This past weekend, I competed in a speech and debate tournament where the names of the highest placing competitors are announced. I knew my name was next when I heard the announcer take a long pause. And as she continued, I heard her brutally butcher my name. Even afterward when people corrected her, the announcer didn’t even attempt to correct herself. When ethnic or non-traditional names are mispronounced, the correct pronunciation of the name is cast-off as unimportant, when in reality, denying someone the basic courtesy of respecting their name, and consequently, their heritage and identity, is an injustice. I had explained in my previous entry that implicit bias played a huge role in linking certain black-sounding names to violence in comparison to white-sounding names. The discrimination and implicit bias does not end there though. It permeates into the workforce as well. To fix this, I mentioned prior that, name-blind job applications would be a great solution. Hiding someone’s name can bring greater attention to their merit. White sounding names are more likely to get a call back than ethnic-sounding names Relating to Simone de Beavouies concept of “ the Self and the Other” that we’ve learned about in class, name discrimination pronounces people with traditional or western names the majority, making people with non-traditional or ethnic names the minority, or “other”. Intersecting with categories like race, literacy, and socioeconomic status, it perpetuates everyday stereotypes. Individuals with “Asian-sounding” names are labeled as smart or thick-accented non-English speakers before people even meet them, reinforcing the model minority myth and xenophobic ideals. Moreover, a form of name discrimination can be seen in the novel we currently finished reading called The Leavers. When Deming was adopted, his name was changed to Daniel to fit more into western society. There was no reason to erasure Demings culture by changing his name and the cultural identity crisis Deming underwent as a result was not worth it. Name discrimination is present even without ill-intent and this was the case with Deming’s adoptive parents. In many cases, people shorten their Ethnic names to fit into society and make it easier on their non-ethnic peers. In order to avoid such erasure, the first step we need to take is to learn to embrace our ethnic names. Ethnic names contain someone’s identity, culture, and history, so ignoring them, discriminating against them, and erasing them is still nothing short of an injustice.
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Perfectly stated! I couldn’t agree with you more that it is a huge injustice for humans to be judged by their names. Implicit biases are around us all the time, even though i think your idea to leave the name off of the application so it will give an unbiased review, I think also including we need to stand up and say something when we notice this in other people, one person at a time! This reminds me of my youngest coming home from school and telling me a story of a boy at her lunch table making racist “jokes” and all the other students didn’t really laugh but they also didn’t say anything, when my girl told me she let him know right then how racist he was being, let me just say i was the proudest mother on the planet!
I think it is very powerful that you included the personal anecdote with this assignment because it shows the importance of making the distinction between someone who actively tries to correct themselves to do better in the future versus someone who laughs at their mistake and moves on. While it is very unlikely that anyone alive knows how to pronounce every name from every background, making the small effort to learn proper pronunciations is a simple display of basic respect.
I agree with you that name-blind applications would be an important step in decreasing resume discrimination, I think it is very telling that this solution even needs to be considered at all.
Great post! I appreciate that you decided to talk about your own experience in this assignment. I dont think it’s easy to let people know about traumatic experiences you’ve had in a discussion board so I appreciate that. I’ve had a similar experience when people pronounce my name as “Ally” instead of “Ali” like Muhammad Ali. It was especially prevalent in high School but still happens today at places like Starbucks. It can be annoying and demoralizing.
I really enjoyed reading your context presentation. I think the addition of the personal anecdote was a perfect addition to this presentation. Name discriminations can be a very hurtful thing, and it just takes a little bit of effort to ensure we are pronouncing names right of people from other cultures to ensure we are respecting them in the right ways. This systemic injustice is a great example and very well written. Great Post!
I always enjoy the more personal showcases, because it goes to show that systemic injustice does not exist solely behind a computer screen. These issues are real and prevalent in our society, affecting everyone around us. It is definitely upsetting that someone after being corrected, would not even attempt to pronounce a name right. It goes to show that when the One sees the Other as less important, they will not step outside their wheelhouse in order to be inclusive.
Great job! I connected with your story and it made this assignment way more doable. I think that you pointing this out opens a another door for people. Many people feel it doesn’t matter that they say a persons name improperly. It happens way to often even after correcting someone. This is the injustice that people don’t see as that. I appreciate your courage to share your experience and talk about it. If no one has told you I’m proud of you! Anytime they mispronounced your name you correct them every single time.
Great presentation! Name discrimination is definitely an issue and can really reveal someone’s implicit bias. I remember watching something about how someone with an ethnic sounding name would ‘Americanize’ his name and received double the amount of callbacks when applying to jobs after doing so. I am sad that this impacts so many people, especially in such a diverse nation.
This is a great post. When you combine your personal story and the reading we learned last week, the presentation becomes clearer and organized. You introduced a thoughtful topic about name discrimination and give us comprehensive background about it. This kind of injustice happened around us every day, which has a close relationship with our life. You really chose a good topic. I have to think deeply about the influences and meaning of the name discrimination and begin to pay more attention to people’s daily behavior. Of course, I will also do some introspection on my own.
Hi! I first would like to say, I greatly appreciate you talking about such a personal experience. I have came across being discriminated against for the way that my name is. I actually have gotten so annoyed by it that I decided to go by my nickname, Shay. My real first name is Mi’Shaya (pronounced My-Shay-Yuh). Yet, no matter how many times I repeat my name, people cannot seem to say it or do not care if I correct them. Also, many times teacher or staff members would expect me to be “ghetto”. I was told this in an interview before so they made sure to have an interview in a public place when usually the interview would be held in their office room.
Thank you for this insightful post. As an Asian and having an Asian name listed in class, it is sometimes embarrassed to hear the teacher call my name. I believe in the future people should take cultural respect even when pronouncing or just looking at other’s names.
First of all I’m sorry that you had to be embarrassed on such a public scale like that. I am surprised and saddened that the announcer did not take the time to speak to all of the competitors in order to learn their names better. At the very least I can only hope that they will do better next time. I am glad that you brought this issue to our attention, it is not something that I typically think of because my name is pretty common for America. However, I will take your advice and be more conscious about the dignity of others and their names.
This is a well stated post! Being involved in a good deal of sports growing up, I know exactly what this feels like, nobody would ever get my name right and often times would just skip over mine so that they did not mess it up. This is something that can truly hurt others and I believe that it must be changed. I greatly appreciate you talking about such a personal experience in this post, I know that it takes a lot of courage to do so! I hope that in the future, there will be some kind of voice that brings a problem like this to light so that others do not have to go through the same struggle!
This post was very well-written! Respecting someone’s name is one of the most basic forms of common decency. Thank you for sharing a personal experience with us, and I’m very sorry that you had to experience that. It is very disrespectful for someone to continue to call you by the wrong name after being corrected. You did a wonderful job relating this experience to the readings.
I thought your post was fascinating and unique. I am sorry that you have to deal with your name being butchered. I agree with your post. I feel like many people are at a disadvantage if their name is weird, hard to pronounce, or has a particularly negative connotation. People have to change their names because of society’s perception, which is very sad.
Nicely done. I’m so sorry about your experiences with people mispronouncing your name, I think its great that you’ve taken something that affected you and decided to share your insight about the topic. Its so true that we as an American society perceive ethic names as different and difficult, and therefore ethnic folks feel a sense of pressure to change their name in order to be more accepted in society. I don’t think about this every day and I’m glad you’ve informed and reminded me of this issue.
I could not agree more with you and understand your stated experience. My name was given by my grandfather from a family tree. There is no disrespect in it, but I do not like my name. And it sounds like the name of a 19th-century grandfather. I often do not want to mention my name to people and usually tell everyone my nickname because every time when people hear my name, they are confused and ask me why the name.