NPR had a piece on Morning Edition about a study by Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago which showed that people with Caucasian names were fifty percent more likely to be called back than people who had black names.
http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.jhtml?prgId=3&prgDate=current
It seems that someone like Tarpal is most likely the norm rather than an aberration.
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/soc/2002/pd121202d.html is Ms Bertrand’s report but it seems a bit thin.
Since everyone’s so god damned sensitive about this kind of subject, I’m not trying to be an apologist nor am I trying to troll.
I don’t think you are being an apologist, so chill a little. It really is no surprise that this thing happens on a wide-scale basis. And I would agree that whoever thinks tarpal is an anomaly really hasn’t been living in reality. But no one here has said he’s an anomaly, that I can recall. We’ve said he’s an asshole, a racist, an idiot, and a bunch of other things, but no one has said he is hardly unique in his hiring techniques. He’s only unique in that he proudly advertises what he does. Most other people would deny it.
Interesting cites, though.
Well, tarpal is banned now. Only sad thing is that we never did find out which company (s)he worked for, so we could avoid/picket it at our discretion…
(I have a very very Asian name… Wonder how people like tarpal would think of it…? Very scary, considering i’m looking for a job.
Why shouldn’t you fit it on a name tag? It’s not that hard to learn how to pronounce people’s names, remember them, and spell them correctly, no matter how many syllables they have or how unfamilar they are!
I don’t have a problem with what you want to call yourself. Nor would I throw your resume out because of it. But if during the course of an interview I ask you what would you do if when dealing with a customer who mispronounced your name, would you: a) use it as a tool to make the customer feel more at ease while teaching them how to say your name and wheedling more money out of him in the process? b) set the customer at ease by telling him a shorter version of your name that is easy to remember, or c)split the customer’s head open with an axe to see if there’s a brain inside?
If c), then as an employer I don’t see why I have to make an effort if you aren’t going to either. That sort of thing will come out if I am doing my job during the interview. Not before when I see you name on the resume. Because you do have ever right to call yourself whatever you please. I, on the other hand, have every right to call you whatever I please (mostly that would be your name, unless you piss me off and then that could be many of several names, but only if you weren’t an employee of mine).
Now that I think about it, though, if someone did have a given name like ‘Vagina’ and they put that on the resume, wouldn’t it make you wonder why they didn’t shorten it to ‘Gina’ just to avoid problems?
Having been a plant manager for many years I can tell you from experience that the corporate and EEOC pressures to promote minorities and females is very intense. I have frequently ordered subordinate managers to promote people who are less capable than others in order to make my minority hiring and promotion goals. Both my pay and my job depended on my doing so. I make no comment on whether this is good or bad for society but it is a fact.
Actually, I didn’t really think that whether this happened or not was in dispute.
Do you by any chance work for Toyota, Coca-Cola, Raytheon, Texaco, Viacom, Coors, AT&T or Boeing? Do you know what all eight companies have in common?
(For a hint, try googling all the names in one search).
IMHO, the little troll was pulling our collective chain.
Irony
Yes, affirmative action is an easy target, as is Jesse Jackson. Perhaps that deserves a thread of its own, no?