That would indicate that our problem isn’t classic racism, but stereotyping, which can be positive or negative depending on the context. In this case, it might be quite rational and data based, as my cite shows that some names actually do result in people having behavioral problems, such as boys with girls’ names getting suspended more often.
No. That’s like saying more black people in jail proves that black people commit more crimes. Getting in trouble is not a proxy for behavioral problems. They could easily be getting in trouble due to the bias from their names.
Not Indians. They give their American-born kids traditional Indian names, for the most part. And I’m talking about well educated people. Doctors, engineers, people like that.
It’s possible, but is there really some kind of systematic discrimination against boys with gender neutral or female names?
Occam’s Razor: having a terrible name is likely to cost you in your early social life, which in turn will cost you in your later social life, and professional life, and give you a chip on your shoulder.
Maybe we should do like Denmark and have a list of names babies can be given. Might be part of the reason they have so much more social equality, no one’s walking around Denmark with a ridiculous name.
definitely. That’s why I referred to East Asians-Chinese, Korean mainly. Japanese seem to do it less too.
Interesting that the two most prominent Indian politicians decided to Americanize their names: Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley. Mike Huckabee might want to consider Americanizing his last name. 
I’ve actually heard it argued that we will never elect a President with a name like Huckabee.
No, we should improve society and ourselves so that we don’t judge people by their name. All names are made up, going back far enough.
I agree there’s a lot of arbitrary judgments made about people that have nothing to do with their ability to do a job, but it seems like the name thing is actually based more on hard evidence than things like “owns a car”, “is pretty to look at”, “is tall”, “knows somebody who works here”, or “isn’t currently unemployed.”
I don’t see why.
Because studies have shown that your name will affect your behavior. It’s literally the first thing parents do for you, and a lousy name generally indicates lousy upbringing. Which leads to all sorts of undesirable outcomes.
Not that employers should discriminate based on names, just that on the list of things employers discriminate based on, it’s more evidence based than most.
adaher, you do know that there is no objectively “bad” name, right?
People are prejudiced against “black-sounding” names precisely because the associate them with black people. You’re not going to fix this by telling black people to pick different names.
nm
Actually, according to him, Ida, Rikke, Jeppe, Rasmus, Lars, and Gustav aren’t “ridiculous” names because they’re common names in Denmark.
Mustapha is also a common name in Denmark so certainly no black man with a name like “Mustapha” would have any issues in life.
Moooostaphaaaaa!
sorry
The study also shows that their prejudiced against Neil but not Brad. Why do you think that is?
Are you questioning the validity of the study? Or just asking an innocent question?
That’s a reasonable hypothesis that we could confirm with a study comparing employer reaction to real traditional African names and the more creative African-American names. At the very least, we’d rule out prejudice based on skin color in favor of prejudice based on nationality.
You keep using vague phrases without defining them.
What is a “ridiculous name”? Also what are “real traditional African names” and what are examples of “creative African-American names”?
How about Kwame Jackson?
Aisha Tyler?
Leroy Brown?
There is some crossover but you eliminate that uncertainty by just not using names that have crossover. Use names like Laquanda and D’Brickashaw for American names and Dikembe and N’godcello for African names.
Black people,
As long as you make up a name that sounds kinda-sorta African, the racists will approve of you. Don’t use a made-up name with European roots, though. If you use a foreign name, the racists won’t know you’re a lazy American black. They will think you are a hard-working African black. (Except if your name is Barack).
My African name is !monstro. It used to be LaMonstro, but I couldn’t get a job with that on my resume.