“I’m sick of this racist shit”

One Reddit user said he was considering changing his name permanently after experiencing racism during his recent job search.

In a now-viral post with 14.7,000 votes and over 1,500 comments on Reddit’s r / antiwork forum, u / samfromwa21 explained that they are mixed and sometimes people have trouble pronouncing their name correctly. Adding that employers often think they are from a different country, u / samfromwa21 suspects that their name is the reason for the lack of response to many job applications.

“I applied for many jobs,†they wrote. “No answer.”

Taking action with their own hands, the Redditor wrote that they continued to apply for jobs, but changed their name on their resumes to see if that was the real reason they had yet to receive a job. employment opportunities.

“I changed my first name and got 3 interviews,” u / samfromwa21 wrote. “I just changed both my first and last on my CV and got an insane number of responses a week later.”

Potential employers discriminating on the basis of name is not a new concept.

In a study published in August, economists at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago sent 83,000 fictitious applications with random characteristics to 108 of the largest employers in the United States.

About half of the applications were for fictitious candidates with “distinctly black names†and the other half were “distinctly whiteâ€. Despite Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which “prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin,” the study found that applicants with typically black names were almost 10% less likely to be contacted by potential employers.

“The contact rate measured for white applicants exceeded that of black applicants in 12 of the 13 months of the study,” the research says. “While the overall contact rate fluctuated over the course of our study, black applicants suffered a consistent contact penalty compared to white applicants. “

Although u / samfromwa21 did not specify their race or ethnicity, nor the alleged race or ethnicity of the edited name they used on their resumes, their job search experience attracted a long conversation among Redditors and rallied support for the original poster.

Along with case stories similar to the one detailed by u / samfromwa21, commentators shared other ways they felt they had experienced discrimination during the job search process.

u / evilocto declared that it was refused by a company for having “no online presence”. Several reviewers have said they remove their photos from sites like LinkedIn when looking for a new job. u / arthvdr and u / nestpasfacile detailed the shock they took when employers assumed they were white.

“As an African American with an ‘old money’ sounding name and having gone to a well-known university that is 98% non-POC, I loved the looks on people’s faces when I introduced myself to maintenance, “u / arthvdr wrote.

“It’s fucking wild, isn’t it?” Replied u / nest, not easy. “Then people have the audacity to say that race is not part of hiring. I’ve seen enough people give the impression of having seen a ghost because it has never happened to them. mind that a black dude could have a “white” sounding name and work in a high playing field. “

u / samfromwa has yet to provide an update on any potential employment, but has clearly expressed frustration at having to change its name on job applications to get a response.

“Maybe I’ll pay to change everything together,†they wrote. “I’m sick of this racist shit.”