(CBS DETROIT) – A black man is accusing the Shinola Hotel in downtown Detroit of racial discrimination when he submitted his resume for a job.
“The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, but as a very, very busy civil rights attorney, I can tell you this happens all the time,” said attorney John Marko.
Marko represents Dwight Jackson, who applied for a job in the hospitality industry earlier this year. He said Jackson was shocked when he didn’t get a call back, so he changed his resume.
“Nothing substantively changed. He just changed his name to a white-sounding name John Jebrowski, and suddenly he was getting multiple interviews within a few days,” Marko told CBS News Detroit.
According to the complaint, Jackson used the exact same resume.
“Mr. Jackson confronted them and said, ‘I’m Dwight Jackson, I’m the guy applying for a job,’ and they said, ‘We’re done. We don’t want to hire you,'” Marko said.
Shinola Hotel issued the following statement in response:
“We take this allegation very seriously and will not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone has the opportunity to succeed and we are committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects our community.”
In Washtenaw County, the Ann Arbor City Council recently passed a resolution implementing an “anonymous hiring initiative” for city jobs, which would remove potentially biased information from job applications.
Councilmember Cynthia Harrison spearheaded the action and explained why they are setting a standard in cases like Jackson’s.
“It causes overall harm, so the wealth gap. It contributes to the wealth gap and it has been that way for generations between whites and blacks,” Harrison said.
Although cities and states are passing fair opportunity laws that eliminate questions about criminal convictions from job applications, this can still lead to discrimination based on name or address.
Both Harrison and Marko believe we need laws at the state and federal level to address the problem.
“As employers, people should focus on their skills and qualifications when making hiring decisions,” Harrison said.
Marko said his phone has been ringing off the hook since Jackson filed the lawsuit, as others have also accused the Shinola Hotel of discrimination.
Terell Bailey
