Posted on 06/14/2025 5:00:37 PM PDT by fwdude
I’ve done online searches to see if there is any veracity to this seemingly strong tendency in the black population to fail to note, remember, or use names of others who come across their path, at least not people who are celebrities. I call it “name blindness,” after another psychological phenomenon known and “face blindness.” This tendency doesn’t seem to be limited to specific sociological strata in the black population, but seems to be extant throughout.
I’ve noticed this in college classes, where professors names are not remembered or used, on online forums and in debates and speeches, where black presenter seem to resort to pronouns to refer to a person in question.
My interest is in sociological phenomena and this seems to be consistent across generations and socioeconomic groups. Does anyone know of any scholarly studies on this, or is this question not allowed to be asked, buried by political correctness?
You seem insane.
My brother and I both have terrible memories when it comes to people’s names. We independently concluded it was because we grew up in the military. If you made a friend you would probably know him for about a year and a half. Then one of you would be transferred to another base.
“Names are the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People
“Mulva?”
Name blindness ... well, I was in my 20s the first time I called my brother by my name. It’s like all the bad memory for names landed on me and completely bypassed my siblings and cousins.
This must be the reason they just call each other Nigga all the time.
Keep in mind that many of them are around blacks who would shoot them for the slightest offense like looking at them the wrong way (perceived). So you learn not to look people in the eye as often out of habit.
More interesting is the propensity of black mothers to name their children, particularly males with nonsense names that so one can spell pronounce or remember. Sort of voiding the child’s chances at being receiving any special attention by teachers, friends and neighbors.
You’re probably not wrong.
I’ve never seen (given) names other than blacks which include an apostrophe .
You call this a “seemingly strong tendency in the black population”. Based on what on proof?
Proceeding your conjecture you say you went online to see if “there is any veracity to ….this…tendency”. Your statement would be better said as “I wish to check the veracity of my belief based on personal observation that…”.
You end by saying “… this seems to be consistent across generations and socioeconomic groups…” Which again is conjecture on your part since you offer no evidence. You ask for our observations to help prove that you are correct but do not ask for proof to the contrary. Nor have you asked for observations of other racial groups regarding this phenomena.
Please design an experiment that test for your observation. You may be correct that blacks forget names or not. But you need to also determine that for other racial categories to see if this is a unique characteristic of the black race.
Otherwise you are engaging in racial stereotyping based on your own ignorance.
I’m white and have both name and face blindness.
Maybe your observation comes from confirmation bias?
‘ Otherwise you are engaging in racial stereotyping based on your own ignorance.’
Here? On FR?
Unpossible.
Memory jogger about a question I have had in the back of my mind for the duration of the Tom Cruise MI movies; when Cruise finally ends his relationship with the movie series and some next-generation guy takes over, do you think Ethan Allen will be portrayed as an undercover traitor the way this generation destroyed Jim Phelps?
These people are morons. If data was available I would bet 10 to one odds for real money that a male with an apostrophe in his first name is 50% more likely to have served time in prison or been shot than a person of the same age and economic situation.
My first thought was “I don’t care” (for myself).
I do need to do better at that, as some folks I DO want to remember their names.
If a name is not important to me, I don’t remember it.
I thought this was going to be about the giving their kids made up names.........
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