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asian names and asian identities
Feb. 23rd, 2017 07:29 pmThe study found that job applicants in Canada with Asian names — names of Indian, Pakistani or Chinese origin — were 28 percent less likely to get called for an interview compared to applicants with Anglo names, even when all the qualifications were the same. [...]
"Some people still believe that minorities have an advantage," said one of the study authors, Jeffrey Reitz, a sociologist at the University of Toronto. "These studies are important to challenge that and show that not only is this kind of discrimination happening, but it's quite systemic."
[...]Reitz said that when researchers of the studies cited above asked employers to explain why they called fewer Asian applicants, they usually received a response along the lines of, "Well, you see an Asian name and you know that language problems are going to be there."
Asian Last Names Lead To Fewer Job Interviews, Still
So we have some options:
1. Game the system. Use or be born with a traditionally English name, like Jessica or Ellen or Christine. Mary a white guy. Take his last name. Become May Sweeney, a little old lady who might be Peter Parker's aunt. Apply for jobs and surprise them when they invite you to an interview and realize you're Asian, but it's too late! Impress them, get a job, etc. Take those fuckers' money, conscious or subconscious racism be damned.
2. Fuck the system. Stick with your weirdly spelled, unpronounceable Chinese (or Indian, or Bangladeshi, or Korean) name. Miss out on jobs because people assume you can't speak English well, despite your resume showing your years and years of American education and work experience. Have no idea what percentage of jobs you're missing out on because of your name. Be generally distressed, but true to your identity.
People feel varying levels of attachment to their name. For me, I've gone through too many years of identity angst to be anyone else. I got married and changing my name had never been a consideration to me (it might have been if my husband had felt strongly about it; thankfully he saw no reason for me to take his last name if I didn't want to). I spent years struggling with being part Chinese, part American, figuring out the boundaries of being Chinese-American and Asian-American. I'm finally at piece with that -- but I guess the cost here is an endlessly frustrating job hunt filled with a lot of self-doubt.
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