Study: It helps to have a 'white' name

CNN.com ^ | Jan 14, 2003 | unknown

[Frohickey]

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- It helps to have a white-sounding first name when looking for work, a new study has found.

Resumes with white-sounding first names elicited 50 percent more responses than ones with black-sounding names, according to a study by professors at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

It also needs to be noted that a very high percentage of the "old fashioned" American names -- names used by BOTH the Black and White populations up to a half century ago or so -- are not so much "white" names or "black" names, but BIBLE names: Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Joseph, Joshua, Ruth, Deborah, Saul, David, Jonathan, Ezra, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jonah, Mary, Elizabeth, Martha, Peter, Matthew, Mark, John, Andrew, Nathaniel, Paul, etc., etc.

So really, most of these are not so much European-white or African-black names, but rather Middle-eastern Semitic names.

[arthurus]

This all makes sense because the "black" names sound and look ignorant with their barely literate spellings and tend to belong to people who were raised in families without much education. My wife is a schoolteacher and this characteristic is predominant among the students. The kids with "white" names are much more likely to have educated and middleclass or professional parents. Those having "black" names more often have many or no daddies and those in positions to influence them see education as suppression.

[arthurus]

Those having "black" names more often have many or no daddies and those in positions to influence them see education as suppression.

And this applies to the growing number of "white" kids- mostly girls thus far- who are laden with these dully creative names.

[section9]

Sorry folks. I just couldn't resist....

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[nopardons]

Not really; they're Anglocized versions of Hebrew/ Aramaic names.For example, Ester is Haddasa ( sp ? ), Samuel is Shmuel ( or something like ), Joshua, is Yeheshua and was Jesus's name, before it got translated. No female Israelite was ever named MARY !

[Newbomb Turk]

You mean like to cool lady in my city who named her kids Orangelo and Lamangalo./ Orange Jello, Lemon Jello. Poor kids.

[Between the Lines]

The professors sent about 5,000 resumes in response to want ads in The Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune.

Why wasn't this done nationally? This can only prove the prejudices of employers in Boston and Chicago.