Sending Resumes While Being Black

[Don1]

Blacks' Babylon Blues

Do job-seekers with 'white' names get more callbacks than 'black' names?

By Katie Sanders on Sunday, March 15th, 2015 at 6:29 p.m.


Jalen Ross, student council president at the University of Virginia, on CNN's "State of the Union."
The Sunday shows capped a turbulent week for race relations around the country, from the shooting of two officers in a new wave of protests in Ferguson, Mo., to the closing of a University of Oklahoma fraternity over racist chants.

CNN’s State of the Union invited four student leaders to talk about what the next generation can do to improve the dialogue. University of Virginia student council president Jalen Ross pointed out that the most common examples of racial discrimination aren’t limited to dramatic moments that make headlines.

"Every day, a black-name resume is 50 percent less likely to get responded to than a white-name resume," Ross said. "Right? That’s everyday racism."

Ross may not be the typical politician who meets our Truth-O-Meter, but we thought his point was interesting and telling about the state of race relations if true.

Ross told PolitiFact by email that he was referencing a field study from the National Bureau of Economic Research called "Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal?" The study is more than a decade old, published July 2003. Economists Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan wanted to explore racial bias in the job market.

They responded to help-wanted ads for a variety of positions in the fields of sales, administrative support, clerical services and customer services posted in The Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune with fake resumes. The researchers plugged in made-up names on the resumes that are associated with African-Americans (they used Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones as examples) or whites (Emily Walsh and Greg Baker) based on naming data for babies born between 1974-79 in Massachusetts. The name on each resume was randomly assigned, so the same resume in some cases had a black name and in others had a white name.

Then they counted the callbacks.The resumes with white-sounding names spurred 50 percent more callbacks than the ones with black-sounding names.
After responding to 1,300 ads with more than 5,000 resumes, the researchers found that the job applicants with white names needed to send 10 resumes to get one callback, but the black candidate needed to send 15 for one.

It didn’t matter whether the employer was a federal contractor or was described as an "equal opportunity employer," as those also discriminated like the others

[Mosiah]

Is news dis?

[Peter R]

Just part of an ongoing series Mo. I think you (inadvertently) started it with the "Walking LIKE black" post... which I tried to parody with "Filming WHILE black"... I prefer my title... and so the series start. Don Uno just carrying the ball.

[Mosiah]

I don't mind the series at all. Love it, even!

Just saying!

We had that discussion some years ago on the Forum. People were saying parents shouldn't give their kids African or African-American names. (There is a difference!)

My thing is, even if your daughter's name is Caitlin...Britney, she still has to show up for the interview.

[Gamma]

At least her chances of getting the interview may have improved

[Mosiah]

True dat.

Setup what do you think about African names for African people's?

[Stonigut]

I could bet you money that if you put up the straight african names against the so called black African American names the African names would probably show a significant gap as well comparable to the so called white names.

The issue is probably one of class rather than of race.
Parents that name their children laquisha and jaquan are probably going to be poorer or more blue collar working class people while many Africans in Us tend to be middle class or higher thus the issue is more about qualifications than race as this article has amazingly boiled it down to just another knee jerk article, not focused on the fundamentals but focused on the hype.

Most job application processes don't even see the names they just grade out resumes on a hard matrix to get down to the best resumes. Maybe one out of fifty job places has someone deliberately screening for race, even that number I believe is too high.

[Don1]

I could bet you money that if you put up the straight african names against the so called black African American names the African names would probably show a significant gap as well comparable to the so called white names.

The issue is probably one of class rather than of race.
Parents that name their children laquisha and jaquan are probably going to be poorer or more blue collar working class people while many Africans in Us tend to be middle class or higher thus the issue is more about qualifications than race as this article has amazingly boiled it down to just another knee jerk article, not focused on the fundamentals but focused on the hype.

Most job application processes don't even see the names they just grade out resumes on a hard matrix to get down to the best resumes. Maybe one out of fifty job places has someone deliberately screening for race, even that number I believe is too high.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Don1]

I don't mind the series at all. Love it, even!

Just saying!

We had that discussion some years ago on the Forum. People were saying parents shouldn't give their kids African or African-American names. (There is a difference!)

My thing is, even if your daughter's name is Caitlin...Britney, she still has to show up for the interview.

As a parent of 2 "African-Americans" anointed with 2 bona fide African names... I agree

[Stonigut]

Bdl or dlol!!!!!! Truth trumps propaganda!!

[Don1]

=Stonigut;540437]I could bet you money that if you put up the straight african names against the so called black African American names the African names would probably show a significant gap as well comparable to the so called white names.
The issue is probably one of class rather than of race.

We cannot have much regard for your "bets" or conjectures...Those are irrelevant

What's relevant is science AKA Credible data

Parents that name their children laquisha and jaquan are probably going to be poorer or more blue collar working class people while many Africans in Us tend to be middle class or higher thus the issue is more about qualifications than race as this article has amazingly boiled it down to just another knee jerk article, not focused on the fundamentals but focused on the hype.

Your conclusions have zero foundation other than some apparently uninformed guesswork

The article rests its thesis on a study conducted by 2 economists using standard statistical research methodologies. Since the ONLY variable in the (more than adequate) sample of resumes sent out randomly was the naming typology...it produced data indicating that the names were the only possible reason for the differential in callback rates.

There is no reason to accept your uninformed yappin over a properly constituted scientific study

Most job application processes don't even see the names they just grade out resumes on a hard matrix to get down to the best resumes. Maybe one out of fifty job places has someone deliberately screening for race, even that number I believe is too high.

This is rubbish. Most Babylon jobs are created in small and medium sized businesses where this so called "hard matrix" of yours is basically a white guy or woman making a decision on who they feel fits the culture of their workplace ...other employment conditions between applicants being equal.

There are NUMEROUS studies that establish severe racial biases in Babylon hiring/promotion/firing practices.

Everywhere yuh tun it look like yuh ah one apologist fi fcukery.

Wha mek??? Ah suh Babylon trinkets sweet yuh my yute? Gwaan sing fi yuh suppa yes

[Don1]

Bdl or dlol!!!!!! Truth trumps propaganda!!

Nope...credible data does

You come with the propaganda and zero science

[Stonigut]

Don1 look at the data it is crap, no scientist would use it. Even the grounds of the assumptions are fraught with gray areas.

Believe me I have worked with hr across five states with five different entities private and public and I have yet to see any such screening criteria, gone through thousands and thousands of resumes in twenty years. No such bias not anywhere in sight. It us strictly what us on the applications and resumes that counts. Believe me!!! If bias comes in it will be on the interview side not on the screening side.

[Don1]

Kindly point out & explain the specific "crap" in the data set and assumptions

Then explain why we should accept your colorful personal anecdotes over a scientific review which merely confirms the results of numerous other studies.

Thanks in advance Stoni

[Jawge]

D1 give the man a listening hear and don't just rush to discredit. I know for a fact that the computers filters resumes based on the words of the resume. For instance if the job is asking for a masters and you have only Bachelor's HR will never see it to give to hiring managers. Then when if you manage to get pass the electronic filters and reach the humans you are down to stereotypes. No matter what we do, we make snap judgments (basic stereotypes) this is based on studies (will cite source later).

Educated black Americans will not name their children Laquishia and Jayvanhn. They would be more inclined to research and dole out an African name based on some language in West Africa. Now names have meaning behind them and most of the time the Ebonic sounding denotes people from a lower and uneducated income group. Even English names can denote peasantry (like it or not) Have you ever read Freakanomics?

Check what these psychologist are saying

scroll to secret messages. The only thing that might bring a Laquisha Brown to the interview with the hiring manager (of large corp. that deals with diversity) is if she satisfies education requirements. Other than that Laquisha will not get a response.