Race and the disclosure and dissembling thereof

There was an interesting piece in The New York Times back on Dec. 6: “'Whitening' the Résumé." Michael Loo reports that some young African-Americans, when looking for jobs, take steps to cover up their racial identity in their résumés. He reports that an African-American woman named Tahani Tompkins, who is struggling to find a job, changed the name on her résumé to T.S.Tompkins. Another listed just the school she received her master’s degree from, leaving out the historically black college from which she earned her undergraduate degree. Loo cites a study in which résumés were submitted, one group with "white-sounding names" and the other with "black-sounding names." The result? The first group had a greater chance of getting an interview than the second. He also cites a law professor from New York University, Kenji Yoshino, who notes in his recent book "Covering: the Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights," that other minorities, not just African-Americans, are taking steps in their résumé writing to downplay their racial and ethnic roots.