Posted on 12/04/2009 7:19:44 AM PST by Erik Latranyi
Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.
Barry Jabbar Sykes goes by Barry J. Sykes in his job hunt.
But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.
“If they’re going to X me,” Mr. Williams said, “I’d like to at least get in the door first.”
Similarly, Barry Jabbar Sykes, 37, who has a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, now uses Barry J. Sykes in his continuing search for an information technology position, even though he has gone by Jabbar his whole life.
“Barry sounds like I could be from Ireland,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“There is resentment toward his presidency among some because of his race,” said Edward Verner, a Morehouse alumnus from New Jersey who was laid off as a regional sales manager and has been able to find only part-time work. “This has affected well-educated, African-American job seekers.”
Minorities that do not suffer from such stereotypes are not homogenous in their thinking, voting and activism.
Try job hunting at 45+ if you want to experience discrimination.
“There is resentment toward his presidency among some because of his race,” said Edward Verner, a Morehouse alumnus from New Jersey “
Uh huh........then why did white people elect him?
People really are capable of hiring the best people for the job.
I used to oversee the Mac computer lab at a liberal arts college, and the best guy on the security staff was an African. His first name was 15 letters long, started with MW and went downhill from there. If he applied for a job with me right now, I’d give him a fair hearing.
I thought this was going to be about a White Male, one of the more endangered species.
I heard somebody did a study of job apps. a few years ago. And they claimed that there was discrimination against those with certain types of names. For example, they found discriminiation against names such as Tyrone and Shaniqua. They filled out fake job applications with stereotypical black sounding names to see what would happen. And they claim that these people were not interviewed for jobs.
That's a fact!
I managed testing and quality control labs for a Fortune 200 company. A lot of the "testers" were AA employees who were in the lab, because the production side was happy to be rid of them. I heard a lot of whining about how badly they were being treated, etc. A lot of serious entitlement - the notion that they should be promoted and it shouldn't involve things like attendance and productivity. It always amazed me how AA employees with college degrees possessed neither the ability to write or speak in good English. No excuses at this particular company either. They were BIG into diversity and had special programs to help AA employees learn the needed skills and advance.
That combined with my experience as an adult single parent returning to school to get an education effectively eliminated all sympathy for the so-called downtrodden black American. Any black American who wishes to have an education and to advance in life can do so. Its a choice. The perpetual victim thing is self-destructive and I do NOT want to hear it anymore.
He’s got a point about deleting memberships off the resume. For instance, I wouldn’t hire anyone who was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for the position of dog catcher.
Funny, though, if it’s a technical or engineering job he’s looking for, big consumer-products companies like P&G, Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive will throw themselves at African-American business-student’s-association-member Barry Jabbar’s feet. Gotta have professional minority-types on the payroll when the diversity-mongers audit by skin color. Might hafta work long, odd hours for years in smelly, chemical-soaked, ugly buildings in some obscure Redkneckville, but, it’s work, hayna? Or no?
I wonder whether this was racism, an assumption that affirmative action had tainted the claimed education so that Tyrone and Shaniqua would not have been held to the same standards as Steve and Jane, or an assumption that those whose parents gave them distinctly black names would also have been raised with the new distinctly black (victim) values rather than with traditional values. If they just didn't want blacks, I would be disappointed - and quite surprised. If they had found that our educational system had failed blacks and they had to look at claimed education sceptically, it may make more sense. And if they had learned that those raised as victims are non-productive until they have an excuse for a lawsuit and then they are even worse, I am 100% behind the hiring managers.
University of Chicago, absent its present identification with a certain national leader, is as good a university as there is in the US. Until recently I’d sooner have said I went to U of C than Harvard. (as it is, I went to neither)
It was formerly associated with Milton Friedman. Unfortunately, it seems it’s being taken over by an entirely new crowd. The current faculty revolted at the school’s naming a division in honor of Dr. Friedman.
I have never put my Life Membership in the NRA on a resume. How dumb are these post-graduates today ?? Or are they really just AAs. Wouldn't you think that someone with an MBA would have known that ??
“Barry sounds like I cold be from Ireland.” Why, yes, like Barry O’Bama.
Really. I don't even bother looking in some markets due to rampant ageism. E.g. law firms, Los Angeles.
Well educated in the era of AA, quotas etc. is subject to interpretation ... the employer’s.
He called the temp agency and asked to send someone over, but his name couldn't be Tyrone. The (black) lady on the phone said that they couldn't honor his request, because it was racist. He replied that if she had a nice Irish Tyrone that he wasn't interested in him, either. She had no one available at that time, and had to call around and find someone.
She called the next day and told my friend that she had found him a good candidate - but his name was Tyrone.
I hope Tyrone found temp employment elsewhere, because he didn't get to work for my friend. And he found a new temp service, to boot!
A month or so ago a female British banking exec was testifying before some kind of government inquiry. She made the comment that, in her opinion, banks would be foolish to hire women because of the legal grief those hires have the potential to create by leveraging anti-discrimination laws. Once you let them in the door you’re stuck with them. On the other hand if you hire white males you are never “stuck” with any you don’t like, you just show ‘em the door - nbd.
Ditto blacks - all the government interference in the labor market increases the risks in hiring minorities. You almost hope you don’t get a resume from a minority, and if you do it goes straight to the shredder (”which resume? What are you talking about?”)
These anit-discrimination laws can provoke as much discrimination as they prevent - perhaps even more! - because of the risk they create.
Here is the problem in a nutshell. Unless you are an extremely large Corp., an employer has to think about the ramifications of getting a discrimination charge brought against them.
Everybody’s having a tough time finding a job. Even Mexican “undocumenteds” are having a hard time.
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