I just read 8 different articles covering the same topic:
It’s harder to get a job if your resume contains evidence that you are a person of colour.
And according to the research in these articles, if you are a person of colour, the best way to get hired, sadly in a lot of cases, is to “act white”.
Despite anti-discrimination laws, despite diversity and inclusion policies, despite everything, there is still a significant barrier to employment facing BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) applicants.
Several of the studies I read cited a 50% higher callback rate for applicants with “white-sounding” names.
As a result, job seekers of colour are left with a difficult decision to either “bleach” there resumes to remove any evidence of their ethnicity (including changing their names), or expose themselves to discriminatory hiring practices.
How can employers still discriminate despite laws and policies?
Any selection process is centered largely around making decisions to “eliminate” candidates from consideration. I’ve spent 11 years as a hiring manager and 2 years as a recruiter and I can tell you that when you receive 241 applications to fill 2 positions, you move through those resumes pretty quickly making snap judgments in order to get your candidate pool to a manageable size.
Because you need to get your options from 241 to maybe 5-6 to invite for interviews, no one is going to hold you accountable for identifying why each individual candidate is not being selected to move onto the interview phase.
And with no accountability, there’s nothing to stop someone in the screening process from making those snap decisions (whether consciously or subconsciously) based on racial hints on the candidate’s resume.
And it gets worse (the snowball effect)
Because people who are being discriminated against based on race/ethnicity are getting hired at lower rates at entry levels, these people are less likely to gain advanced experience that will support their transitions into leadership roles. Which has a number of it’s own drawbacks including a lack of racial representation at the executive levels (depriving us of potentially great leaders and lessening the likelihood of attracting high-quality racialized job seekers for other positions in the organization); and a decrease in racialized voices involved in the hiring processes (which, theoretically would aid in moving away from racial discrimination in hiring decisions).
How can we solve this?
Honestly on the deepest level, it will take generations of hard work, reflection, educating ourselves about racial issues, biases, and challenges facing BIPOC in the job market (and in general). Having more people of colour in senior leadership roles certainly wouldn’t hurt either. This is the hard road and we need to get to work on this.
On a systemic level, I’ve seen some great suggestions around enforcing minimum percentages of BIPOC candidates to be interviewed as compared to the applicants pool. I’ve also seen suggestions around a “blind” resume review process, which removes potential racially identifying information from the resumes prior to review (such as name, email address, cultural references within experience).
These suggested systemic solutions are band-aids; but, when facing an issue this deep-seated with so much room to improve, we often need the band-aid solution to bridge the gap while we address the root cause.
If you are a hiring manager
Recognize your biases (whether conscious or subconscious) and don’t let them into your hiring decisions.
If you’re not sure how to pronounce their name, you can start your first conversation by saying, “It’s nice to meet you. Do you mind if I ask how to pronounce your name?” It’s that easy.
If you’re worried about their English language proficiency, look at their education and experience? Did they earn credentials or do jobs they would have been able to do without speaking English well? If you’re still unsure, inviting this person to an interview (even a 15-minute phone screen) will certainly help you answer that question.
If you’re worried they won’t fit in with the office culture, or they won’t be trustworthy on the job… ask yourself, “Would I be worried about the same thing if their name was Steve?”
Let’s talk PRIVILEGE
Last time I saw one of those check your privilege surveys, there were 9 boxes. I checked 8 of them. White, male, straight, cis-gender, able-body, parents with university degrees… so on. I could have checked all 9, but I don’t necessarily identify as Christian (despite my family historically being Christian and me doing the whole Christmas and Easter thing).
So when I say I’m privileged, what does that mean to me?
Honestly, it just means that I’ve got some advantages in life that I’ve done nothing really to earn. People inherently trust me (I get stopped for directions like 5-10 times a week by complete strangers). Every interaction I’ve had with police has been strictly business-like and non-scary (even when I’ve gotten the odd speeding ticket), and getting a job has never been all that difficult (so long as I didn’t need a work visa).
I know that a lot of other people haven’t had life that easy. People of colour, especially black people, deal with a lot more obstacles and stressors than I do.
That doesn’t make me a bad person.
It just means I have a responsibility to understand my privilege, and do the best I can to not wield that privilege to harm anyone who doesn’t have it. And better yet, wield that privilege to influence others with privilege to learn, appreciate, and decline to wield said privilege.
This is all very layered so take time to think about if you need to.
Process how you need to
We all have different things to process and different ways to process it. As you well know, whenever I’m going through something, I typically have two coping responses. Either make an Excel spreadsheet, or blog about it.
However you need to process, whether you’re talking, writing, thinking, or dancing, do what you need to do and take care of yourself.
Talk to you soon!
Greg