Dwight Jackson stated he applied several times to no avail at the Shinola Hotel under his name between January 2024 and April 2024. It was only after Jackson put “John Jebrowski” on his resume and changed nothing else was he invited to interview within the same week.
His story caught national attention, with many onlookers sharing their shocked reaction to his claims. Kristina Wilson, an HR expert with more than a decade of experience in the sector, says she’s not surprised.
“It happens all the time,” she tells ESSENCE. “From not even being interested in a person’s background just from looking at that first header, which is usually our name at the top, from even asking completely disrespectful racial questions. Is this person a US citizen? Will they require sponsorship? Are they on a visa? Is this a scam? Because ethnic names don’t just start and stop with the Black diaspora. I have often seen hiring managers choose to not even consider a candidate, their talents, their skills, their background, literally just off of the name alone.”
A 2023 Greenhouse survey report of 1200 participants stated that 34% have experienced discriminatory interview questions, most commonly focused on their age, race or gender.
Because of this, mearly one-fifth of job seekers wound up changing their names on applications to shield themselves from the harmful biases. What’s more, of those that change their names, 45% did so to sound ‘less ethnic.’
Wilson, unfortunately, can personally attest to this.
“I’ve, of course, even encountered that with my own career as well, navigating the HR space,” she says. “Typically, the reverse with the expectation that Kristina could not possibly be a Black woman when I come into your office.”
Although she says she understands why jobseekers change their names, she implores them to stand their ground and command respect from the onset.
“Yes, you do sometimes have to meet in the middle or pick the lesser of two evils at times. And the lesser of those two evils is changing my name to secure the bag. But what I want to say, specifically as a Black woman, not a HR professional, is that that’s demeaning, demoralizing, it’s hurtful. And imposter syndrome starts to set in. Why am I, just me showing up as myself, whatever my parents, family decided to name me, why isn’t that game good enough? Why isn’t that game professional? And there’s a lot of internalizing the impact of these biases and systems that have been put in place to deny us advancement and opportunity. So, it creates trauma, essentially. And it’s a traumatic experience that a lot of us encounter that is literally beyond our skillset, beyond education, beyond all of the credentialing, our name may be the disqualifier from opportunities.”
She suggests jobseekers lean into who they are in the best way they can.
“I would champion those to create power behind their name,” Wilson says. “Don’t water yourself down to fit into these environments. Make them respect the name that you’ve been given. Our names are professional. Our names are simple. Our names, they can be pronounced and spoken loudly in rooms. And that’s what I would encourage us to do. Instead of always trying to assimilate and trying to always meet in the middle, I would champion us to strike back and say, there’s power in my name, power in my lived experience, power in my identity, and all that I bring to the table. And of course, I mean, be honest. There’s things that you need to have in place on that piece of paper. Be your name and have those I’s dotted and those T’s crossed. But I would lead with encouragement. Let’s stop denying ourselves.”