What Does Race Have To Do With Your Job Application?

Have you ever wondered what you race has to do with your job application?

If you're applying to be a paralegal, electrician or a sandwich artist, why does your race and gender have anything to do with your job? I believe that those questions are to categorize you and to sift you out, or into the next stages of the hiring process. Why? I've heard once before from an employer that he chose not to hire people with difficult names because he didn't want other employees to feel awkward about the proper pronunciation of their name. For example, he would not hire Shaniqua because it was so different from Becky, Kim, and Jessica. And during a job fair hiring spree, one employer chose to sift out any more African American male applicants because he already had "enough diversity" in the work place.

Maybe the gift of being a mixed race child is that when asked on an application, "what race are you", I get to choses, "two or more races". And that is my ticket to get an interview. I'm neither all white or all black nor strictly only the two because I am also Hispanic. My first name appears Hawaiian or Japanese and my last name is of English origin (Stone), and one of the first recorded anywhere in the world. They call me to set up an interview, to get the feel of my initial voice - the first contact, and they're always stoked about that first conversation. I've heard they think "I'm well spoken", "I'm sharp", "I'm polite", and they're always "looking forward to meeting this candidate". All the while they don't know what color I am. They don't know if I'm visibly white, yellow, black, green or turquoise. And what would it matter what color I was anyways? When they finally meet me I can't help but notice their expressions upon the first greeting. It turns out that my name is pronounced Eee-kai and it's not all that complicated, It turns out I'm not white and not a black young thug, nor Japanese or Hawaiian. It turns out that I'm smart, funny, have a lot to offer the work place and I'm going to fit right in.

The lesson here is for everyone. We are all mixed race and our names are from all over the place. My mother, who is our families legal ninja, reminds me that that questionnaire is always, by law, voluntary - remember that. Don't narrow yourself down to a centuries old system of prejudices. When it comes to going for the job, you are different only in the sense that you have personality and skills that the other candidates may not have. You're eligibility isn't in your skin tone. We are all one in a very colorful universe. From the blades of the grass to the moon and beyond, we are all one in it and this is the gift of diversity; without the one, the other wouldn't be.

For millions of years since the outset of time, every single person on your mother's and dad's side has survived and passed onto you, life. Many different ethnicities are what you, you today.