‘Whitening’ and Self-Presentation in the Labour Market

by Sonia Kang, Katherine DeCelles, Andràs Tilcsik, and Sora Jun
Modern organizations continue to play a key role in perpetuating economic inequality in society. Despite the proliferation of equal opportunity and diversity initiatives, discrimination on the basis of race remains particularly pervasive in North American labour markets. The authors show that even companies that publicly espouse an inclusive environment continue to discriminate against candidates who appear to be from non-white backgrounds. Worse yet, many non-white job candidates are proactively ‘whitening’ their resumes in order to hide their racial identity.