How LinkedIn Controls User Profiles/Naming Policies and Institutional Racism
How LinkedIn Governs User Profile/Naming Policies and Institutional Racism
My father-in-law is black. My wife is black Latina. My two beautiful daughters are also black Latinas. And I want them all to live in a world free of racism. While that is a large order, I don’t believe it’s too much to ask. I especially believe that we should expect and demand non-racist and non-biased “rules of conduct” from major companies such as LinkedIn.
I’m not saying that LinkedIn treats any person or any profile differently according to the person’s name, race, or ethnicity. And to be clear, I’m not accusing LinkedIn of institutional racism or any other type of racism. But I am saying that these issues need to be explored.
Lately, LinkedIn has highlighted some profiles of black business leaders and suggested that other LinkedIn members follow them. While there is no doubt these leaders are worth following, their names may give us a clue as to how prevalent institutional racism is. Their names or the names they choose to be called shouldn’t matter. For example, a black person with the name Lou Al Sender or Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr should be treated the same as a black person with the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Muhammad Ali. Again, I’m not saying that LinkedIn treats these or any profile differently according to the person’s name. But I am saying that this needs to be explored.
Black and Latino people may use different names for a variety of reasons. An obvious reason for using a different name than their birth name is because the person is either a celebrity or desires to become a celebrity and wants to differentiate herself or himself from other people with the same birth name. An example of this would be the artist known as Prince. It is my understanding that LinkedIn has apparently made it clear that it is not permissible to use any type of stage name, pseudonym, penname, or any other name other than a person’s legal name as their profile name. When I pointed out that this was not the case for all profiles, I was informed that LinkedIn welcomes the reporting of other members who violate the terms of their agreement. This seems to me to be an arbitrary response at best, especially since I know first-hand that some accounts are tracked by LinkedIn and a name change may trigger that person’s profile to be permanently restricted. The obvious question is, are blacks and Latinos at a higher risk for triggering this response due to their names?
Another reason a black person may choose to use a different profile name other than his or her birth name is due to religious reasons. Two famous examples of black people who have changed their names for religious reasons are the two previously named, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Muhammad Ali. These two black superstar athletes may have legally changed their names. However, there are literally thousands of black men and women who have changed their names for religious or other reasons but have not changed their names legally for a variety of reasons including financial hardship. Under LinkedIn’s profile rules it appears that these individuals would be compelled to use their legal name when making their profiles. This seems true even if people have deep religious beliefs that require or inspire them to use a different name than their legal name. When I pointed this out to LinkedIn they acknowledged that this may be an issue. However, in my opinion acknowledging the problem is not enough.
We must strive to erase institutional racism in all cases and blatant institutional racism is an obvious place to start.
Black and Latino people who are fleeing religious or political persecution may also wish to use a different name than their legal name. But even more prevalent is the possibility of discrimination in hiring, contracting, and other professional relationships associated with a person who uses a name that might indicate, in the mind of the hiring manager, that that person holds certain religious beliefs or even a certain social-economic status. Obviously, we can’t control the mind of every business owner or hiring manager but companies like LinkedIn can do their part to prevent this from happening.
In addition, many black individuals may choose to have a name that goes back to their ancestral roots. Instead of a name that has been passed down from slave owners, some black people may choose to determine their own name.
Obviously, each black person and each Latino person is an individual and their needs or desires to have a different profile name other than their legal name will also be different. Likewise, some black and Latino people will be okay with sticking to using their legal name in their LinkedIn profile, but some will not. For example, I have a black Latino friend who was raised by his single mother. He always used his mother’s last name until he faced institutional racism in hiring practices. Now he uses his white father’s last name on all resumes and job applications. This is a sad state of affairs but these types of challenges occur every day for black and brown persons.
While I acknowledge that I may not be the perfect messenger to carry this torch, I’m also not a stranger to controversial topics in order to make institutional changes. As a nurse for 30 years I have striven to be an advocate for those in need of help. See links to articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Both of these articles resulted in positive industry-wide changes.
Clarity: The bottom line is we need clarity. We need clarity in the policies of LinkedIn and how they are implemented. Likewise, LinkedIn should seek more clarity in to whom a LinkedIn profile may belong to. For example, nobody would ever think of looking under the name Michael Douglas to find the actor Michael Keaton even though his legal name is in fact, Michael Douglas. But wait, there is another famous actor with the name Michael Douglas and we all know that. And this brings me to how I started using the name Von in my profile name.
There is a very famous football player named Michael Irvin. He was a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. He is black. I’m white. But we both have the same name. Many years ago, I posted a YouTube video with the title, Michael Irvin Bench Pressing. I made the video in order that my family members could see me bench pressing 315 pounds for the first time in my life. After it was published, many people watched the video in hopes that they would learn some words of bench pressing wisdom from “the Michael Irvin.” Instead, they found me bench pressing in my dimly lit garage. Their disappointment led to some not so friendly comments. It was then that I understood that in order to be fair to Michael Irvin, the famous football player, I needed to differentiate myself. I initially tried using a couple of my pseudonyms such as Tim Titanium Titan, Lucky Powers, and Jack J. Jackman. I had written books under these names, but to people who knew me as Michael Irvin this made me look like I was trying too hard to get attention. It also sparked backlash from LinkedIn. So, I came up with a compromise. I decided to use my late father’s name as my middle name. Thus, I became known as Michael Von Irvin. It seems harmless enough, but it may violate LinkedIn’s profile name rules, laws, or policies. I say it may because I’m still unsure. Initially, I was told that I changed my name too many times but later I was told there were other factors involved in permanently restricting my LinkedIn account which has 16,000 professional connections and which took me 12 years to build. But, alas, I’ll survive.
However, I immediately started thinking about my father-in-law, my wife, my kids, my extended family, my friends, and millions of other black and Latino people who are possibly negatively affected by this ridiculous policy that seems to have been carried forward from an institutionally racist past. When lawyers make rules they frequently make them on what worked in the past. However, we now live in a time where we can use facial recognition and finger prints to open banking apps on our cell phones and LinkedIn seems to still be arbitrarily applying rules in a way that just doesn’t make sense to me. As a matter of fact, in my opinion, this may breed racism. Think of how it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of a person’s race in everything from housing to hiring but it may not be illegal to do so in the largest professional website in the world.
There are solutions to this. For example, LinkedIn could allow all people to choose a profile name and require proof of a legal name to go along with the profile name by having an area for also known as, a.ka. I tried this, but I got in trouble with the LinkedIn “police.” They could also allow multiple profile names to be contained on one profile. Or they could allow multiple profiles according to pseudonyms, pennames, or stage names again with the person submitting documentation of proof of identity acknowledging that the particular pseudonym belongs to the particular person. This is not hard stuff. LinkedIn just needs to do the work. In addition, by requiring the user to be a Premium Member in order to use more than one profile name, LinkedIn’s revenue could surge.
In closing, I must say that I don’t have all the answers. I can just hear people saying that I’m stoking racial division and telling me that this is not the time or place for this conversation to occur. To that, I ask when is the time and where is the place? This is the time and LinkedIn is the best place, in my opinion, to start correcting the ills of institutional racism.
Some people will scream, “But what about professionalism?” Like so many words, the word professionalism can and is used as a weapon to discriminate against those who “don’t fit in,” those that don’t conform to societal norms, and those who are born with a different skin color from those who are doing the hiring and making other “professional” decisions.
When I took on this challenge of bringing this to the attention of others, I couldn’t help but to notice that all of the people who I found to be associated with being the executives and founders of LinkedIn are all white men. At least that is what I found. I would gladly welcome any correction to my findings.
In closing, I have witnessed institutional racism first hand against family members and my friends. It’s an ugly monster that breeds even more racism. It’s here and it’s glaringly obvious to those who don’t turn a blind eye to it.
Again, I am in no way calling or describing LinkedIn, its owners, its executive team, its board members, its employees, or anybody associated with LinkedIn racists as individuals or as a group, nor am I accusing them doing anything illegal, immoral, or unethical.
Sincerely,
Michael Von Irvin MBA, BSN, RN
PS Please forgive any typos. I write with passion.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/byod-leaving-a-job-can-mean-losing-pictures-of-grandma-1390350245