Naming has always been, among many other things, about power.
I remember watching
Roots, reluctantly under my parents' rule. I remember Kunta, notoriously holding onto all he had left, his name, refusing to accept "Toby" as his new label, as his fate.
Malcolm and Martin both changed their own names in response to cultural influences to political affect. Add to the list: Nina Simone, Alicia Keys, Ocho Cinco, bell hooks, Mark Twain, Harriet Jacobs...
The act of naming illustrates a power dynamic and a political act: one between the namer and the named and the other, in the act itself. As long as I've been alive I've known this concept as it works personally and as it relates to the collective. From Negro to Black to African American to colored to black to afro-american and everything else in between, we've seen how naming is laced in political detritus and personal vernaculars. We've seen how politically correctness infiltrates even the most sincere conversations turning it into a tip-toe shuffle. And, we've seen how inappropriate and ill-informed naming reveals ignorance and insensitivity.
But how do these power dynamics play out? What happens when we name ourselves? Do we exert an authority, an authorship in our identity formation? What type of power does one exert by naming another? Parents certainly hold a unique ownership over their children, which partially manifests itself in this responsibity of naming the child. Similarly, when we reject our given name, naming ourselves, we engage in an assertion of power and subsequently voice.
But, what happens when those doing the naming do not know the namee personally? What happens when one group prescribes a hurtful name, which they view endearing, to a another group? Complicated further, what happens when the group giving the name does so from a traditional place of power or a place of privilege, giving the named no say?
An article I read recently on
urbanbushbabes.com raised these and many other questions for me. you know how I get.
the article didn't anger me, as it seemed to want, but it definitely raised some interesting ideas.
When do we sing our little song about sticks and stones and when do the words people call us need to be put in check?
read:
WOW! Popular Dutch Magazine Calls Black Girls Like Rihanna A “N*IGGAB*TCH”
What do you think?
