This Unemployed Black Woman Posed as White For Months to Find Work, What She Learned Will Anger You

Aliyah Jones conducted an eight-month experiment to expose racial discrimination in Corporate America. Now, she wants to bring a documentary about her experiment to a screen near you. The post This Unemployed Black Woman Posed as White For Months to Find Work, What She Learned Will Anger You appeared first on The Root.

Oct 7, 2025 - 17:45

This Unemployed Black Woman Posed as White For Months to Find Work, What She Learned Will Anger You

If you’ve spent any time searching for work online, you already know that submitting a resume on job search platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn can feel like tossing your resume into a black hole where it will never be seen or heard from again.

One Black woman got tired of hearing crickets when she applied for jobs she knew she was more than qualified for and decided to conduct a little experiment to see if her name and profile picture had anything to do with why she wasn’t getting anywhere – and the results were shocking and disturbing.

After receiving more than her fair share of “nos” from potential employers, Jones decided to see if she would get more replies to her profile if she changed her name from Aliyah Jones, an experienced marketing strategist from the DMV to Emily Osborne, a white woman from Los Angeles.

And as you can probably imagine, hiring managers showed Emily’s CV way more love. Jones documented her eight-month corporate catfish experiment in a docuseries, “Corporate Catfish: Being Black in Corporate America,” which she shared on social media. The viral reaction from thousands of people who saw Jones’ story let her know that she was just scratching the surface.

“Ohhh I wanna see the whole thing also you’re way to talented to work for corporate you have the talent to be your own CEO!” wrote someone on TikTok.

Now, Jones wants to turn her viral social media clips into a full-length documentary. A Kickstarter campaign to help fund her project has raised more than $6,000.

While Jones is working to bring her experience to the screen, she says her story is just one of many. Moving forward, she hopes to use her platform to highlight as many cases of racial profiling in Corporate America as possible.

“My goal is to finish my documentary and include the many people who’ve poured into my DMs, wanting to share their own experiences that they’ve been holding onto for years,” she wrote on Instagram.“I know we all say, ‘it is what it is,’ but sometimes… it isn’t. Sometimes, it’s pain we’ve normalized, stories we’ve silenced, and realities we’ve accepted because we thought no one would listen. This documentary is my way of saying we see you, we hear you, and your story matters”