Had a look at your CV lately?

My sister sent me two links a few days ago.
After reading the articles, several realisations dawned on me.

Resume Whitewashing

Although not guilty of it now, I have altered my resume in the past to increase my chances of being called for interviews. Let's take my name for instance, my middle name is Folasade so I split the name in half and used either 'Fola' or 'Sade'. On my former CV, my forename was listed as Fola rather than my actual first name which has five syllables (Yes we Yoruba people are blessed with multiple names which come with multiple syllables. :D) When I enrolled at university I got the registrar to replace my first name with 'Sade'. In my eyes being compared to the famous singer was far better than having lecturers make several attempts at pronouncing my first name and still fail even after correcting them - something which I experienced throughout my entire school era. I couldn't bare the embarrassment any longer.

In an attempt to sound less African my Nigerian friends prefer to use their English forenames on their CVs rather than their Yoruba ones, I don't have an English name so I had to cut my losses and make a choice between my first and middle name and of course you know which one I chose.
I won't bash anyone who does it because I can understand why... Rather my point is that whitewashing your CV is a complete and utter waste of time... Whys that you may ask? whilst it may increase your chances of getting an interview it will certainly won't do you any favours in boosting your salary packet.

Read the link below and it should make more sense.

Black workers' pay gap in UK 'widens with qualifications'

Here's the quote from the article that stood out for me 'The research suggested there was a 23% gap in hourly pay between black and white university graduates.'

Despite being born and brought up in the UK, passing through the same educational institutions AND achieving the same qualifications why do black Britons earn significantly less than their white counterparts?

I remember when I was about 14 my mother was having a rant about the discrimination she experienced as a Nigerian woman in the workplace. 'You can bleach, use straight weaves, wear eye contacts, speak queens English, dress like them even bear the same names as them. It will never be good enough'.

Now for a solution... Not sure there is a solution for institutional racism to be honest. Perhaps it's something that we should just accept?

Please comment and share your thoughts...