Are you the VICTIM of Name Discrimination?

As I begin my journey into my legal career of choice, each day I become cognizant of new reasons to speak out on issues we still face in these United States of America. More recently, I am bringing more attention the ridiculous discrimination due to 1) the pronunciation 2) spelling and 3) previous history of a person’s first or last name. If you are not familiar with what I am talking about consider these examples; a) Last year, during the 2008 Presidential elections, a certain popular member from the GOP commented on Barack Obama’s middle name, joking as to why would America elect a man with the name BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, or b) The National Bureau of Economic Research showed in 2006, that regardless of education & experience, job applicants with predominately “white sounding names” had a 50% chance of getting called back over those with predominately “Black sounding names.” Another example would be a person’s preference of a young lady with the spelling of “ALLISON” instead of “ALLYSONE” or if a person was hired because they had a more traditional name “JOHN SMITH” over “JHONTAY SAULSBERRY”. The politically correct label for this kind of discrimination is “Name Bias”, and as subtle as it may seem, it goes on everyday. Sometimes the victims of name bias are rarely aware that they have been discriminated against. These victims carry on through life and many times don’t even have to show up or say a word to endure discrimination. Name discrimination may not be solved with some big Supreme Court Case decision, but the awareness of this discrimination may be the answer to end this form of prejudice. The next thing I want to ask is are you guilty of name discrimination? Do you take the time to learn the names of your Asian friends and co-workers? Have you deemed a child/parent ignorant because of the name of the child? It may be impossible on this earth to obliterate all forms of discrimination. Because we are so different, we fear what we don’t understand. I remember a friend I had in New York whose first name was “CHUNYENDU OPUTA”. What I liked about her is that she never got offended or gave a shortened suggestion for her name for people to remember. I would even get upset when they asked her name over and over. However, my friend kept saying, very slowly and proper “chun-YEN-du” until the person could remember and pronounce her name. Part of the problem lies in the arrogant American attitude. Americans don’t care to learn foreign sounding or spelling names. Many Hispanic immigrants are familiar with the transitions from; (Maria-Mary, Jorge-George, Catalina-Catherine, Miguel-Michael). You may disagree, but I believe that Hispanic and Muslim Americans face the harshest name discrimination in America. On one blog I read that a man name Jorge Lopez won’t even put his birth name down because many employers assume that he is un-educated, can’t speak English and will not understand the traditional American customs and behavior. So after reading my little tirade, I hope that you will think about the next time you are the victim or assailant of name discrimination. What’s in a name anyway…a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.