Workplace discrimination prompts ‘whitened’ job applications

Ethnic minority women face discrimination “at every stage of the recruitment process”, a report by MPs says. But what is finding a job like for those affected?

Jorden Berkeley, a black 22-year-old university graduate from London, spent four months applying for jobs but getting no responses from bigger companies, and offers from elsewhere that were limited to unpaid work experience.

Then a careers adviser suggested Miss Berkeley drop her first name and start using her middle name, Elizabeth.

“I did not really understand this seeing as my name isn’t stereotypically ‘ethnic’ or hard to pronounce, but it was worth a try and I changed it anyway,” she said. “I have been getting call backs ever since.”


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