I guess this means we can't be friends.
So last week a guy (and for reasons which will become apparent very quickly this guy will remain anonymized unless he feels a need to own his words in the comments) sent me a private message asking if I minded if he added me as an LJ-friend. I responded that I have no problem with people adding me to their friends lists, but since his journal was 100% friends-only I would probably lurk a while before adding him back. Thus, the setup for my visit to his journal yesterday to see what is what.
Hoo-boy.
Turns out that said guy had to interact in the course of his work with a woman whose name was listed in the company directory as "K'taquita Jackson". This prompted a post expressing what I interpreted as astonishment and amusement at the strangeness of the woman's name. In the comments there was a lot of giggling, then the suggestion that the person in question might be "half Klingon", followed by the unfortunately unforgettable image that "I just picture this female Klingon warrior in full battle armor sitting at the accounting desk of this company, crunching numbers and drinking her coffee with Targ blood and splenda in it."
Yeah. But wait, it gets better. After interacting with the object of his amusement on the phone, said guy followed up with a second post for our edification:Remember K'taquita Jackson, the African-Klingon bookkeeper? It's pronounced "kuh-taKWAY-uh." I asked her if the last "t" in her name was a typo and she said, "no, it's silent."
Wow.
Which prompted the following exchange in the comments:Other Guy: I'd love to know the etymology of that name!Said Guy: No kidding. I still picture her sitting at the desk with a ridged forehead, battle armor, and nail tips/hair extensions.OG: Man, you need to do this! Maybe I'm just overly geeky, but I could totally see it becoming the next big YouTube sensation! :DSG: It could, except I don't know any women willing to play the part lol. I'm not creative enough these days to come up with anything beyond the concept :p
Wow, indeed. I think we should all take a moment to ponder the sheer enormity of the unreflected white privilege on proud display in these posts.
...
Second, I note that said guy is lucky that his creativity is failing him, because presumably he doesn't realize that "YouTube sensation" means in this context "shitstorm of racefail that his candy-white ass is totally unprepared to deal with".
...
And finally, since the fashion these days, upon having one's white (or male, or heterosexual) privilege called out, is to haughtily assert that one is not racist and immediately demand to be "educated" on the issue at hand (of course having one's ignorance pandered to is another form of privilege), I thought I'd pre-empt that strategy by providing a short consciousness-raising essay here. So I went to the great Gazoogle to get some ideas on where to start. The top two entries there are instructive, and I will summarize them anon. But first, a glance down at the bottom of the search results reveals:Searches related to: history of african-american namesafrican american slaveryenslaved african americansafrican american slave namesafrican american identityafrican american babies namesfamous african american namesafrican american name originsafrican american greek
... and those of us with even half a clue can see where this train wreck is going.
Yes, it turns out that at one time Africans were captured, put on boats, and brought to the United States as slaves. And the people who enslaved them found their African names to be too exotic or hard to pronounce or pagan (I would give examples of such names but they have been erased from history), so they gave their slaves nice, easy-to-pronounce, Christian names like "John" or "Mary"; or classical Roman names like "Cassius" or (I shit you not) "Caesar". After emancipation, and ever since, there has been a strong tendency in some African-American communities to eschew nice, easy-to-pronounce, Christian names like "John" and "Mary" combined with a desire to return to names that are more authentic in terms of African ancestry; but since the original slaves had their African names erased from history there isn't really a pool of traditional African names to draw on. As a result, the African-American community has adopted other strategies. To list a few: modifying white names (e.g., "Medgar"), reconstructing African names ("Tawanda", "Ta-Nehisi"), adopting black Muslim or African names ("El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz", "Muhammad Ali", "Barack Hussein Obama", "Kwame Touré"), and lastly, making names up out of whole cloth ("Orencio", "Swanzetta", or even -- I dare hazard to guess -- "K'taquita").
The point being, the answer to the question "Why do African-Americans think it's a good idea to name their kids something strange and off-beat, like K'taquita rather than sticking to nice, easy-to-pronounce, Christian names like John or Mary?" is: to some African-Americans, names like "John" and "Mary" have the ring of colonization and slavery, so fuck you, white boy.
Three things to note in passing that didn't fit in the rant above but definitely need mentioning: 1) I asked for and received permission to repost the friends-locked content above. 2) Pretty much none of the other commentors covered themselves in glory, either, not that that's any excuse. 3) We slid from "clueless white privilege" to something much more psychologically profound with the image of the half-African half-Klingon with hair extensions, forehead ridges, and false nails, answering the phone. Really -- not even trying for subtlety, are we?
For further reading, there is this more fleshed out and much less snarky article elaborating on the history of African-American names, as well as Salon.com's article that gives a spirited defense of creative black names while debunking some of the more common, racist urban legends surrounding them. Well worth a look.
Hoo-boy.
Turns out that said guy had to interact in the course of his work with a woman whose name was listed in the company directory as "K'taquita Jackson". This prompted a post expressing what I interpreted as astonishment and amusement at the strangeness of the woman's name. In the comments there was a lot of giggling, then the suggestion that the person in question might be "half Klingon", followed by the unfortunately unforgettable image that "I just picture this female Klingon warrior in full battle armor sitting at the accounting desk of this company, crunching numbers and drinking her coffee with Targ blood and splenda in it."
Yeah. But wait, it gets better. After interacting with the object of his amusement on the phone, said guy followed up with a second post for our edification:Remember K'taquita Jackson, the African-Klingon bookkeeper? It's pronounced "kuh-taKWAY-uh." I asked her if the last "t" in her name was a typo and she said, "no, it's silent."
Wow.
Which prompted the following exchange in the comments:Other Guy: I'd love to know the etymology of that name!Said Guy: No kidding. I still picture her sitting at the desk with a ridged forehead, battle armor, and nail tips/hair extensions.OG: Man, you need to do this! Maybe I'm just overly geeky, but I could totally see it becoming the next big YouTube sensation! :DSG: It could, except I don't know any women willing to play the part lol. I'm not creative enough these days to come up with anything beyond the concept :p
Wow, indeed. I think we should all take a moment to ponder the sheer enormity of the unreflected white privilege on proud display in these posts.
...
Second, I note that said guy is lucky that his creativity is failing him, because presumably he doesn't realize that "YouTube sensation" means in this context "shitstorm of racefail that his candy-white ass is totally unprepared to deal with".
...
And finally, since the fashion these days, upon having one's white (or male, or heterosexual) privilege called out, is to haughtily assert that one is not racist and immediately demand to be "educated" on the issue at hand (of course having one's ignorance pandered to is another form of privilege), I thought I'd pre-empt that strategy by providing a short consciousness-raising essay here. So I went to the great Gazoogle to get some ideas on where to start. The top two entries there are instructive, and I will summarize them anon. But first, a glance down at the bottom of the search results reveals:Searches related to: history of african-american namesafrican american slaveryenslaved african americansafrican american slave namesafrican american identityafrican american babies namesfamous african american namesafrican american name originsafrican american greek
... and those of us with even half a clue can see where this train wreck is going.
Yes, it turns out that at one time Africans were captured, put on boats, and brought to the United States as slaves. And the people who enslaved them found their African names to be too exotic or hard to pronounce or pagan (I would give examples of such names but they have been erased from history), so they gave their slaves nice, easy-to-pronounce, Christian names like "John" or "Mary"; or classical Roman names like "Cassius" or (I shit you not) "Caesar". After emancipation, and ever since, there has been a strong tendency in some African-American communities to eschew nice, easy-to-pronounce, Christian names like "John" and "Mary" combined with a desire to return to names that are more authentic in terms of African ancestry; but since the original slaves had their African names erased from history there isn't really a pool of traditional African names to draw on. As a result, the African-American community has adopted other strategies. To list a few: modifying white names (e.g., "Medgar"), reconstructing African names ("Tawanda", "Ta-Nehisi"), adopting black Muslim or African names ("El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz", "Muhammad Ali", "Barack Hussein Obama", "Kwame Touré"), and lastly, making names up out of whole cloth ("Orencio", "Swanzetta", or even -- I dare hazard to guess -- "K'taquita").
The point being, the answer to the question "Why do African-Americans think it's a good idea to name their kids something strange and off-beat, like K'taquita rather than sticking to nice, easy-to-pronounce, Christian names like John or Mary?" is: to some African-Americans, names like "John" and "Mary" have the ring of colonization and slavery, so fuck you, white boy.
Three things to note in passing that didn't fit in the rant above but definitely need mentioning: 1) I asked for and received permission to repost the friends-locked content above. 2) Pretty much none of the other commentors covered themselves in glory, either, not that that's any excuse. 3) We slid from "clueless white privilege" to something much more psychologically profound with the image of the half-African half-Klingon with hair extensions, forehead ridges, and false nails, answering the phone. Really -- not even trying for subtlety, are we?
For further reading, there is this more fleshed out and much less snarky article elaborating on the history of African-American names, as well as Salon.com's article that gives a spirited defense of creative black names while debunking some of the more common, racist urban legends surrounding them. Well worth a look.