Sociology 255

In section 30 of Gallagher, we learn although white-sounding names get more callbacks than black-sounding names, that Jermaine and Ebony had way better luck than Rasheed and Aisha.  I hope I’m not offending anyone in my ignorance here, but I would have pegged the second set of names as Arab rather than black, and am wondering if employers might have done the same.  This would indicate that there is more discrimination against Muslims than African Americans, and although that’s not necessarily a good thing at all, it could imply a move towards equality for blacks.  The disparity between callbacks for white-sounding and black-sounding names was much smaller than that the two white female, black female, white male, or black male names.  Is this just explained in which name went with the better resume or is there something deeper going on here?

Being Jewish by heritage has left me with the decision to either represent myself as Adam Warner Weinstein or Adam Warner (as I mentioned in my last post). Essentially, I can pass for Anglo-Saxon White if I so choose. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s right, though.

I realize that this is a potentially dangerous question, but if you could change your skin color so that you could pass for another race or ethnicity, would you?

This question applies to everyone.

Personally, sometimes I wish that I were darker skinned like my father. When my mom met him, someone had fooled her into thinking that he was from the Dominican Republic. However, my dad is of Eastern European Jewish decent, and I definitely got the whole “gullible” trait from my mom’s side of the family. Of course, my reason for this is so that I wouldn’t sunburn so easily, like a lobster… I realize that’s going to sound a little trivial compared to some other answers here, but it’s the truth. So I guess, I wouldn’t change it in order to pass for anything other than what I’m currently seen as.

So, it was brought up today in class that everyone’s favorite Jewish fake news friend, John Stewart, is in fact, by birth, Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz.

Now, while Leibowitz is a three-syllable synonym for Jew, Stewart is not necessarily in that same realm. According to my hours (read: minutes) of hard research (read: Wikipedia), Stewart changed his name because “people had difficulty with the pronunciation of Leibowitz or it ’sounded too Hollywood.’”

Well, anyway, my full name is Adam Warner Weinstein. For those of you who are not familiar with Jewish last names, Weinstein is most often translated to “wine glass” or “you, there, with the big nose.”

My middle name, Warner, however, is on par with our favorite funny man on the Daily Show. I mean, did you hear Kurt Warner after he led the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl? That man loves him some Jesus.

When I meet people for the first time outside of NYC, my tendency is to introduce myself as Adam Warner, if I need to give a last name. It’s not that I think the majority of people are anti-Semitic, but I do believe there are still some out there with those views.

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Basically my question for all of you is, do you think it’s alright for me to do this? I’m proud of my heritage, but I don’t think that my being Jewish (culturally, not religiously) is something that people need to take into account when they first meet me.

This LINK reminded me of what Dr. Pitt said a while ago about how giving someone an unusual name could lead to increased discrimination or stereotyped views about what people with certain names are like.