InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I want my innocence back"

Willow (the_willow) wrote,
@ 2009-10-26 17:06:00

Entry tags:

i hate people, internet + white bread

How A Casual Name Search Ends Up Raising My Blood Pressure.
Look, if you put the word 'Ghetto' into your title (60 Black Ghetto Names), and then claim the list contained therein your video 'Is not racist. It's only a joke' - It's racist, ok. It is. And you're just trying to get by.

If you write the name D'Neijah is: a lovely, traditional African name from the exotic African ethnicity -- You may not be racist. But you're sure as hell IGNORANT.

If you think that you don't want to give other people (teachers, child's eventual friends etc) a hard time learning your child's name and stumbling over it -- You have somehow become the parent of the world and not your own offspring. How'd that happen?

If you think D'Neijah: Will be hell with computer scanned forms because there's no place to put an apostrophe so such a name will cause the. entire. world. problems. You are suffering from a severe lack of imagination. Oh yeah, you're also racist.

If you think D'Neijah: Sounds like a black name, not that there's anything wrong with that. Except, it has to sound like VAGINA and who would name their child that? -- Get thee behind me honkey.

If you write the name D'Neijah is: ... a terrible name. It's right up there with all the other names that sound like women make them up at the spur of the moment! Where on earth do people think up these new names? I tend to think they are high on something when they do! I can't imagine calling a baby by that name or others like it, plus the fact of going through life with people trying to pronounce them! -- Congratulations Racist McRacist Pants! You have won Racist Lotto! Feel free to pick up your hood and sheet at any time, because if that's the only racist you can see, that's the way the world needs to dress you up for the clarification of others (so they can avoid your ass).

(Post a new comment)

bridgetmkennitt
2009-10-26 09:46 pm UTC (link)

Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet named their son Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa. I'm from Hawaii and I recognize a Hawaiian name when I see one, not to mention have seen longer names. Jason is Hawaiian who obviously has pride in his culture by giving his son a Hawaiian name, like he has (and I believe his daughter with Lisa also has a Hawaiian middle name). I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

When the media outlets reported the baby's name however, all the racist remarks just made my blood boil. It's not a bunch of letters thrown together. It's not a quirky name thing that celebrities are doing. Nor is it Lisa's "fault" for naming her son an "African name" (yeah, I saw those comments too). Thankfully I saw some sane comments, but those were few and far between.

In conclusion, people are idiots.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

the_willow
2009-10-26 09:52 pm UTC (link)

My sister has a Hawaiian name actually. My mom wanted something to reflect her Americanness but also something of 'Island Culture'. It's not her only name. My siblings have several names each - my mother having figured out sometimes to deal with white American society it'd be good to have another name that's also legal.

Anyway, my point is, the teachers and students mispronouncing my sister's name now? All. assume. it is African or African American 'made up'. Same with both my brothers actually. Which y'know is ridiculous seeing as how both those names are Hebrew.

Clearly 'normal' names are names white Americans see on TV, assigned to other white Americans.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	PS the_willow 2009-10-26 09:56 pm UTC (link)
	And yes, I realize the muddledness of a Hawaiian name being used to represent Americanness. But on the other hand, my sister can correlate the colonization of the Hawaiin islands to the Caribbean and she's 13. So I think some of my mom's wishes have been fulfilled. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: PS

bridgetmkennitt
2009-10-26 10:18 pm UTC (link)

That's actually interesting. I don't think I've heard of someone having a Hawaiian name to represent Americanness. Usually those with Hawaiian names are either Hawaiian in blood, residents of Hawaii who have been there for a few generations, or whites on the mainland who think it's "cute." Slightly off topic, I highly suspect Obama named his daughter Malia because of Hawaii (like I also suspect his Yes, We Can motto was based off of First Hawaiian Bank's motto Yes, You Can, but I may be stretching that one *g*).

This actually reminds me about the similarities of cultures. You've talked about how some of my Philippine heritage reminds you of home, but I've never taken a look at your islands to see what reflects back, whether reflecting Hawaii or the Philippines. I actually started thinking about it because I volunteer for a doctor who is Indian (from India, not Native American) and because I'm the only other brown person in the office, a few elderly, white patients have mistaken me for the doctor's daughter, despite I don't look like her and there are pictures of the doctor's daughters in the lobby. The last case, I finally worked up the courage to say, "Nope, I'm not her daughter. She's Indian and I'm Filipino," and I thought that would be the end of it. The guy promptly laughs and says, "Same thing, right? They're right next to each other" and I almost exploded and had to walk away because they're not the same, not in people's appearance or cultures (unless one counts 'brown people in Asia').

It did get me thinking though what cultures would reflect, would be similar to my own.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jackass In The Dr's Office

the_willow
2009-10-26 10:31 pm UTC (link)

I know it's ignorance and privilege and hubris and American isolationism. But I've also begun to think it's because the US is so damn big.

People can go 'North Americans' and refer to US people and/or Canadian people.

In other places of the world, a trip the length of one from New York to San Francisco would take you through twenty odd countries at least, all with varied cultures; Belgium isn't Germany, isn't France, isn't Italy, isn't Lichtenstein isn't Luxembourg isnt... and so on.

Whereas, Iowa isn't New York State, but if you're a white American, there's not going to be significant culture shock, as there would plausibly be if a Loatian ended up in the Philippines or a Mongolian ended up in Tokyo. And that's not including the completely different languages!

And thus for many Americans their view on the concept of culture itself is horridly, horridly skewed. They have this big country where privilege lets them assume everyone white from the continent is going to speak their language and know their references. And they assume that everyone non-white from other countries with the same combined surface area will equal the same thing.

And when we look at them like they're crazy, or barely resist the urge to smack them one, they're 'bewildered' or 'hurt' that we don't take the time to explain geography, linguistics, sociology, psychology, micro and macro economics, civic government and history to them in pre-chewed, on demand chunks.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jackass In The Dr's Office

bridgetmkennitt
2009-10-26 10:52 pm UTC (link)

It took me aback because if a white person mistakes my identity, it's usually as Mexican. I'll still get upset, but at least that makes more sense than Indian because of Mexico and the Philippines' similar backgrounds due to the Spaniards, and even culturally, there are a few similarities. But Indian? That was a first and it's just, whut. Whut.

I already mentioned how there are pictures of the doctor and her daughters in the lobby and her daughters have come into the office before so several of the patients have seen what they look like. Not only do I not have the doctor's features (her daughters really do), I don't have any features that would ping me as Indian. The only reason why those patients would even mention it is because...dun dun dun! I'm not white. If I wanted to be rude, I would have pointed to some random white patient in the lobby and asked, "Are you related to that person over there? No? You're both white. I just assumed. All you white people look alike."

Re: last paragraph
That's it exactly. I simply do not have enough time in the day to explain to the clueless what I've known for years. I already have to boil down my ethnicity to Filipino instead of the multi-racial background I come from, and even then, I have to boil it to Asian.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Jackass In The Dr's Office

the_willow
2009-10-26 10:56 pm UTC (link)

I already have to boil down my ethnicity to Filipino instead of the multi-racial background I come from, and even then, I have to boil it to Asian.

When I first came to the US, I got SO FED UP with having to describe where I was from, in relation to frigging South America - specifically Venezuela. It was then I discovered that if a place isn't as big on the map as the US - many Americans don't pay a damn bit of attention to it.

"So people actually live on those dots in the ocean?"

I know I was seriously repressed in those days, because now, I would pop someone for that statement.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	sarah_frost 2009-10-26 10:25 pm UTC (link)
	A traditional African name. Like Veronique, Dmitri, and Inez are all considered Traditional European Names from the Exotic European Ethnicity, right? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	the_willow 2009-10-26 10:37 pm UTC (link)
	Because America is one huge ass country so surely Africa and Europe are two other huge ass countries. Ok maybe they're not as large as America because they don't have a state as big as Canada. But same difference, right? [/sarcasm] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	sarah_frost 2009-10-26 10:47 pm UTC (link)
	Ah. Point beautifully nailed. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	dhobikikutti.dreamwidth.org 2009-10-27 01:57 am UTC (link)
	And yet, put an apostrophe in a made up name for a white elf or dragon rider or whathaveyou in the standard faux European fantasy novel and that's peachy keen. :/ (Reply to this) (Thread)

	the_willow 2009-10-27 02:48 am UTC (link)
	F'Lar is of ~~de Earth~~! Pern. Also, T'Pai of Vulcan. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dhobikikutti.dreamwidth.org 2009-10-27 11:16 pm UTC (link)
	FYI, IJ does not seem to email comment notifications to OpenIDs, so if I ever leave something hanging, it is because I forgot to check back. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	the_willow 2009-10-28 12:39 am UTC (link)
	nods I know. I have to check recent comments to see openid replies. But yeah, I tend to figure folks forgot to check back or forgot replies won't get mailed to them - no prob. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sidherian 2009-10-28 09:15 am UTC (link)
	I found that post you are talking about. Truly frightening. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	darlas_mom 2009-10-29 10:31 am UTC (link)
	As did I, and I lost my temper in the comments. :-/ (Reply to this) (Parent)

darlas_mom
2009-10-29 10:40 am UTC (link)

I followed the link here from

deepad's journal, so I apologize for barging in.

My head is exploding right now. Looking at the comments you quoted, I almost can't believe anybody would be that stupid in public. (For certain values of "public," anyway. The internet certainly ain't private.)

I think you've got an intriguing point about the size of the U.S and how that affects American mentalities regarding how culture works in other countries. I've been from one end of this country to the other, and...yeah, you can pretty much expect that the other side will be the same when you get there.

Relatedly, I think this is even inherent in what we (that is, people born and raised in the U.S, me included) call ourselves. Most people in the U.S don't seem to be aware of the fact that America is a continent; divided in two, North and South, and bridged by the technical third, Central; but a continent all the same. We call ourselves by a continental identity, and then act like it refers to our country and our country alone. This is why I identify as U.Sian instead.

Again, sorry to barge in and TL;DR all over your journal. I pretty much just wanted to say I agree with you.

(Reply to this)