Does Your Name Determine if You Get the Job?

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      Asian American actress Chloe Bennet is known most for her role as Daisy Johnson in Marvel's television show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", though she has been in numerous other television shows and movies.  However, her last name 'Bennet' is a stage name.  Her actual name is Chloe Wang, as she elected to change it. Bennet shared in an interview with toofab that she chose to change her name because hollywood is racist, remembering that the first audition after she changed her name, she got the role.

      When questioned on social media in a since-deleted Instagram post on why she changed her name her response was:
Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese. It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn't cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable.
 Chapter 27 of the course reading brings up a similar situation in which a study was done on the difference in hiring based on traditionally White vs. African American names.  The study found that, like in Chloe Bennet's case, there is racism in hiring. Applicants with White names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback, whereas applicants with African American names had to send about 15 resumes. Both chapter 27 and Bennet's experience depict the preference of society and the media to favor more white individuals.
      Bennet, however, is not the first person in the public eye to experience the effects of whitewashing.  Both actor Kirk Douglas and comic book writer Jack Kirby changed their names to sound less-Jewish, to seem whiter and more appealing to the public.

Concept Reference:
Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2004). “Are emily and greg more employable than lakisha and jamal?: A field experiment on labor market discrimination.” In M. L. Andersen & P. H. Collins (Eds.), Race, class, & gender: Intersections and inequalities (pp. 257-261). Boston, MA: Cengage.

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