Black Woman Pretends To Be White, Job Offers Skyrocket

[King Ghidorah]

Yolanda Spivey is an African American woman, she was unemployed for two years, and had applied for over 300 jobs to no avail — despite a having a decade’s worth of experience in the insurance industry, and a college degree. Spivey wrote in Techyville that as an experiment, she first started “declining to state” her ethnicity on Monster.Com’s Diversity Questionnaire, but that had no effect. Spivey then created a fake profile, with identical information, except that her fictitious job candidate was white, and was aptly named “Bianca White” (Bianca means “white” in Spanish). Suddenly, responses from employers came pouring in.

David Pakman discusses Spivey’s discovery, and also makes a surprising revelation about his own little experiment with ethnicity on The David Pakman Show.

www.addictinginfo.org/2013/04/10/black-woman-pretends-to-be-white-job-offers-skyrocket-video/

[Piccolo]

Considering anti-discrimination laws, there really shouldn't be a box for ethnicity at all. It'd be nice to be able to trust that employers aren't going to be racist, but it's best to not give them the opportunity in the first place.

[Deleted]

Well job interviews isn't about telling the truth about yourself of why you are qualified for the job but rather on how good of a liar you are and the best liar always gets the job so she should get any job she wants now.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Freakanomics had something about "ethnic" sounding names and how that effects alot about your life.

[blackmegaman]

Know I now what to do with the next app. I fill out.

[kidkamikaze10]

Apr 11, 2013 22:37:19 GMT -5 Piccolo said:

Considering anti-discrimination laws, there really shouldn't be a box for ethnicity at all. It'd be nice to be able to trust that employers aren't going to be racist, but it's best to not give them the opportunity in the first place.

That isn't going to help when your name makes it clear that you aren't American.

Or white for that matter. If this stuff is true, I'm screwed after college.

[DSR]

David Pakman discusses Spivey’s discovery, and also makes a surprising revelation about his own little experiment with ethnicity on The David Pakman Show.

I want The David Pakman Show to be about a man who discusses pressing social issues, but also finds time to spraypaint himself yellow and run around a maze and eat dots.

[Michael Coello]

Technically, the spanish word for white is Blanco.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

That's unfortunately not the first time such an experience was made with the same results. Heck, I remember a documentary was made over here in which a family of all-White people and a family of all-Black people applied for the exact same jobs, houses, schools, etc... by giving the exact same résumés and each once went as themselves, and then disguised as the other race (so the White family went disguised as Black family went disguised as White people). They even had a movie crew to give them a make-up and prosthetics job that made it impossible to tell when they were in disguise and yes, in all cases, it was shown they had an easier time when going as White people.

The exact same people, the exact same skills, the exact same background, the exact same history, only difference being skin colour.

[A Platypus Rave]

Apr 11, 2013 23:54:59 GMT -5 Michael Coello said:

Technically, the spanish word for white is Blanco.

Yeah, Bianca DOES mean white in Italian, however.

[Deleted]

I bet you at some point in the resume she wrote

"And like I always say, if its not Bianca White, it's not right!"

[Deleted]

The only odd thing here is that she actually got offers from Monster.com which is one of the worst ways you can job hunt.

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

Apr 11, 2013 22:49:54 GMT -5 @supersweetbotch said:

Well job interviews isn't about telling the truth about yourself of why you are qualified for the job but rather on how good of a liar you are and the best liar always gets the job so she should get any job she wants now.

as an HR guy... yeah you're absolutely correct.

can't say I'm surprised with the study's findings. that said, up here it'd be flat out illegal to put "ethnicity" on a job application form. only someone who wants to be sued would be that dumb.

[Deleted]

Apr 12, 2013 3:37:01 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

That's unfortunately not the first time such an experience was made with the same results. Heck, I remember a documentary was made over here in which a family of all-White people and a family of all-Black people applied for the exact same jobs, houses, schools, etc... by giving the exact same résumés and each once went as themselves, and then disguised as the other race (so the White family went disguised as Black family went disguised as White people). They even had a movie crew to give them a make-up and prosthetics job that made it impossible to tell when they were in disguise and yes, in all cases, it was shown they had an easier time when going as White people.

The exact same people, the exact same skills, the exact same background, the exact same history, only difference being skin colour.

What's the documentary called I want to see that

[Savage Gambino]

In 2013. Sounds about right.

That's why I don't put my ethnicity down on anything anymore.

[Dat Dude]

Apr 12, 2013 14:02:15 GMT -5 Savage Gambino said:

In 2013. Sounds about right.

That's why I don't put my ethnicity down on anything anymore.

[Deleted]

Goddamn I wish that my last name was Pakman.

[Deleted]

Now I know what to do when I apply for a job.

[Cyno]

I wish I said I could be surprised by this. But sadly I'm not. There's a lot of systemic racism that still plagues this country.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Apr 12, 2013 13:59:23 GMT -5 @supersweetbotch said:

Apr 12, 2013 3:37:01 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

That's unfortunately not the first time such an experience was made with the same results. Heck, I remember a documentary was made over here in which a family of all-White people and a family of all-Black people applied for the exact same jobs, houses, schools, etc... by giving the exact same résumés and each once went as themselves, and then disguised as the other race (so the White family went disguised as Black family went disguised as White people). They even had a movie crew to give them a make-up and prosthetics job that made it impossible to tell when they were in disguise and yes, in all cases, it was shown they had an easier time when going as White people.

The exact same people, the exact same skills, the exact same background, the exact same history, only difference being skin colour.

What's the documentary called I want to see that

"Dans la peau d'un noir" (which translates to "inside a Black person's skin"). No idea if there's an English version, though.