Nowadays your name may say it all when you’re looking for a job. U.S. Research found that some employers might schedule an interview with an applicant based on the name they see on the resume because of their perception that the individual is of a specific race or ethnicity. The other candidates may have the same job qualifications as their counterparts, but face a roadblock because of their names.
The University of Chicago’s Marianne Bertrand, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sendhil Mullainathan, conducted a study for the National Bureau of Economic Research paper, “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?”
The duo conducted a field experiment on labor market discrimination by obtaining 500 resumes from online job sites. They chose resumes that appeared to represent strong educational backgrounds and job experience. Then Bertrand and Mullainathan substituted the names with false names that sounded white or black and applied for 1,300 jobs advertised in The Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune.
The research found evidence that suggested discrimination against African-American names, while white names received 50 percent of the calls for job interviews. Bertrand and Mullainathan’s research showed that discrimination is consistent in a variety of occupations. The outcome of the study suggests that racial discrimination is alive and well in today’s labor market.
After more than 30 years of studying racism, Yale University Psychology Professor Jack Dovidio, says Americans aren’t cognizant of their racial attitudes.
"All of us have feelings that are unconscious, we might not be aware we have these feelings, they are like habits of the mind set we grew up with, but learned to suppress, try to control and pretend that we don’t have any longer."
The Gallup Poll surveys and the Implicit Association Test access racial attitudes, while the IAT utilizes word connection strategies, such as “white means good and black means bad” to obtain the necessary results from its exams. "The IAT and others like it test what people are thinking without asking them directly," says Dovidio. "That is how you measure that 80 percent of whites have these unconscious biases."
Dovidio conducted a discrimination study with over 70 introductory psychology students called Hodson Gordon to Video Gaertner Sam while teaching psychology at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. The journal of Personality Social Psychology Bulletin: Processes in Racial Discrimination: Differential Waiting of Conflicting Information published his work several years ago.
The study asked the students to make decisions about future enrollments at the university; they received black and white candidate photos, transcripts with high GPAs and SAT scores, poor qualifications, as well as a batch featuring both high and low GPAs and SAT scores.
The findings showed there was no bias for black or white students with impeccable credentials. There also was no preconception for the weak candidates because nobody wanted to admit them regardless of whether they were black or white. However, when applicants had a mixture of either strong or weak qualifications, they recommended black students less than white students.
The second part of the study asked the students to rank the different predictors for college success. When dealing with a white person, the collegians would say that SAT scores were the best way to determine success in college and recommend that person for acceptance at Colgate University. If it were a black student, the subjects would say the most important quality for success in college was the area the black person showed a weakness in and deny admission. The study proves that people may exhibit racial behaviors without any actual awareness of this tendency.
"When in an extremely good or bad situation, the students showed that they could control their feelings and not articulate basic unconscious biases," says Dovidio. "However, when they’re in an ambiguous situation, they moved toward supporting the white person and excluding the black person."
The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) continuously tests for incidents of discrimination. This non-profit organization, founded in 1988, utilizes its 75 centers nationwide to address housing, lending, insurance discernment issues, racial, and sexual harassment in housing, while promoting equal opportunities and integration in communities across the U.S.
The organization hires and trains multi-cultural testers who pose as renters or home seekers. The testers evaluate real estate and rental agents during one to four visits in around 10 cities in the continental U.S. each year. They contact the agents via e-mail, Internet or phone and provide the NFHA with a comprehensive report.
"We conduct enforcement-testing, which is where testers write very detailed narratives about their interaction with the agent including how old they look, what they’re wearing, what kind of car they drive and a license plate number," explains President and CEO Shanna Smith.
The NFHA found that e-mail and name profiling are on the rise. Their testers utilize a name and voice that people would distinguish as sounding Caucasian, African-American, Asian-American or Latino when contacting real estate and rental agents.
In 2002, the NFHA conducted a three-year investigation of companies in 12 cities that Housing and Urban Development (HUD) representatives felt weren’t honoring the Fair Housing Act by failing to show African-Americans homes in Caucasian areas or white people homes in ethnic neighborhoods.
"We found that 87 percent of racial steering was done by real estate agents," says Smith. "We suspect the racial steering percentage might be higher because we didn’t randomly select the companies, but we did randomly select the real estate agents within the companies that HUD had identified as possibly violating the Fair Housing Act."
Smith has advice for future homeowners, she says, "pick homes in your price range because some real estate agents limit your opportunity to choose. As a buyer, regardless of your color, ask the agent to show you all of the different neighborhoods in your price range. Don’t trust everyone. It’s just like buying a car or getting a home mortgage—you need to do your research."
Comments
False Realities
Racial names might have a negative connotation and send a signal to some people, but different, ethnic names, to me, is interesting and offers a portal to multiple mentalities. For instance, how could anyone find a normal, White name interesting? What is in a name that makes a person seemingly better, smarter, and more successful? Why do we continue to believe White people are the superior species and that somehow they prevail over everyone else? I don’t think we unconsciously prefer White names over ethnic names; rather it seems this preference is deeply rooted within us, but it is not an unconscious entity. I read about a study that was similar to the job interview study in the article: an African American male would go from business to business, asking for a job application and subsequently a White male would follow him and also ask for an application. The African American was repeatedly told the businesses were not hiring whilst the White male was given an application almost every time. What does this mean? Could it be that the mythical perception of equality and non-discrimination held by most of the White culture is wrong? Why do we still insist oppression does not exist, when it is blatantly obvious that it not only exists, but thrives? A few nights ago I was watching the Chilean miners being rescued with my mom. I commented that I was surprised the miners got so much support and sympathy from Americans, considering we are such a discriminate country. My mom got extremely mad and told me that when a crisis arises, people come together and solve it. I was shocked. For the longest time I had thought my mom and I had shared nearly identical views, but in that movement I realized how naive and uninformed she was. I said yes, sometimes people come together, but not all the time. I reminded her about Hurricane Katrina and the injustices that fell on the Black and Mexican community there. I talked about the government’s urgency towards the wealthy, White community and its disregard and slow assistance to the minorities. She discredited everything I said and sent me to my room. We like to believe we are equals and that we are not prejudice in any way, but that would be smothering the absolute truth. Racial names are just another construction we’ve constructed to maintain the dominant culture and exclude those outside of it. Unless people become more educated, like myself and others, we will continue to live in this false reality like the one my mom lives in.
It's quite interesting to me
It's quite interesting to me how even now a persons "name" determines a persons race. How can a name determine if the person is White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, etc? It can't. I personally think that our society is stuck with the ideology that we are all equal, the truth is we are not. if we were all equal there would be no means in worrying about immigrants in the United States, or riots at schools, etc. I think it's ignorant to discriminate against people's names because a name does not determine how a smart a person is or what skills they acquire. Our society needs to brake away from these racial constructions and realize that oppressing the minorities is only leading us into the same path we were back in the 1960's when segregation and racism was at its full potential. Categorizing a person by their names is simply foolish in my perspective, and this is only continuing to build that ideology that "whiteness" is the way to be.
What is in a person's name?
What is in a person's name? Or for that matter, a person's skin color? Today, it seems as though a person's name, or the color of their skin contains a hidden meaning in which we can base our criteria, conscious or subconsciously, upon. I find it ridiculous to judge a person by their name, for names are mere symbols we use to distinguish one person from another. Some people think, this person must be white because their name is "Gregory," but in all reality "white sounding names" or "black sounding names" can be names of any individual with any racial background. Racial profiling serves no purpose besides our own preconceived notions about how a specific race acts or will act. With regard to real estate agents, the crime of not allowing families of a particular background access to view homes in an ethnically different neighborhood is, I feel, a pure act of prejudice. Families of all races, especially families who are all in the same price range for homes deserve to view houses in all neighborhoods. All families deserve to encounter, mingle with, and learn from families of different ethnic backgrounds. When judgements are made purely on what a person looks like or a person's name, ignorance is to blame. I believe Shakespeare, even in the 1500s, knew the simplicity of one's name: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet."
The Power of Race
It is interesting that racial setbacks can occur even before a physical phenotype is seen or heard. A person's name is the first and probably the most important descriptor. It identifies you as you. It saddens me to hear that racism can occur just from name profiling. This means that, from the get go, minority groups are established and steered a certain way. I hope that future experiments reveal decreasing differences in the way people are treated.
It is also interesting to me how high school students were showing signs of racism subconsciously, preferring there own race to others. This might be due to the fact that races feel like they must preserve there race in some way. Race is a powerful tool that shapes society and culture. It is so deep in our frame of reference it tends to influence our thinking subconsciously.
It is sickening how a name
It is sickening how a name could determine whether or not one gets a call back when applying for a job. It reminds me of a phrase in Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" where Juliet states that even if a rose was called a different name, it would still smell and look just as beautiful. Categorizing one by there name is very ignorant because by no means does one's name express what skills or attributes they have. Names are just titles, they don't make a person. I can't even imagine how it would feel to know that your chances were lessened when applying for a job or that someone was already judging who you are as a person just because of your name. On t.v. I watched a study about realtors acting rudely to colored people at a open house to see how others would react in this situation. The realtors and those who were being treated badly were all actors. Many people witnessed the realtor telling black people or muslim people that they would not be interested in the house because the neighborhood didn't have "their kind." Few people in the study had the guts to tell the realtor off for discrimination. Many people just ignored it. I think that that is one of the biggest reasons that little has changed. Many people choose to ignore the problems of racism and discrimination because they feel if they ignore it, it's not real. I really appreciate the efforts of the National Fair Housing Alliance because they are making a real effort to catch and stop discrimination.
Our perspectives of a name
Unfortunately it seems all too common that something as simple as a name can cause a racial identification, followed by a distinct act of racism. Our perspectives as human beings growing up in our own world are really the main cause of this. Of course, as we all know by now, race and related topics are socially constructed, meaning that they're not naturally occurring, so racial divides must come from us as a people. This article speaks of subtle forms of racism that we may not even pick up on in our day to day lives, but some of us use them everyday to do such things as process job applications and analyze people. Unfortunately, these practices come about from how we are all raised, not only by our parents and the rest of our family, but society itself. If there is a discrete racism towards minorities on a TV show that a child is watching, they will absorb that information and though they may not realize it, it could very well one day turn into a discrimination against someone simply because of their race, or in this case, a name associated with a race.
Racial profiling in the labor
Racial profiling in the labor market: what’s in a name- in this article it discusses how people in the work place racial profile people just by their name. this is something that happens a lot because lets just be honest some people if not all are racist or feel some type of way about something who is not the same as them. This is something that will continue to occur within the job place let alone society as a whole. This is something that cannot be overlooked because in this world race matters. It is shown throughout this article with the research they did that half of the names that are “white” are called for job interviews. This doesn’t surprise me at all because I’ve learned and studied and seen acts such as this occur.
Something as small as a name
This is saddening but not shocking to hear that vast discrimination is still present in our labor force. The fact that a name like John or Steve sounds more appealing that Tyrone or Shaylynn is disgusting. It is just a name, do thinks people think that a name is going to imply that a person who has that name is going to turn out a certain way? What if a white man was named Tyrone and a white woman named Shaylynn, would that affect her chances at getting a job. This article peels back the fraud that is the Equal Opportunity Employer myth and exposes what is really happening, discrimination at a name level.
Profiling In labor
When membership in a particular group conveys valuable information about an individual's skills, productivity, or other characteristics, a nonprejudiced agent may still find it rational to statistically discriminate. Examples of statistical discrimination include wage or hiring decisions in labor markets, racial profiling in law enforcement, determinants of loan approval rates, voting the party ticket in elections, or differential premiums for insurance, among others. In some settings statistical discrimination is legal and acceptable (for example, insurance rates); whereas, in others it is controversial and/or illegal for example, racial profiling and employment discrimination.
Names say it All
I love the studies that were discussed in the article. Especially when talking about the names, I had a Caucasian friend in high that had a stereotypical black “ghetto” name and she couldn’t figure out why she never heard anything back from the Ivy Leagues when we applied in high school. When she finally heard back, she was rejected but we all knew that she should have got in. When her family finally convinced them to see her, she was accepted. She still thinks that her name is the reason she didn’t get accepted but when they realized she was white she was accepted. Names are very important even though they shouldn’t play such a huge role in being accepted in college, and even getting job interviews. In my family I know that when a woman gets pregnant someone always tells them not to name the baby some ghetto black name or else they won’t be taken seriously in the world. I think its part of the biases that were talked about in the article. The IAT that was talked about in the article is a great way to find out our own hidden biases. I think everyone should take it to understand where they stand, because my own results shocked me. When we learn our biases it will give us a chance to unlearn them and start fresh without a clouded mind frame. Until this is done this shows the whiter/ the lighter the better. I feel that many of this now accounted to the new racism that I learned about in my class recently. That this racism is more covert and that's why we have the tendency to not spot this type of racism in today's society. It's now being over looked because this racism isn't as bad as how it used to and just because many don't know how to spot it. I hope that now that we know what's going on, that things change.
Work and Homes
This has been a reoccurring theme I’ve been learning about for the past 2 years. Employers are discriminating many individuals because of their name on a piece of paper. The first few times I was introduced to this aggravating practice was in a race and ethnicity class. The professor also turned it to where minorities are living. The concept of redlining came into place as well. If searching for a job is as complicated and discriminating as exploiting someone out because eof their name or the way they look, society is already placing minorities in a whole from birth. If I name my child Juan, will he have a tough time looking for a job? This type of practices gets many frustrated with how our system works. No wonder I go to some stores and only see old white women working there. I didn’t realize this was a practice that is happening across the United States. How are minorities suppose to exceed and surpass expectations when they’re not having a fair shot when searching for a job or filling out an application for school.
Race will be a factor for life
for some reason this article doesnt suprise me at all. for years i have been around places that descriminate against blacks or other races. one thing that i didnt know is that they could simply use a name of a person to do it. it should matter the persons name or how their names are spelled. i hope one day everyone will grow up and see that there are far more important things to worry about in life than to waste time to dicriminate on a persons name, gender, or ethnic background. One day when i have kids, i dont want them to experience any of this crap that is going on in todays world. i want to to be respectful and friendly to people who are of a differnt race.
Labor
This article speaks alot of truth. I personally have had quite a few jobs in which i had to bring people in to hire. My last one in specific was in Florida in which a person had to go through a two interview process. The first one being me and the second my boss. Literally over 60 percent of the people i thought would be qualified for the job were pushed away because of their names. my boss would see a name that would come across as hispanic or black and tell me she had the position filled already. The next day i was to conduct more interviews. The entire staff was white with no exceptions. Right down the road though the same franchise worked in the opposite realm. It was nothing but a black crew on the floor. Even in the job world, the same company owned by the same person was segregated. It was ridiculous. And yet even though its right there literally in black and white, no one did anything about it. If someone lives in America, they should be treated equally with the employment that anyone else may receive.
This article suports the fact
This article suports the fact that racism and white privilege is structural and still very much a part of our social institutions such as schools and employment. Both studies showed the ideology that black is bad and white is good. It's crazy to think that people can discriminate basied on someones name on paper, whether it's consience or not. I agree with another post that the problem with discrimintaion is that many people ignore it and think it will just go away. Addressing structural racism is a step in the right direction but we still have a long way to go.
Wow
That is crazy that now a day it has come to your type of name to get you a job interview. That is just so strange someone would look at a name and you wouldn’t be able to get a job because your name “sounds” black and what if it does? Does that make a person a bad person or under qualified? That I just find idiotic to think your name given to you from birth will eventually not get you a job or even an interview its just mind blowing. And what about getting a home because you are a type of race you aren’t shown certain homes or even given the opportunity to see the house for yourself. Its just stupid what kind of people would do that.
I some what disagree with
I some what disagree with this article because I believe if someone is throwing out a job application do to there names they obviously know what they're doing. Discriminating. Maybe they were brought up to be this way, but it's against the law. Also where are the Higher Authorities? Do corporate heads not notice all there employees are white, oh wait they don't care as long as they're making money. I think that anyone in charge of hiring new employees should be required to take a class on discrimination in the work place, just like anyone working in a restaurant needs to take a class that gives them information on food safety. We need to make people aware that discrimination is wrong when it comes to anything.
Colorblind Racism in Names
We face colorblind racism on a daily basis. This article gives a great example of what minorities face unconsciously. The article explains the reality of what happens in the work industry and I strongly believe this article is true. A name of a person says it all for many people but what actually occurs is that the name is being stereotype. We see Maria and we assume she is Mexican, we see Dante and we assume he is African American. Many talented people with excellent working skills who are minorities are declined because they do not have white names. We are constructed in a society to stereotype, in this case, we stereotype names of people. I really think this article is a great way to be aware of our surroundings. I definitely believe this article will make people realize the number of times they have done this type of stereotype whether they are white or minority. This article will also serve as a reason to be more conscious of colorblind racism.
Exotic Names
I presented an idea along this concept in one of my classes regarding school applications. We all know that affirmative action exists to ensure everyone is given an opportunity to go to school. However many people suggested that affirmative action discriminates against those who are not of a minority. In addition, I wanted to know if some gets accepted into school just because schools needed to fill in that last spot for a minority, whether they qualified for it or not. It was interesting because as I was doing my project, I realized that even if they took the question of someone's race out, some cannot hide their ethnicity due to their names. For example, just by name you can tell what my race is. So even if I were not to answer the part about my race, it is very evident that I am not white. However, I have noticed that many has the same common last name as I do who are white, whether it is because they were adopted or they had someone in their family that was of a different race a long time ago. So it makes me wonder, how is it possible to tell one's race because of their names? A white family may want an exotic name for their children, and vice versa, where a family of a different background may want a common "white" name for their children. Someone's name should not be the judge of what one's race is. Their name does not define who they are. Sadly, even with all the knowledge about race around us, some look at external factors, such as names, to determine one's background.
It's all in a name
I was not that surprised to read this article because I think nepotism happens in all cultures. People hire those that they know and are similar to themselves. Back home we always are judging each other by our home town and especially our last name. It tells a lot about the person's background and family. Even though this is not fair, it happens every day. I think it is good that people are aware of it here are are trying to do something different.