A Job Posting Asking For White Applicants Has Gone Viral—The Worst Part? Recruiters Say This Is Typical

By Jasmine Browley ·Updated April 10, 2023

A company came under fire recently for reportedly reinforcing racist hiring practices.

Arthur Grand Technologies, a Virginia-based IT services firm, posted a business analyst position on Indeed with the words “Only Born US Citizens [White] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX. [Don’t share with candidates.]” included/

After the internet caught wind, the company posted an apology stating an ex-employee added discriminatory language to a job listing and published it without their permission.

“At Arthur Grand, we do not condone or engage in any type of discrimination based on race, color, or religion,” the company initially said on their LinkedIn page. “We conducted an investigation and discovered that a new junior recruiter at our firm was responsible for the offending job posting. We have taken immediate action and terminated their employment for violating our policy.”

Although the prejudiced message is atypical in terms of being posted in black and white (pun intended), recruiters who caught wind of the story said it’s common knowledge that some clients make racial and cultural preferences clear.

I've worked in recruiting and it's not the recruiter's fault; it's the client. Yeah, the recruiter posted it, but the client requested it. And the tech firm is well aware of that and enabling the client. I've seen it too many times.

— lindsey (@twig_harpoon) April 5, 2023

The company, which provides a number of technology and consulting services, later removed its statement from its LinkedIn page and offered a different explanation, saying the job post was “neither authorized nor posted by Arthur Grand or its employees.”

“A former employee took an existing posting and added discriminatory language, then reposted it through his own account. The moment this was brought to our attention, we worked with the job portal to remove this offensive job posting. Necessary legal action has been initiated against the job poster,” the company said in its latest statement on LinkedIn, adding that it’s a “minority-owned company.”

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission it’s against the law for workplaces to publish postings that “shows a preference for or discourages someone from applying for a job because of his or her race.”

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