Black America's Naming Practices

Everyone is raised within a culture with a set of customs and morals handed down by those generations before them. Most individual’s view and experience identity in different ways. During history, different ethnic groups have struggled with finding their place within society. In the mid-nineteen hundreds, African Americans faced a great deal of political and social discrimination based on the tone of their skin. After the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans no longer wanted to be identified by their African American lifestyle, so they began to practice African culture by taking on African hairdos, African-influenced clothing, and adopting African names. By turning away from their roots, many African Americans embraced a culture that was not inherited, thus putting behind the unique and significant characteristics

What really is in a name? Apparently, there is a lot. In Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s story, "What's in a Name," there is a telling story about a young boy learning the powerful pain and humiliation in the racist practices of American society. Gates illustrates how racism can perpetuate prejudice that aims to take away individual identity and put entire groups of people down. Yet, the fact that Skip was willing to never look Mr. Wilson in the yes again shows that Gates himself was not going to just take the racism any longer, but was willing to fight it in his own unique way.

One aspect of life for black people in the United States of America that has always remained consistent is white racial hostility. A history of slavery, segregation, unequal protection of the law, and second class citizenship inflicted by a white power structure that dominates on a national level has created a harmful reality for black people. Every aspect of black public life must either be under the control of or in opposition to white supremacy. Every state-sanctioned institution works to use black bodies as tools for the production of capital in any form, yet simultaneously exploits and maltreats black people so that they cannot fully participate in and benefit from the systems which they are indoctrinated to invest in. White America leverages its money, comfort, and tyranny on Black America. It is for this reason that separate spaces are not merely essential to the viability of black counter-publics but inherent to their existence, since black involvement in white spaces and systems typically leads to black assimilation or marginalization. Within these black counter-publics, hip hop and mass connection through new media forms direct attention and allow for personal expression which shapes black worldview and public opinion, but this simply makes black people more comfortable with their oppression and less involved in politics.

In his essay, “As Black as We Wish to be,” author Thomas Chatterton Williams tries to paint a picture of a world where the sight of interracial families was still considered an oddity and shows how, over the decades, society has slowly became more acceptable towards the idea. He begins the essay briefly discussing the ignorance of people during the late 1980’s while also elaborating what hardships African Americans have dealt with over the past century. He explains that even with the progression of interracial families and equality of African Americans, a new problem has now risen for interracial children of the future. While either being multiracial, African American, or White, what do they decide to identify themselves as? This is the major question that arises throughout Williams’s argument. While Williams’s supports his argument with unreliable environmental evidence, as well with other statistical evidence. His argument is weakened by an abundance of facts, disorganization, and an excessive use of diluted information.

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

The African American Culture and Traditions A Research Study and Facts That Will Take Us Into What Makes This Culture So Unique.

Dr. Marianne Bertrand, an economics professor, testified that some corporate recruiters can identify a person’s race based on his or her name. Bertrand’s study compared job applicants with Caucasian names, such as Sarah, versus applicants with African-American names such as Lakisha.

Everyone is raised within a culture with a set of customs and morals handed down by those generations before them. Most individual’s view and experience identity in different ways. During history, different ethnic groups have struggled with finding their place within society. In the mid-nineteen hundreds, African Americans faced a great deal of political and social discrimination based on the tone of their skin. After the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans no longer wanted to be identified by their African American lifestyle, so they began to practice African culture by taking on African hairdos, African-influenced clothing, and adopting African names. By turning away from their roots, many African Americans embraced a

The author cases that people would not call sports teams “the Jewboys,” “the Chinks,” or any other clearly derogatory names (Willy, 2008). These racist nick names directly relate and is mentioned with hostility because they were originated from a time in which their ethnicity was seen as, but in correctly, inferior. Willy also provide exceptions, such as the “’Fighting Irish’” and the “Yankees” (Willy, 2008). No one has ever mentioned these two examples or has stated it is “hurtful” (Willy, 2008). The author provides another strong example which is continuously argued daily. African-Americans are visually and physically black, hence the name “’Negro,’” which from the “Latin root,” means “’black’”, but if African-Americans prefer not to be called by “’Negro’” then they shouldn’t (Willy, 2008). It is the people of the ethnicity who possess the authority to choose what they wish to be recognized by. The group of Seminoles in Florida is “supporting” Florida State University’s use of their tribe name as the university’s team name, but the Seminoles located in Oklahoma was against this (Willy, 2008). The author uses this context to show that the opponent’s position may not be valid by showing that it is not a matter of racism, but a matter of social allowance of these names.

Family gathers are vital rituals in African American families that have contributed to their endurance and survival during turbulent and uncertain times. Despite variations in family gathers nowadays, this ritual has enabled African American families to preserve their cultural heritage (Denton-Hatten85).However, one thing that has remained constant during the event is that they still generate a lot of power through participation of elders, who are considered custodians of the African American heritage. African American gathers can trace their roots to the emancipation era when freed slaves organized this event in a certain plantation or area to try and find lost family members. During the slavery period, it was common for family members to get separated and these gathers aimed at reconciling people(Denton-Hatten85).

I have normally regarded my name as simply boring. Samuel is easily pronounced, easily shortened, and incredibly ordinary. I understand my name holds sentimental value to those closest to me and I do identify with some of the characteristics embedded within it. While I know that names do not define personality, I cannot help but to find annoyance within multiple aspects of my birth-given label.Weirdly enough, I know my name fits me because no matter how hard I have tried, I cannot imagine being referred to as anything other than “Sam”.

At birth everyone is given a name by their parents. Your name is part of your identity and how you are addressed and recognized by the world. The different verities among the population created other names given to different races. These names are offensive, demeaning and are only used to refer to a person in a disrespectful manner. They can also cause a segregation among a nations people, these names are forced upon people weather they are rich or poor, old or young, male or female and are used to describe the same race of people. In the class reading "What 's in a Name? “by Henry Louis Gates he reminisces about a personal experience of his that he had with his father. In the story he describes his father was a hard worker and, because of this he was in high financial standings and, he was well respected and given privileges that at the time was rare for people of his race but he was still black and his name, his individual identity was not important instead he was given a racial identity, this is the only thing he was known as, this type of negative recognition is something many black Americans can relate to. One’s race is a predominant part of our identity and is what causes discrimination.

The politics of naming in the late 1960s reflected a deep understanding of the ways in which language influenced racial identity and experience in the post civil right era. Activists viewed terms like black as being capable of simplifying the complex nature of racial identity, helping to unite African-American individuals behind a common notion of blackness and serving as an important source of psychological empowerment. However, the politics of naming consistently revealed a disconnect between the arguments and efforts of political leaders who were supposedly giving voice to the lived experiences of all black Americans. As black identity remained tied to questions of gender, class, and sexuality, the essentialized definition of authentic blackness

Race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, poverty, and sexual orientation, all play a role in developing one’s identity and more often than not, these multiple identities intersect with blackness. Being that American society has deemed colored people and populations as minoritarian subjects, African diaspora people can be seen making safe spaces for themselves to survive as individuals and as a part of communities.

One place where power is exerted in group identity is naming. While literature on individual naming and naming rites are plentiful (Turner 1980; Goodenough 1965; Cohen 1994), less is known about group naming. However, Cohen (1994) and Okely (1990) explore the subordination of the individual identity to that of a categorical description, particularly for the elderly and disabled who may find their identity diminished by dependence on others and their agency within the community waning. While the internal process of a group’s self-naming may go unnoticed, often inherited in the case of community citizens, tribal members, or ethnic groups, the imposition of a name from external, often more powerful, forces or groups undermines their agency