[lbo-talk] Re: "black" names

frank scott frank at marin.cc.ca.us
Mon Oct 27 13:29:02 PST 2003


professional class black people tend more to think of themselves and identify as african-american, and - perhaps - use african or islamic sounding names for their kids...working class and working poor black people tend to think of themselves and idnetify as black, and often, women-mothers get together to make up names for daiughters and sons...that's where wonderful, musical, and sometimes off the wall names like taneesha, tameela, etc come in, and could lead people to class-race identification by "black" names...

you ever meet a white boy named zambika? if so, he probably named himself, he's probably wearing very baggy pants and trying - desperately - to sound black in his speech pattern...

I have always found that name-game played by black women of the less-than-professional class more imaginative and spirited than the much easier "pick an african" name, though what all parents call their kids often leads kids to hurry and grow up so that they can drop the stupid, if well meant parent-tag given them...

fs



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