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Today's Quote: What's in a Name?

By Lynne DeVenny

?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

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on September 30, 2010 (boomark / email).