Testing a White Privilege Theory

 

According to an article titled “The Thing About White Privilege,” “job applicants with white sounding names are 50% more likely to receive a callback for a job interview than applicants with black-sounding names, even when all job-related qualifications and credentials are the same.”

What happens when someone with an Asian-sounding name applies for a job? Serious question. Does the answer support a white privilege theory? What about someone with an Indian-sounding name? A Middle Eastern-sounding name? A Jewish-sounding name? An actual African-sounding name? Test your theories against reality rather than just slinging bullshit and ignoring information that inconveniences you.

I followed the link above and learned that “applicants with white names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback; those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumes to get one callback.” That’s 10 percent vs. about 7 percent. Anyone who thinks “50% more likely” is the best way to express that is up to some shenanigans.

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