Questions regarding gender, religion and race/ethnicity should be taken off of job applications and college applications. They aren’t significant when it comes to a person’s work ethic or prospects as a student or employee and shouldn’t affect whether or not that person gets accepted into college or receives a job. The only relevant information is a person’s experience.
There have been many cases where people have received jobs and scholarships and have been accepted into colleges because of their race or gender. Employers with ignorant hiring officers will turn down applicants because they are black, Asian, Hispanic or Latino and some colleges who want to appear more diverse will turn down people who are white.
There was a recent case in Texas when two girls — one black, one white — who had the exact same grades, test scores, majors and extra-curricular activities, applied to the same school. Can you guess who got accepted? The girl who was black was accepted instead of the white girl, supposedly because the school wanted to be more diverse. As a result, there were many protests. The white girl admonished the school for being racist against whites, even though that wasn’t historically true. Naturally, the black girl believed it was only fair that she got accepted because the white girl would and could receive white privilege at any other college and at virtually any time in her life. The thing is, race should never have been an issue.
Full disclaimer: I’m a white female. I may not know what I’m talking about, but I think it edges on racism to assume that someone needs a scholarship because of their race. Just because someone is black doesn’t make them poor or uneducated or incapable of getting other scholarships or paying for college themselves. Just because someone is white doesn’t automatically make them a good person or intelligent or capable of paying for college. Race shouldn’t be a part of the justice system. Someone shouldn’t be let out of jail early for rape because they’re white and someone shouldn’t be arrested for getting a speeding ticket because they’re black. It shouldn’t matter.
When applying for colleges, my gender, race, ethnicity and religion were all asked. I thought to myself, why does it matter? Look at my grades and my extra-curricular activities. Most college applications don’t even list my actual religion, but if they did, would it help? Does my belief have an effect on my intelligence or my ability to work or go to class? I usually select “wish to not answer” because I think it shouldn’t matter. At BYU, members of the LDS church only have to pay half the tuition of their non-LDS peers. I was told it’s because of taxes, but then does that mean someone who just recently joined the LDS church can get half off tuition too, or do they have to pay full tuition because they haven’t paid taxes to the church their entire lives? Or does someone who doesn’t want to be LDS but was raised in an LDS home get half off tuition, or do they have to pay full tuition because they are no longer members? It shouldn’t matter.
None of it should matter.
Often times in many jobs, men will receive the job or a promotion easier than women because it is assumed that women have children and won’t be a reliable employee, while men are assumed to always be available. Sexist employers will turn down women who are more qualified than men because of their gender and companies who do not want to appear sexist will hire women who aren’t as qualified as men.
Obviously, things are different when the applicant is called for an interview, but if it is company policy to completely ignore gender, race and religion, then simply not knowing what to expect, visually, when the person comes in for an interview helps prevent racist or sexist assumptions before the interview. It won’t stop racism or sexism entirely, by far, but it’s a step. The only thing that matters is the person. Since we Americans value documents so much, we should make changing these documents the first step in changing the system.