Posted on 03/30/2006 12:41:35 PM PST by twippo
Someone needs to sit our people down and have a healthy discussion about the names we as African Americans are giving our children. We are hurting our kids and putting their futures in peril from the moment they are born.
That’s right, I said it. We are KILLING our kids and crippling their futures with the names we give them. Don’t you want your kids to get JOBS someday? Good jobs, and serious careers? With a name like Jaquez Ja’Quan Diante’, you’re dooming your sons to a life of drug dealing on some seedy street corner.
Our Black men face enough challenges. I do not subscribe to the notion that we are giving our children names that “convey pride in their African Heritage”. We’re way off the mark. I’ve got dear friends from all over Africa, and their children have beautiful cultural names like Akos, Ama, and Fia.
Notice how neither of those names had a “quita” in it? Or an “eisha”? Or more than four syllables? That’s because even in the motherland, they don’t give their kids the crazy names that we do in Black America. Many Africans even RESENT the implication that these names stem from their culture. I’ve yet to meet anyone from any African nation named Shaquandiniquah Takei’sha, or any other of the ‘colorful’ monikers we’re pinning on brand new precious lives.
Parents, we are stacking the odds against our children from birth. We’ve been doing it for generations, but we get mighty cross when white and mainstream America laughs and mocks us. With a name like Quieshianiquita (I know, I can’t pronounce it either), you’re dooming your children to employment at no better than a dollar store or the nearest fast-food joint.
You are automatically relegated in the minds of many to second-class citizenry, because when they hear the name, they instantly categorize you as ignorant, ghetto, incompetent, uneducated, and not worthy of much respect or basic human considerations.
We hear so often about African American students who excel in school, etc. and “beat the odds.” Well, guess what? Often times, the “odds they have to beat” is the tough challenge of being taken seriously in America with the atrocious name you gave them...names like Jaqui’sheia Sha’qu’an Tai’isha. If they can get someone to look past the name (and quit laughing), there is remarkable talent there in that person.
Unfortunately though, much of mainstream America isn’t willing to find this out. Come in with the wrong name, and you are nothing more than fodder for stereotypical, distasteful jokes. We as African Americans face enough challenges as it is. Our kids deserve a better start and a way better shot than this.
You’re angry with me? I can live with that. Now answer this: when have you ever seen an IBM Executive or a fancy New York office with a fancy highrise office door nameplate that says “Quandaniquah Roshel-Shaquita, Chief Executive Officer”? When? You don’t, and you never have, because the reality is, corporate America and a huge chuck of mainstream doesn’t have a high regard for those names. Quite frankly, you won’t be taken seriously.
I’ve been behind many a closed door with white corporate America. Oddly enough, many of them still see the Negro in the room as ‘non-existent’ or invisible, so they talked like I wasn’t even in the room. I hear everything they say. When Nakia Shaniquah-Quashiqua fills out an application, they have a field day in the office. Once they get their fill of ghetto and ‘weave’ jokes and ripping you to pieces sight unseen, they usually toss the application, or it gets stuck in the ‘bottom of the pile’. If they do hire you, you’re relegated to some meaningless, inconsequential task behind the scenes so they won’t be embarrased by you.
I’ve learned the harsh truth that right or wrong, no quality mainstream company wants someone named (oh just pick a name) representing them in the forefront. We don’t hear that, though. We just want you to get the name right, and look at you funny if you don’t. I recall a time a young woman got really cross with me because her name was LaShi’quita and I forgot to capitalize the ‘S’ and left the little accent mark off the first ‘i’ - how was I supposed to know? But lawd ha’mercy...what did I do THAT for? She was mad, hostile, and ready to FIGHT! It was a BIG ridiculously overblown embarassing ordeal (for her), and that’s OUR fault, parents.
She wouldn’t have such a huge chip on her shoulder and be so defensive, confrontational and mean if we had just given her a name that the average person can pronounce or spell. No spell check in the world can help, so most of her existence is spent correcting the spelling of her name, and feeling disrespected because people can’t get it right. We set her up for this constant and unnecessary battle.
I do not advocate naming all our children Bobby and Susie. But let’s do our babies a favor and keep the syllables down to a minimum, leave out the suffixes “quita”, “sheika”,“eisha”, “niqua”, “quan”...anysuffix with the letter ‘Q’. I could go on, but you get where I'm headed.And if you want your child to have an authentic African or other ethnic name, do a little research. Don’t just make up a name and expect the world to be able to spell and pronounce it. You're not being original or cute. That child has to LIVE with that horrible name, and that's not funny...or cute.
Amen. Now pass the cornbread.
I always think of "that" Ace when I hear of an Ace. Maybe that's why I'm not crazy about the name. 'Course, I also think of Peter Criss when I hear the name Crissy. Oddly enough, I'm not a huge KISS fan, either.
Falling on the floor laughing!
Oops. I mis-stated myself. Her name was Ima Hogg, not Pigg.
LOL, great, I love this place. Only on FR can you get, not only a ghetto name generator, but a Mormon name generator. This is my Mormon name: Jessamina LaDonna Josephrania, how cool is that? I got the "ladonna" for a little bayonne/brooklyn thang, and Joseph is all over the place in my family. Most amusing!
Scout is hardly unheard of. It's a surname, and that makes it fair game.
Same goes with Apple.
I just made the comment that I did because it's all about criticising people's names and not actually finding out about the person. Plus these threads are just more popular for whatever reason. I live in a very mixed neighborhood and am used to hearing all kinds of names. Now there are also a lot of hispanics and yes you're right. When this immigration thing gets going, you will see a lot of profiling. I just know too many young black professionals who have been profiled this way and not with far out sounding names either, just names like Tammy and Andre. Sheba is a nice biblical name :-)
Yeah but River Phoenix actually changed his name to that
Was orginally River Bottom (true story)
I have a good friend who's name is Bruce Fairey...wanna guess where he lives?
Hint: Tony Bennett left his heart there.
I tend to often refer to Bruce as "The Tragically Named One", and he'll often reply as "TTNO"
What scares me is the Mormon name generator doesn't change my name......and I was born a Mormon.....How does it know?
Are you serious? LOL
Speaking of tragic names.
Gay Talese comes to mind.
Her name is Makeda after the the Queen of Ethopia who is assumed to have been the Queen of Sheeba.
Poor kid has an hispanic surname too. She tells everyone she's a blaxican. haha
Pronounced "Bruth"?
Crueler than Richard Smoker's parents? (He doesn't acknowledge his first name. He was just "Smoker.")
Daniel ("Vlad") arrived two days before his due date. I've never had one go overdue.
Hang in!
All the real Africans I know have normal Biblical names, like Benjamin, Jacob, Esther, Ruth, Joseph, and Samuel. Some are called Faith, Grace, Claude, and Charity. A few have decidedly British names, like Steven Richard. The only unusual one in among my African friends is Laurina, which is rather lovely--it was used in this country (among whites) in the nineteenth century. None of this "Quashonda" crap is African at all.
But you've chosen for her an actual name (I know, any name can be come 'actual' after a while like all the De'Andre's), not a bunch of scrabble tiles thrown at the board, different for diffent's sake. Like Inspektor Pilot or Apple or CoCo (named for her mother, COurtney COx) or spellings for 'uniqueness' like Dez'rae or McKailah. There is a difference.
How about Female pronounced Fa-ma-lee?
"No, tragic naming is what Dr. Gonorrhea did after he discovered an interesting bacteria one day."
hehehehehe
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