A Privileged Name

A touchy subject

I wanted to try this experiment out just to see what would happen. I have been looking for a job for a while now and after two years of sending my resume out to hundreds of potential employers and receiving absolutely no callbacks and nothing but rejections to my email, I decided to try something new. I tried an experiment that involved me taking my resume and changing my name and email address to be that of a white person’s name and under the section the application where it asks if you are White, non-Hispanic, or Black, I checked the box for white. I did not change my work experience. I did not change my education. All I changed was the first and last name that stood out so prominently at the top of my well-constructed resume. That day was the day that my phone literally blew up. I was receiving calls and people were leaving voice mails and all these employers that had been ignoring my very existence for the past two years where now literally fighting to get through to my line. What is wrong with this? My fake email addressed was exploding with these gatekeepers desperately trying to throw me their employments and it wasn’t spam either.

So do you want to know what I did? I returned each and every one of those employers phone calls and told them over the phone that I was black. I apologize in advance if I offend you for speaking the truth, but racism does exist. Not in the name-calling, blatantly rude, you disgust me type of way, but a more cunning type of race schism has surfaced its ugly face. One that is so institutionalized that some might call it invisible. 

If you want to get hired then you have to lie on these things, my best friend would point out as he uses my computer to fill out an application. It seemed like a lighthearted joke but I couldn’t find it in myself to muster up a laugh. Coming from the guy who claims he will give his children “white names”. His argument being that an eighteen-year-old “Jake” would at least get closer to an interview, than an eighteen-year-old “Trey” would. Then after he gets to the interview and they see that he isn’t what they expected what happens next? At least he got there, is the only positive answer my friend could give me at the moment.

The employers that I revealed my race to, while conducting my experiments with the white name, did not take this pleasantly when I told them the truth. Some immediately hung up on me. Others tried to play it off but they always made sure to end the conversation off on a “you still aren’t getting hired” note.

I tried to sound white with a few of the phone interviews just to see where it would get me if I weren’t black. Apparently, I could have been relocated, with all expenses paid if I had just accepted one job offer with a competitive salary. And they included benefits on top of that. The catch was that I couldn’t be black. Too Late!