all in a name…

An article on the BBC site suggests that there is still “shocking racism in the jobs market”. I read this with interest, since, like most people, I do not consider myself racist in any way. As I’ve also reviewed a rather large number of CVs and hired a wide range of people, I wondered what I’d do in a similar situation.

The survey involved sending CVs from 6 ficticious candidates with “white”, black African or Muslim names - to 50 employers. Said the survey:

Almost a quarter of applications by two candidates given traditionally “white” names - Jenny Hughes and John Andrews - resulted in interview offers.

But only 9% of the “Muslim” applications, by Fatima Khan and Nasser Hanif, prompted a similar response.

Letters from the “black” candidates, Abu Olasemi and Yinka Olatunde, had a 13% success rate.

Funnily, my first reaction to the names was that the white and Muslim names would probably get identical responses from me, while the names Abu Olasemi and Yinka Olatunde made me think immediately that their English might not be very good. I can only assume it’s because these are such “foreign” names to me. This is possibly a result of being from the US where African names are relatively uncommon - names are more likely to be something that seems African without actually being African, if you know what I mean.

So, I wonder, does this make me racist or simply “name-ist”?

Page 1 of 1 pages