This researcher found Black job seekers have a harder time than even a white person with a criminal record
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

Black applicants may have a harder time finding an item level service or retail job in Toronto than white applicants with a criminal record, a new study has found.For a city that claims to be multicultural, the results were “shocking,� said Janelle Douthwright, the study’s author, who recently graduated with a Masters of Arts in Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies from the University of Toronto.Douthwright read a similar study from Milwaukee, Wis., during her undergraduate courses and she was “floored� by the findings.“I thought there was no way this would be true here in Toronto,� she said.She pursued her graduate studies to find out.Douthwright created four fictional female applicants and submitted their resumes for item level service and retail positions in Toronto over the summer. She gave two of the applicants Black sounding names — Khadija Nzeogwu and Tameeka Okwabi — and gave one a criminal record. The Black applicants also listed participation in a Black or African student association on their resumes. She gave the two other applicants white sounding names — Beth Elliot and Katie Foster — and also gave one of them a criminal record. The candidates with criminal records indicated in their cover letters that they had been convicted of description offences, which are often less serious crimes.Both Black applicants applied to the same 64 jobs and the white applicants applied to another 64 jobs.Douthwright explained that she didn’t submit all four applications to the same jobs because the applications for the two candidates with criminal records and the two applicants without criminal records were almost identical except for the elements she used to indicate race, so they might have aroused suspicions among the employers if they were all submitted for the same jobs.Though the resumes were nearly identical — each applicant had a high school education and experience working as a hoste ...