Discrimination based on English (and accent)

Catt
2018-07-17T14:08:46Z

I posted an article yesterday about name-blind hiring processes, and it got me thinking of discrimination slightly differently.

I actually don't feel that we run into outright racial discrimination as much nowadays. Instead it's more subtle. It's not about technical merit, but about cultural fit. Often times, distilling down to one skill - English (both spoken and written).

It brings up questions such as:

Can a candidate communicate verbally for the job? (Technical, though sometimes this may be judge harder than for a native English speaker that isn't always clear)

Do they "get" jokes and other subtleties? (Cultural fit)

Do they have an accent? How heavy is it?

I believe this is for a couple reasons:

Candidate just can't display enough charm or charisma during the hiring process

Raise doubts about a candidate's education/upbringing. This in itself is discriminatory (though location is not a protected class), but some regions are though to train their students in more blunt force manners than skills in problem solving

What do you all think?

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