Just Noticing: “Observations of a Blogger”
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 7th, 2014
Good morning!
“Just noticing…”
From the Huff Po.
He Dropped One Letter In His Name While Applying For Jobs, And The Responses Rolled In
His name is José Zamora, and he had a routine.
During his months-long job search, he says he logged onto his computer every morning and combed the internet for listings, applying to everything he felt qualified for. In the Buzzfeed video above, he estimates that he sent out between 50 to 100 resumes a day — which is, in a word, impressive.
But Zamora said he wasn’t getting any responses, so on a hunch, he decided to drop the “s” in his name. José Zamora became Joe Zamora, and a week later, he says his inbox was full.
As he explains in the video, “Joe” hadn’t changed anything on his resume but that one letter. But what Zamora had done, effectively, was whitewash it.
Although digital job applications would seem to be the ultimate exercise in colorblind hiring, numerous studies and applicants have found the opposite. Employers consciously or subconsciously discriminate against names that sound black or Latino, as reported by the New York Times. One much-cited study found that applicants with white-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks than applicants with black-sounding names, a significant disparity.
“I had to drop a letter to get a title,” Zamora said, later adding, “Sometimes I don’t even think people know or are conscious or aware that they’re judging — even if it’s by name — but I think we all do it all the time.”
Readers: What are YOU just noticing? Blog me.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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September 8th, 2014 at 5:32 am
A lot of racism, much of which was probably unconscious. The people reviewing those resumes probably weren’t consciously avoiding the Hispanic guy but the subconscious assumptions that come with that label, the assignment of Hispanics to a subconscious “outgroup”, made them reject his application.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:36 am
What’s in a name?
Sad truth about our society still projecting stereotypes and displaying racism.
Thanks for posting this, Michele. It needs to be seen to ever be changed.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:37 am
Pablo, Conscious racism or unconscious racism, the results for the victims of racism are the same, are they not?
September 8th, 2014 at 5:40 am
Pablo#1, There may be some racism, but maybe not all, necessarily Not all prejudice is necessarily racism. Just thought I’d point that out.
Although, to be honest, subconscious racism is actually pretty damn rare these days, even in the U.S.; much of the racism that did occur, sadly, was likely quite conscious indeed, even if not spoken aloud.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:41 am
Heidi#3, Mostly, The difference is in how you deal with it. Conscious racism can be challenged and legislated against. Unconscious racism takes much more effort and much longer to purge. Also, those guilty of unconscious racism will sometimes change their mind when it’s pointed out to them.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:42 am
Albert#4, do you have any evidence for your claim that subconscious racism is “pretty damn rare these days”?
September 8th, 2014 at 5:44 am
Pablo#5, absolutely agree.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:45 am
Pablo#5, Recognition of the unconscious takes time to bubble up, add more fire.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:49 am
Scottie#2, I am privileged to have been given a distinctly “white” first name, a German maiden name and, now, an Italian married name. Like you, I know full well that our culture is still conferring subtle rewards to those perceived as white.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:50 am
Anybody want to say there’s no such thing as white privilege?
Any one stupid to believe there’s no such thing as white privilege is stupid enough to think global warming is a hoax.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:52 am
kneejerk response from me;
I have no defense or explanation of this, but observed myself having these immediate impressions:
josé zamora – mexico
joe zamora – all american, of european descent
September 8th, 2014 at 5:54 am
Pablo#5, Excellent point!
September 8th, 2014 at 5:55 am
Albert#4, LOL.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:57 am
The last name didn’t make it clear he was Hispanic? He didn’t change the last name.
I think there’s more to it than just “being Hispanic”.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:59 am
Pablo#1, And more of it was probably conscious.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:00 am
Very telling–thanks for posting this, Michelle.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:01 am
Heidi#9, So very true and very well said.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:06 am
I know a name in an application matters. I live in Australia. It is a very sexist country. My wife couldn’t get a job offer from her applications for an IT job.
I suggested instead of saying Kristy, put Kris down. She didn’t go for it at the time.
Good thing she found a good government job at a Uni, that has positive female employment practices, and good unions.
She’s still the only woman on her whole floor though.
She makes 3 times I do.
Loving it!
September 8th, 2014 at 6:07 am
Jack#10;
Right on! White privilege is like global warming–people deny it but it’s there.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:10 am
Almost the same thing happened with one of my brothers. He used to put his first name “Jermaine” on job applications, but had more success finding jobs coincidentally once he starting using his middle name “Thomas” instead as his first name.
While mostly blacks have the name “Jermaine”, “Thomas” seems to be a more racially-neutral name.
This is yet another example of something that (non-Hispanic) whites typically don’t have to go through compared to other groups of people.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:13 am
Not entirely on topic, but if you’re applying to 50 jobs a day, you’re doing it wrong.
Any modern career counselor will tell you that you should be rewriting your resume for every job you apply to nowadays. The “good old days” when you could write one resume and submit it everywhere ENDED when applications went online and automated sorting routines replaced human eyeballs when doing an initial applicant search.
You should ALWAYS rewrite your resume to emphasize the specific skills that the employer is looking for, and include keywords in your resume & cover letter that match the primary skills on the job ad.
HR departments don’t review every resume they receive. They use automated searches to find the submitted resumes that contain the skills they’re looking for.
If you don’t list those specific skills, using their terms, no human being will ever even LOOK at your application.
Here’s a simple (and common) example. A company posts a job ad for a “Sales executive with experience working in Venezuela and one year of practical experience selling medical devices. Spanish fluency a must.”
Two people apply. Their resumes start off with these lines:
1: “I have 10 years of experience working as a lead sales manager for a hospital equipment company, selling in every nation across South and Central America. I am Hispanic, and can speak and comprehend all languages and regional dialects spoken in Latin America today.”
2: “I have two years of experience working in Venezuela as an associate sales executive selling medical devices for Company X. I learned Spanish in college, and have been speaking it fluently for five years.”
The second applicant gets the interview. The first does not. Why? Because the HR department is going to do a keyword search off the original ad. “Venezuela, sales executive, spanish, medical devices”. Applicant #2 has the keywords in their resume. Applicant #1, in spite of having far more experience and being a native speaker, will never even be looked at.
Ergo, if you’re applying to 50 jobs a day, you’re doing it wrong.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:15 am
Michelle, the people on your blog are spot on, what amazes me…
is how many people in the huffpo comments for this article are offering apologetics for this … phenomenon.
“just the way things are”
“assimilate if you want to eat”
“our white European ancestors had to change their names too”
and so on. how hard is it for some people to admit that name-based discrimination is just plain out&out wrong? amazing.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:17 am
This is one sick fucking excuse for a country.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:17 am
If he changed his name to Abudel Bin Rahim Zamora, he’d be in negative numbers!!!
It’s one of those awful truths…
September 8th, 2014 at 6:19 am
I too suffered the slings & arrows from first name racism…
My grandfather had an ethnic first, but he lived & died in his country. My father named after him came to this country and wisely took a civil service job & fortunately easily passed for white.
I was named after them and experienced racism at 4th grade. I made up a nickname for myself after that & now no one calls me by my first name; not even my wife. I too wisely took up civil service and my chart topping good looks sealed the deal.
This ethnic first name shit died with me. My son has a first world class name and both my kids will also speak our language and French. The French thing came from my days of chasing French girls at University.
September 8th, 2014 at 6:21 am
GG#25, Congratulations on your chart-topping good lucks!!!
What’s that like, anyway?
September 8th, 2014 at 9:07 am
The Canadian vaccine which cured the US aid workers is a copy of a vaccine that was stored in the medical vaults of the old white run government of South Africa.
It has long been speculated that ebola was a virus manufactured by whites dictators in Africa to thin out the continent for whites. Now Protalix Biotherapeutics has gotten their hands on a strain. If the Canadian vaccine owners file a patent complaint, Protalix Biotherapeutics might argue that they got their strain from South Africa.
That would uncover a possible investigation into just what other kinds of viruses those murders were into. It is telling that many white countries were aware of the research being done by those dictators into viruses that would kill and could be managed so as to not affect the whites in those countries.
Let’s see if something floats to the top.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:15 am
Stone, are you still with your San Francisco architecture firm. I understand the partners there frown on black men dating white women.
Don’t allow your little head to over rule your big head. Especially since OTW women are more varied in their appearance that just being white.
Get a high yellow or a mulatto or a white Latina. All that fine man shouldn’t be wasted on a white woman. Let their tiny penis men have at it with them.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:16 am
Al I hope you are doing well. I am on my way to Scotland for the vote. I hope they vote to be independent of the UK.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:34 am
Howie, that meteorite that whizzed passed the earth yesterday was very interesting. It was spotted less than a week ago and no one has any idea concerning its origin. Thanks to you I do.
Most of it missed us by about 25,000 miles but a tiny chunk landed in Nicaragua. We headed to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua where it fell in a wooded area just short of its international airport. The impact left a crater 12m (40ft) wide and 5.5m deep.
Many international scientists are here as we study the stone. Lots of jokes about your revelations were thrown around. Seems I’m not the only one who follows your post in the scientific community. So how far out would you say the mother of the 2014RC asteroid that passed us was?
Presently we are trying to discover whether the meteorite disintegrated upon impact or has been blasted into soil.