- Apr 15, 2016
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As someone who writes resumes as a business, I see just as many grammatical errors on white folks resumes as folks of color.
The reality... the process is biased even with AA>
They did a study in 2005. Identical resumes with only one difference.
Half of them had black names like Jamal and Keisha.
Half of them had white names like Greg and Emily.
Guess which ones got the callbacks?
It's well over a decade ago but the answer is simple. Whose fault is that?
I have been a Realtor for over forty years. I have also been a licensed real estate instructor for over 30 years, I conduct seminars around our state and the country on Fair Housing Law and Diversity for both my state association and the national association. I am also a member of several speaker bureaus.
One of the exercises, which got more than a couple of people's noses out of joint. My seminars were no nonsense, fun and laughter but, but we hit the hard issues. I would take jumbo pads of paper that had the adhesive across the top like a sticky note. I would write the name of a different race, religion or whatever across the top of the paper, one to a page. I'd have 12 or 13 pages. During a break, I would tear off each one and stick them on the walls around the class. When the class came back, I would walk around and pass out those 2" x 2" sticky note pads. About 10 to each student. Then I told them I wanted them to walk around and write down one thing they had HEARD SOMEONE ELSE SAY about people of that race, nationality or religion. One word per sheet and then stick it on the big page.
I emphasized not what they thought, but what they had heard someone else say. All the typical stereotype descriptions were represented. Then we discussed the results. Then I'd go around, tear the sheets off the wall, ball them up and throw them on the floor. I told them that's what we have to do with all stereotypes, discard them and put them out of our mind. It was a fun exercise and I think I got the message across.