#SAYTHEIRNAME Series: Part Two

Photo Source: UCLA study suggests researchers look more closely at connections between names and race

THE PENALIZATION OF NAMES

There is a growing body of research that shows racial and ethnic discrimination in the job market related to names connected to a cultural identity that is non-white. According to a 2016 two-year study in Administrative Science Quarterly, Whitened Resumes: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market, resumes that contained minority racial cues, such as a distinctively Black or Asian American Pacific Islander name, led to 30% to 50% fewer callbacks from employers than equivalent résumés without such cues. This refers to a practice, such as resume whitening, where minorities must intentionally choose to eliminate information that would suggest their racial or ethnic identity.

“GHETTO” OR FOREIGN SOUNDING NAMES

You may have heard the stories within Black culture of parents that make tough decisions to whiten their child’s name to allegedly create a more promising future through career opportunities. However, the origin of Black names is powerful. Following the emancipation of slavery, freed slaves often renamed themselves to create a new identity. In addition, Black names distinctively emerged from the civil rights movement and was deeply influenced by the Black Power Movement and the later Black cultural movement. Before the 1990s, it has been argued that Black people and white people had similar naming patterns.