Job discrimination is not that surprising

Re Black job applicants face ‘covert’ discrim

ination, research suggests, Dec. 27 The author of this study, Janelle Douthwright, is quoted as saying she was shocked and floored by her findings of discrimination against job applicants with Black-sounding names. Perhaps she and others might be reminded of a study called, “Who Gets the Work: A Test of Racial Discrimination in Employment,” published in Toronto in 1985 by myself and Effie Ginzberg.

This landmark study, the first of its kind to use field methodology, found strong evidence of discrimination against Black job seekers 32 years ago! Frances Henry, professor emerita, York University, Toronto I am no statistician and I’m certainly in no position to dispute the conclusion that Black job applicants face discrimination. That said, it’s hard to understand the value of a study that reflects such black-and-white thinking in a city as diverse as ours. How would applicants have fared compared to those with names that sounded Muslim, Asian or Indigenous, and so on?

Also, what was the value of having both Black-sounding applicants apply to the same pool of 64 jobs and the whitesounding applicants apply to a different pool of jobs? Wouldn’t the comparison be more valid had the Black and white applicants with the similar criminal backgrounds applied to the same pool? Ellen Morrow, Toronto