Thus many participants across racial minority groups were concerned about their résumés activating negative stereotypes that could make employers think that they would be too different from the dominant cultural white majority to Whereas removing all racial markers “fit in” well. from the résumé was not an option for some job seekers (for instance, if their last name clearly signalled minority status), applicants felt that it was still possible to influence whether their résumé sent a strong signal of racial affiliation or a muted one that indicated assimilation. Deterrents to Whitening We found five primary deterrents to résumé whitening: (1) the view that the human capital value of an experience was too great to omit from the résumé; (2) the belief that the presence of minority racial cues on the résumé could screen out discriminatory employers; (3) identity-based moral objections to whitening; (4) a belief in the generally meritocratic nature of labor markets; and (5) the assumption that a particular targeted employer values racial diversity. Several respondents stressed that whitening their Human capital value of experience. work or volunteer history might require concealing potentially important aspects of their human capital. As a black male college student put it, think that [the omission of certain activities] “I definitely becomes problematic because these are real things that I have done, that I have As a result, whitening might lead to a significantly sparser résumé. A black accomplished.” college senior used an example from her own experience to highlight this issue: [I am in] essentially a black choir, we sing spiritual music for the past four years my so it’s main extracurricular on campus or one of my main extracurricular activities along with the [University] African American Association. So in a sense I take those off my Students’ can’t résumé because if I do then not doing anything else on campus or it look like I’m doesn’t I’m doing anything else on campus. Others noted that the removal of racial cues might deprive them of Screening employers. the opportunity to screen employers—that is, to signal their race upfront and avoid having to interact with or eventually work for discriminatory employers. A black male college student
Thus many participants across racial minority groups were concerned about their résumés activating negative stereotypes that could make employers think that they would be too different from the dominant cultural white majority to “fit in” well. Whereas removing all racial markers from the résumé was not an option for some job seekers (for instance, if their last name clearly signalled minority status), applicants felt that it was still possible to influence whether their résumé sent a strong signal of racial affiliation or a muted one that indicated assimilation. Deterrents to Whitening We found five primary deterrents to résumé whitening: (1) the view that the human capital value of an experience was too great to omit from the résumé; (2) the belief that the presence of minority racial cues on the résumé could screen out discriminatory employers; (3) identity-based moral objections to whitening; (4) a belief in the generally meritocratic nature of labor markets; and (5) the assumption that a particular targeted employer values racial diversity. Human capital value of experience. Several respondents stressed that whitening their work or volunteer history might require concealing potentially important aspects of their human capital. As a black male college student put it, “I think that [the omission of certain activities] definitely becomes problematic because these are real things that I have done, that I have accomplished.” As a result, whitening might lead to a significantly sparser résumé. A black college senior used an example from her own experience to highlight this issue: [I am in] essentially a black choir, we sing spiritual music for the past four years so it’s my main extracurricular on campus or one of my main extracurricular activities along with the [University] African American Students’ Association. So in a sense I can’t take those off my résumé because if I do then I’m not doing anything else on campus or it doesn’t look like I’m doing anything else on campus. Screening employers. Others noted that the removal of racial cues might deprive them of the opportunity to screen employers—that is, to signal their race upfront and avoid having to interact with or eventually work for discriminatory employers. A black male college student