Ahmed Changes Name, Job Interviews Roll In

It is still difficult to believe that in the 21st century the populations of civilized nations are rife with racism. Yet, there is no other explanation for a story the BBC website posted this week in its magazine section. Young PR executive Sheik Ali Tariq Ahmed, a Londoner, wasn’t getting any job interviews, and a pal suggested he change his name. A resume (cv in British, for curriculum vitae) with the same particulars under the name of Daniel Jacob had the phone ringing off the hook. The term among blacks in America is “passing,” and it means the society in which it must be practiced is failing.

Now, Mr. Ahmed a/k/a Mr. Daniels has a mixed heritage, Muslim and Indian-Christian (India, with a billion people does have a few million followers of the Nazarene). He is a Londoner, and he is, judging from the photo on the website, a quite presentable (even handsome?) young man. He’s just the sort of polished cosmopolitan fellow with whom one would like to share a pint or cuppa. He lacks the tribal clothes, the long bear and the crazed look of a 9/11 suicide hijacker.

He explained his situation “The Muslims in this country [UK] are OK. We are not linked to terrorism. We are well educated, we have good jobs. We don't eat curry all the time and we even have the odd drink now and again. [But] my 'brand' is Muslim and for people who don't know me or see me, but see my name on a CV, they will associate me with being Muslim." He changed his name to Jacob because it was his mother’s family name (one is guessing that’s the Christian side), and he thought Daniel was Anglo-Saxon sounding – although Daniel Jacob could well be the name of any north London Jew.

“When he made the name change legal by poll deed, “It was amazing because the interest was so much more obvious than before. If you want to find a job when you are out of work and a Muslim, then change your name and it will happen more quickly. Believe me, I know. If people want to achieve their objectives, then they have to understand the more they adapt or the more they can fit in without losing their core identity, the better it will be for them and the better it will be for society."

This has happened to other immigrants in generations past. Many Hollywood writers have names ending in “-stone” while their parents’ ended in “-stein.” Loads of Celts lost the “Mac,” “Mc” or “O” in their names. The funny and gifted action film actor Jackie Chan is known as “Chan Kong-sang” to speakers of his native Cantonese. And assimilation does not benefit the greater society anywhere near as much as it does the assimilated – thus in a war against Germany, an Eisenhower can lead Americans into battle.

But despite Mr. Ahmed/Jacob’s clear-eyed open-mindedness, it is a sad commentary on the UK that a man’s name can still stand between him and a job (and likely a house, and a car, and fill in the blank). Americans, with their much heavier racial baggage, most certainly engage in the same sort of stupidity, but in a nation with a record of civil rights agitation, there is a customary response of resistance. It would be preferable, if only for the sake of honesty and the British sense of fair play, for the gentleman in question to set up his own shop, under his own name, and wind up with a fine house in Hampstead – or even Kensington.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home