27-year-old Dwight Jackson, from Detroit, Michigan, USA, filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against a hotel. The man, who is African-American, alleged that the establishment only offered him a job interview after he changed the name on his resume to a stereotypically white name.
In the lawsuit, which Dwight filed on July 3, the Detroit-based Shinola Hotel allegedly denied him a job when he applied as “Dwight Jackson” but later offered the alleged victim an interview when he changed his name to “John Jebrowski.”
Highlights
- Dwight Jackson sued Shinola Hotel for racial discrimination after he was only offered an interview using a stereotypically white name.
- Dwight Jackson claims Shinola Hotel violated the Michigan Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act.
- Dwight applied for jobs using “Dwight Jackson” and “John Jebrowski,” receiving interviews only with the latter.
The lawsuit alleged Dwight was denied a job in “violation of Michigan Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act,” CNN reported on Saturday (July 13).
The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which went into effect in 1977, originally prohibited discrimination in Michigan only on the basis of "religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status" in employment, housing, education, and access to public accommodations, as per the Legislative Council, State of Michigan.
However, a ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court on July 28, 2022, expanded the scope of the law to explicitly include protections for LGBTQ+ people.
27-year-old Dwight Jackson, from Detroit, Michigan, USA, filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against Shinola Hotel
Image credits: CNN Newsource
Between January and April 2024, Dwight reportedly applied to multiple positions at the Shinola Hotel in downtown Detroit, including a role in reception.
On its official website, the accommodation describes itself as a “luxury hotel” that “was meant for living and sharing in good times with great company.”
As of Monday (July 15), Shinola hasn’t publicly addressed the lawsuit, with its latest Facebook post shared on July 3, the day Dwight’s lawsuit was filed, promoting its “Bedrock Suite terrace.”
Moreover, its most recent post shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) dates back to June 2021, while its newest Instagram post, also promoting the Bedrock suite on July 3, was flooded with outraged feedback.
“John Jebrowski was here!” an Instagram user quipped.
A person commented: “You know why I’m here.”
Image credits: Booking
Someone wrote: “Your hiring manager better have their pink slip by now. And your general counsel. Shameful.”
A commenter penned: “So yall don’t hire Black People. Are We Living in the 50s.”
Since 1980, Detroit's borders have encompassed a larger Black population than other mostly Black cities in the US, Detroit Free Press reported in May 2023.
As per Free Press, the most recent census survey data showed that Detroit was home to a 76% Black population as of 2021.
Dwight, who is African-American, alleged that the establishment only offered him a job interview after he changed his name
Image credits: CBS Detroit
Dwight’s attorney, Jon Marko, provided CNN with a copy of Jackson’s resume, which details consistent employment, including previous roles as a "Front Desk Agent" at Detroit’s Marriott Westin Book Cadillac and David Whitney Hotel, which use the words "luxury" and "luxurious" to describe their respective hotels.
The civil rights attorney told the American broadcaster: “Mr. Jackson had applied for a job that he was eminently qualified for.”
According to the lawsuit, Dwight applied to Shinola Hotel “twice for similar positions under a more readily apparent Caucasian name, with the alias ‘John Jebrowski,’” using nearly identical resumes. The resumes have different dates of previous employment.
The lawsuit reportedly claimed that the hospitality jobseeker was subsequently offered multiple interviews within the same week.
The lawsuit alleged that “Jackson established that the Defendant’s consideration of candidates was based on the racial appearance of the applicant’s name.”
Jon told CNN: “To be denied a job in 2024 in your hometown, for the color of your skin, goes beyond dollars and cents.
“It goes into the psyche of a person.”
Sage Hospitality Group is Shinola Hotel’s operating partner. Anna Stancioff, Sage Hospitality’s senior corporate director of PR & brand communications and spokesperson for the hotel, told CNN: “We take this allegation very seriously and do not tolerate discrimination of any kind.
“We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where everyone has the opportunity to succeed and are dedicated to building a diverse workforce that reflects the community.”
Dwight changed the name on his resume to a stereotypically white name
According to the lawyer, Dwight attended the job interview and confronted the interviewer at Shinola Hotel.
He reportedly revealed his real identity and expressed his belief that he was not given an interview initially because his name appeared more traditionally African American.
“Shortly after Jackson underwent the interview process, he was informed that he was no longer a viable candidate for the position,” the lawsuit stated.
Jon reportedly said employment discrimination is not unusual. He added, as a civil rights attorney: “We’ve seen a lot of discrimination in hiring, especially when it comes to the exclusion of minorities and individuals who have minority-sounding names.”
Image credits: Pexels/ cottonbro studio
Distinctively Black names reduce the probability of employer contact by 2.1 percentage points relative to distinctively white names, a study published in 2022 by the National Bureau of Economic Research found.
The study revealed that many large US employers consistently exhibit racial discrimination, with significant contact gaps heavily concentrated in specific firms.
The 20% most discriminatory firms accounted for half of the lost contacts due to racial bias, particularly against Black names.
Despite identifying only 23 firms with significant racial bias, the findings suggested that systemic investigations could effectively address widespread discrimination.
His lawsuit alleged he was denied a job in “violation of Michigan Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act”
Image credits: Pexels/ cottonbro studio
Proving cases of name bias is extremely challenging, and most of these cases never get off the ground due to a lack of evidence, according to the civil rights lawyer.
Nevertheless, the law expert also acknowledged that Dwight’s case was different because he had applied twice for similar positions with nearly the exact same resume, and it yielded different results when he used the alias.
Jon said Dwight “wants to shed light on this problem that’s not just isolated at the Shinola Hotel, not just isolated in Detroit or Michigan, but across the country. He wants to make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Bored Panda uses Rachele Kanigel’s 2019 Diversity Style Guide, which encourages the capitalization of “Black” and not “white” when referring to groups in racial, ethnic, or cultural terms.
For many people, Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community, the Columbia Journalism Review explained in 2020. White carries a different set of meanings; capitalizing the word in this context risks following the lead of white supremacists.
"Applications should only have initials instead of names," a reader commented
