Wanted: Dark Brown Girl Named Shaniqua

I am a person all for equality and equal access to opportunities for all people. I do not believe in quotas because in offices where it is widely known that quotas are used usually to fill jobs, there could be created an environment of mistrust, suspicion, anger and usually aimed at the minority hires. In short, they are presumed to be there on account of their race and not their qualifications. For that, I abhor quotas, but I welcome and support affirmative action programs that encourage employers to reach beyond their usual source for recruitment and to search broadly for the widest pool of applicants. Doing that, the theory is anyway, employers will naturally catch in the net diverse applicants, right?

Well color me tickled. A distant family member, I'll call him Joe for privacy sake, is working at a company where he is in charge of, get this: Hiring an African American candidate with a stereotypical African American name who looks "Black" and not multiracial !!! Yes! The company does work for black consumer and in Black communities and want their staff to reflect more diversity and their target market. I see nothing wrong with having a diverse staff and that is indeed a great goal and kudos to them for recognizing the importance of multiculturalism in the workplace, especially in this day an age.

However, these jokers decided to do it soooo the WRONG WAY!!

I have to be careful to not give away too many details to get Joe and his company in trouble, but I just had to blog about this.

Jerome? Tyquwan? Shante? Leroy? The partners were in the process of combing through candidates and passing it on to Joe who had the responsibility of calling them in and setting up the interviews. At one point, two highly qualified black persons with non traditional African American sounding names got through to the interview process and thoroughly SHOCKED the all white review board. They actually stated this:

Hmmm. We need to rethink the way we've been picking interview candidates. Two of the best black candidates didn't have 'black sounding names'. We would totally have missed them using the method we're using now.

Yes, they were only passing along the Dewauns, Ebonys and Beyonces of the bunch. Meanwhile, if you were a qualified black person named Mary Smith, your resume didn't get a second look to get called in!! How backwards and racist. Too ironic that they think they are doing this to help the pool of minority candidates. I must confess at one point during my law school job search, I chose to shorten my name so it would come across as less ethnic just in case I was being passed up based on my name. Isn't that one of the reasons many African Americans purposefully avoid stereotypical black names and opt to name their children names like, Madison, Kennedy, Brittany, Bailey, Taylor, Regan, Hailey, McKenzie, which is the recent trend, especially among educated more affluent Blacks? To eliminate the possibility of them getting passed up for an interview on account of their name. Kids with those names, like the shortened version of my name, would have not gotten an interview with Joe’s company! What a remarkable paradox!.

But wait! There's more!

So...how did they get to the place where they were combing through black resumes? Months prior, they hired a very smart Ivy League candidate who is half African and half European. She fit in well, excelled and is getting along well in the ranks. The problem? Though she was African American in the truest form, much like our President, she looked...hmmm...not Black enough! Yes! They said this!

I suppose they wanted it to be obvious on paper they had a black person on staff, hence the name. Someone would be combing through the list and see Brownella Jackson and know for certain this company was and is diverse! Helpful when seeking out contracts where diversity of staff is part of the requirement for the grant. Then when they would go to lobby a government agency or would have a client come in the office, they wanted it to be apparent that an obviously black person was in upper management.

Now while there is diversity of races represented at Joe's job, they are there in the usual positions, as is the case in many professions in America: the lower, skilled labor and administraive jobs. The secretarial, janitorial and mailroom clerk positions are full of diversity. Meanwhile, middle and upper management is lily White! Ah America!

It goes beyond the corporations too. !hile working in the nonprofit world, I discovered that the coveted top policy making positions were filled with Trust Fund babies who had all gone to Yale Law School. Not surprising, who else but someone who is independently wealthy would take a $25,000 a year job out of law school? But more to that, the field is quite competitive because the Yale, Harvard and Stanford law graduates are in the pool and mix competing for the jobs with the lesser ranked schools.

And even in the government, I have the occasion of meeting with top government officials for meetings on behalf of clients and very rarely is there diversity among the decision makers. I recall a study which showed that the Department of Justice, you know the organization charged with making sure the laws are equal and fair to all, had a dearth of minorities in their upper ranks and itself had been sued for discrimination!

But that brings me to my next point about Joe's job, when they do and have filled quota jobs based primarily on race, it does not take too long for them to realize the minority hire isn't up to par and isn't working out!!! Talk about self- fulfilling prophecies! Rather than take the time to hire the most qualified minority, if they're intent on doing such a thing, they hire the first one with a "decent" (not ideal) background and resume. They probably are thinking to themselves, the minority hire, any adequate minority hire, will pick up the slack eventually and will fit in fine over time. tsk tsk. Never that! So far they're batting 0 with that strategy. Alas, they are, well in recent weeks have been sticking with it, nonetheless. *Sigh*

I do hope that their latest revelation, at least, about how going for the black name among the stack of resumes won't necessarily work as a weeding out strategy any longer. I am hopeful that they will open their minds about minority candidates and not assume all Blacks fit squarely into this box based on their stereotypical notions and perceptions. Hopefully, they will get more creative and explore the variety of job fairs including ones held by diversity trade associations; use online recruiting tools; and seek out the top ranks of HBCUs. I do not doubt that doing that will net a better, more successful, less racist result even if they are going to practice reverse discrimination that way!

It really does give those qualified minorities hired because they are the right fit and just happen to be black a black eye!

I have a feeling, it's not going to get better. And here we thought having Obama as president would change all things for the better when it comes like stuff like this. The Obama presidency itself has been criticized for, while selecting diverse staffers to fill the ranks, only selecting among the Ivy League and ignoring those who attend HBCUs!

That's a blog post for another day! ha!