Monday, 20th September 2004
Whats in a name
This is my first official artice for the "Barri Ollu" section. I read an article about this the "The Cauldron" newspaper (The only weekly newsletter of CSU).Here goes
Everyone loves their name. For others in my flock (the other desis here in US) it is always fun to watch the faces people make when they are learning to pronounce it. A name is constant in everyones life.
This article is more to focus on discrimination based on name. We have all heard of racial discrimination and such but discrimination by name ... boy that really takes the cake. Well as a matter of fact there are studies which support this. It indeed is extremely upsetting when no matter how hard you work, how great you are, if there is another person with the same credentials but a common name they have better chances of snatching your dream job.
Studies have shown how people from different walks of life posted two identical resumes but with different names (one real and one fictious white-sounding name) and the results were that the fictious persons name recieved more feedbacrk than the real one.
It is even considered a good option when parents begin to name their children with american sounding names. Often children are exposed to racist notions and they get deeply imprinted on their subconcious.
I think any employer would hesitate to call someone whose name they could not pronounce correctly and would rather follow up with a candidate whose name rolls of the tip of the tongue without any extra effort. Most of us feel a little pressure and anxiety when we are calling a person and not really sure how to address them. Consider a situation where a top executive has two impressive resumes from Cathy Jones and Pippey Longstocking or Venkat Suresh Matapaddi , i believe that the first person would get the call despite all having equal credentials. Names can also build deceptive mental images of a person such as Pippey Longstocking would remind one of a tall clown while cathy would be any person around the office while Matapaddi can even get off anyones tongue.
Name discrimination is a dangerous game and effects anyone and everyone who chooses rare or just different names. Lends a new meaning to Shakespear's "Whatz in a name" .. doesn't it ??? !!!!
Any one who wishes to express their opinion about the above topic pleaz send me a mail and we can get at each other with gusto !!!
Posted by Nikhil on Monday, 20th September 2004 in Fun | Nonsense | Life in general