A recent New York Times article by Michael Luo recently explored the role of race, racism, and racial disparities in the current job market.   The article discusses at length how African-American job seekers face particular challenges as everything from their name to the college they attended can act as a proxy for their race and influence the recruitment coordinators.   This phenomenon has been confirmed by studies which have shown that black job seekers have a harder time than whites. A particular study published in 2004 titled “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” found that applicants with black-sounding names received 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names.   Mr. Luo commented that, “the discrimination is rarely overt, according to interviews with more than two dozen college-educated black job seekers around the country, many of them out of work for months. Instead, those interviewed told subtler stories, referring to surprised looks and offhand comments, interviews that fell apart almost as soon as they began, and the sudden loss of interest from companies after meetings.”  Some who were interviewed said they started “scrubbing” their resume in an effort to avoid tipping off the recruiter to their racial background, doing things like using initials instead of full middle names or eliminating membership in an African-American student group or professional association.   And interestingly, most African-American job seekers chose to avoid stating their race on their initial application.