finchhouse's Profile

When I was teaching at the college level I had a black student who was named Aryan. Whoa. A little research before naming this child might've gone a long way in the end...

Having said that, stupidity is surely not limited to race. I had stupid students in every ethnicity, and extremely smart ones in every ethnicity.

In America, the black community does have a history of choosing "different" names...and they're not all like "Aryan". But because of the bigotry and pre-conceived notions that so many people have already, not even taking names into account, I think it's risky even in this day and age for picking a name for your child that's too different sounding. Yes, it's sad, but if it means my child might have a chance of being overlooked...well, I'm going to err on classical/beautiful/plain names any day. Yes, it is a sad truth that minorities still have to worry about this kind of thing, and that if you're white you can name your daughter something white like Camdyn, (which I detest, btw), but that's still how it is. Yes, change is needed, but I'm not convinced that it's going to be by naming your kid differently that this change comes about.
One of the best teachers I had in college was a woman named Dr. Heather Neff, who taught African American Literature; she was black, and very much proud of this part of her ethnicity (I should also add that she is, I believe, Egyptian...I think), in every way. And she had a large audience of students who were black as well, as the university where she still teaches is black, by majority. So, she had a large audience of kids who were really listening to her, because she was commanding and provocative and charismatic. And she said that yes, Ebonics and/or Black English were languages worthy of study and legitimate, etc., but that if you were black, you sure as hell better know how to speak "Standard English" when it mattered--because that was how you were going to speak for interviews, school, jobs, etc., because that was how the world worked, *for better or worse*.
It seems to me that as long as it is that way, well, I just think that power will be had by working from the inside out. Learn the passwords of those in power, infiltrate, and then change people. Otherwise it's hard to get people to listen if you're named Aryan.