A new trend on TikTok is taking aim at hiring discrimination that is still rampant in today's workforce. Black content creators are coming forward to share that when they omit or change their race to "white" on job applications, they're landing interviews they otherwise didn't.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, throughout much of the pandemic, Black women’s unemployment (5.8%) has been significantly and consistently higher than that of Latinas, Asian women, and white women. “Black women have two [factors] counting against them, away from the majority, and this makes them have to work twice as hard to get half as much as the average white man," says Andrea Logan, career coach and founder of The Career Island, of both sex and race. "So many job seekers play with race statistics and say they're a 'white man' to get through the human bias in the initial phase of the candidate selection process of the hiring industry."
While this TikTok trend is new, the idea behind it is not. In 2016, the findings of a two-year study showed evidence of bias against minorities. Resumes, which were “whitened” or scrubbed of any racial cues, were more successful than resumes that included minority information. For Black candidates, 25 percent received callbacks with a whitened resume, while only 10 percent got calls when they left racial details intact.
“You could potentially get double as many callback interviews scheduled from declaring a different race or even changing the first or last name to blur race guessing if the name stands out,” says Logan. But there are disadvantages, too. “You will show up to the interview as a non-white or non-male candidate and cause an awkward conversation that essentially shows you that this potential employer could be racist and only selected your application because they thought it was a white person behind the resume.”
For 24-year-old Jacqueline Young, who tried the TikTok trend, getting even one interview was a battle after graduating from Methodist University in May 2021. “I was applying to 10 jobs a day,” Young says. “I had been applying to jobs since before I graduated college, and it was hard for me to get a job, especially with a major in psychology.”
Young hopped started putting “white” as her race on several applications to see if it made a difference. “When you are desperate, you think of everything. I found myself in a moment of desperation. Living in Virginia is expensive. The cost of daycare is the same as the cost of the rent. At the time, I was living off of credit cards,” Young recalls. Changing her race helped her get noticed, but she still received no job offers.
However, eventually, Young found a job working for a company with diversity goals that didn't require her to lie about her race. “It’s been life-changing, literally overnight,” Young says. “I’m still learning humbly. But since I got hired in June, I’ve been able to support myself and help my family. The quality of life has just been better.”
Logan suggests shopping around to find your fit, and "when you get to the interview, ask them how many Black people work there—if that is important to you. Interrogate the company on their hiring practices and find companies where people who look like you are the majority.”
As a stay-at-home mother looking to re-enter the workforce, Sumyia Evans, a 26-year-old Georgia resident, experienced a similar situation to Young when applying as a BIPOC woman, which prompted her to try the trend. “I filled out an estimated 140 job applications and only received three follow-ups. Most of them were mainly scam job posts from Indeed, and I received a total of 137 rejections."
Ultimately, however, Evans realized she didn't feel right changing her application to get noticed. “I honestly would not lie on any more job applications just to get a job. I want people to wholeheartedly accept me for me, regardless of race, gender, etc. When God has something for you, he will put you in the right room with the right people. I just landed a job as a teacher associate,” she shares. “I got a call back that same day and was set up with an interview three days later, had orientation the next day, and began working two days after my orientation.”
Young and Evans eventually found a job that was the right fit for them, yet many Black and minority parents, anticipating discrimination their child may face, are giving their children more “resume-friendly” names. Black author Austin Channing Brown is just one example. In a Grazia article, Brown shares how her mother once told her: “We knew that anyone who saw it before meeting you would assume you are a white man. One day, you will have to apply for jobs. We just wanted to make sure you could make it to the interview.”
Because of history and content creators now shining light on an ongoing issue, it's evident that companies are still failing as equal-opportunity employers, and more people are aware of it today. There's hope that as this trend spreads and more voices are being heard, companies will take an initiative to accept a more diverse candidate pool to push forward in their hiring process.
Written by: Kristina Valdez
