WHAT’S IN A NAME?
For a long time I’ve been disturbed about the made-up
names given by extremely young Afro-Americans for their children. When you see
such a name in print you immediately know it belongs to a black person
My feeling is if you want your child to have the good
life, a parent should be concerned that anyone seeing their written application
or resume will immediately have a prejudice knowing the applicant is of color.
Why am I writing this? An
article in our local newspaper told the story of a 13-year-old boy shooting a
15-year-old boy. The shooter, who in custody is named Le’Genius Wisdom
Williams. No picture is really necessary.
Maybe with good parental
guidance, he might have lived up to his name and changed it when he became of
age.
I appreciate the creativity of blacks in naming their kids and have noticed that a lot of whites who do well in life have distinctive names too. But some creative names convey higher class than other names. I've had black male students with names like Theo, Winston, Adonis, and Maureese --names that will probably make their resumes attractive to good employers who want a more diverse workforce. So sad about Le'Genius; I'm sure his family had high hopes for him.
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ReplyDeleteInteresting and valid observations for sure. I've heard true stories of kids being named from hospital forms, like "Eureeny" (the pronunciation of it from "Urine") and "Si-fall-us." Seriously!
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