the law to deny someone a job interview based on race, which is why your resume doesn’t have your race listed. But what if there are other parts of your resume that inherently conjure an image of a specific kind of person? How does the recruiter recognize that bias and how would a prospective applicant prove discrimination?
A Black man has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against a hotel in Detroit, Michigan, alleging the hotel only offered him a job interview after he changed the name on his resume, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by CNN.Dwight Jackson filed the lawsuit against the Shinola Hotel on July 3, alleging he was denied a job when he applied as “Dwight Jackson,” but later offered an interview when he changed his name to “John Jebrowski.”
…
A recent study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that name bias is a prevalent issue in the hiring process. Researchers sent out identical resumes to 108 U.S. employers to analyze whether race and gender affected callback rates for job applications. Resumes with Black male and Black female names received the fewest callbacks.
(cont. CNN)
I’ve gone through the “hide my race” dance for employment, but these things are so hard to prove and most lawyers would never take on the case if you reached out to them. Dwight, however, has a basis to show actual discrimination because he kept the same job history on his resume and applied to the same job where he successfully landed an interview. He could probably make a great case for bias out of that whereas I only have vibes and intuition to pull from.
For anyone who has asked why I don’t use my real name at work, here’s the full story.
Rewind to the Before Times and I was looking to get back into stable employment after spending so many years trying to make it big as a writer. I was making enough to pay my bills, but not much else, and I was tired of writing about the world and about politics. It’s too hard to wake up every day and read Left, Right, and Center in order to build a full picture of what’s going on in the country when 90% of the country is dumb and half of those dummies are also mean and bigoted. So I started applying for jobs.
I had a deep history in customer service, working as an assistant manager in retail stores and also leading a customer support department for an online retailer. Because all of my formal work history was related to working with people in some way or another, the only jobs I was really applying for were public facing. I was sending out so many resumes and filling out so many applications online, but I wasn’t getting the response to my emails that I thought I should have been with my work history. At heart, I’m a researcher and a lover of knowledge, so I started skipping through the internet to find ways to make my resume stand out more so I could land some interviews. I was really secure in the fact that if I could land an interview, I could sell myself to anyone and secure a position.
I started seeing articles pop up about tailoring your work history to the job you want (which I knew already), but along with that, you could also tailor yourself to the job you want. I’m a Black man with a Black man’s name, and I was applying for customer facing positions that were primarily staffed by white women. So, I changed my name. I’m not going to tell y’all what name I chose, but it is a gender neutral name that I used a typically female spelling for, like Bobbi or Danni.
When I used my full government name, I sent out 53 resumes and I got one response for an interview. When I put a white lady’s name at the top, I sent out 61 resumes and I got 11 responses for interviews. I took a step further, and instead of using the address for the Harlem apartment I was living in at the time, I used my friend’s address in Gramercy. I, as a white lady in a white neighborhood, got so many more responses.
Ultimately I secured a position two weeks before COVID hit, so I was let go before I even notched a full month of employment. But, since it worked so well before, when the city started to open back up and I was still on the job hunt, I decided to keep using that white lady’s resume and that’s the one I submitted for the job I currently have. When it was time to fill out my forms for employment, I said the name on my resume was my nickname — no different than putting Billy on your resume even if your driver’s license says William. And that was that. On Slack, my company profile, email address, etc. there is a name, that I only use at work, that probably helped me secure an interview but definitely protects me from being Googled or found on social media because the only people at my company who know my real name are the HR people so I can get paid.
So, when I read this little story on CNN, I immediately twitched and thought, “I hope he gets paid and I hope they get exposed,” because discrimination can be illegal on paper, but if you can’t police it, what good is a statute?
As long as there is implicit bias associated with your name, where you live, the university you went to, or the social clubs you’ve joined, there will always be people who can put your resume into the “no” pile based on who they have decided you are extrapolated from limited information.
I’m not suggesting you whitewash your resume for a job.
I’m saying I did that though, and I have yet to regret it, so I won’t tell anyone if you decide to.
Leave a Reply