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My wife's response was "Whatever..." Tane reported my wife's racist attitude to the HR department and it was quite a stink.

Did the HR Dept. side with the pretending-to-be-offended person of color who was engaging in "white management"?

If so, did they explain

a) what process of special mentation would inform the person seeing this name for the first time that

i) it was to be pronounced as it was and

ii) the owner was black and likely to get in a snit if a person lacking the proper color attributes got it wrong, and

b) by what magical magisterium HR felt it could manage your wife's "attitude" and sensitization from their own ridiculously supine position on the floor?

Inquiring minds want to know.

An article in our local paper went into these "special" names at some length one day, explaining how the mothers of these persons attach these names to them with the explicit intention of "forcing" the world of authority to "pay attention" to the child as an "individual". Their operative assumption being, apparently, that if they didn't do this, that persons encountering the child in future would naturally not give them any attention at all otherwise. Twisted, but there it is.

Talk about setting kids up to fail.

The whole episode was brief. The HR department conceded that the name was spelled such that several pronunciations were possible. They did ask my wife to refrain from saying "whatever..." again, which she acknowledged was not consistent with her normal professional behavior.

Tane was told that she could file a formal, written and sworn complaint which would be considered at higher levels and that the forms were located at the administration building. Nothing was ever filed.

Tane, who was not very good at coming into the hospital on schedule, never showed up again. My wife speculates that she simply went to another free clinic in downtown Baltimore.

Anyway, we moved to Chapel Hill, NC and have not looked back.