genuineblackman

[genuineblackman]

Naming

“ And Taborlin the Great said to the stone: "BREAK!" and the stone broke... “

Working retail late nights means running into characters. One night such a person entered my life and I’ve had a damn hard time evicting them.

This gentleman’s name was Ali Mohammed. The first name is a fiction for anonymity’s sake, but the last is important. For during his photo pick-up Ali requested my name.

“${my first name}” I said. 

“And your last name?” 

“${last name}”

“Ah, that’s great but you know what that means right?” Ali said, standing around the till in the odd time between a finished transaction and the receipt printing, “It means, you’re still a slave.”

In retail, one cannot generally strangle customers. Back then I also lacked the ability: ten years of karate had developed the theory of violence, if not the musculature to enact it. I wanted to. Rather, I wanted to explain that his idea of a ‘slave’ name was an philosophy outdated decades before. I wanted to I wanted to regale him with my last name, the achievements accomplished by it and under it’s umbra. I wanted to tell him to compare that with his supposedly ‘free’ name - a name that bound him more tightly to a religion than any other possible name.

I did not because he simply wasn’t worth the job. The rules of engagement are different when representing another entity. Instead I simply said, “No, it isn’t.” and went about my closing tasks, giving no indication of how vile an idea he’d just intoned. 

You see, for me, names are sacred. And I don’t subscribe to any religion. 

Names are unique in that they are us but not owned by us. 

Names are chosen by our parents. They are selected not just before we know ourselves - but before anyone knows anything about the person that will bear it. That means they contain the aspirations our family has for us before they are aware of any constraints on that ambition. I’m not spiritual, but those ideas are the ones floating in their heads while they are shaping you. As such, they leave an irrevocable mark. 

Everybody must grow to own their name, for, as genuine or hopeful parents are, our individual ambitions are not shackled to theirs. That growth - the process of realizing goals independent of family - is what becoming an adult is - regardless of age. 

Changing that feels like a transgression. To slave your identity to something discovered after that process began. To label yourself with another’s name and hope some shred of another’s glory to stick to you. Or worse: the height of vanity, to assume you’ve reached the zenith of self-understanding such that you can project your own determination. 

Not for me, Ali, but you do you.

(Not looking down on anyone who changes their name: it’s a perfectly valid thing to do.)

[genuineblackman]

(Not) A Real Black Man

Because I don’t speak AAVE.

Because my skin is too light.

Because I grew up in the wrong neighborhood.

Because I don’t work for a black company.

Because I don’t read black media.

Because I vote for the wrong politician.

Because I’m married to the wrong color.

I’ve heard each of these. They’re all categorically wrong. Being black, specifically identifying with the black race and black ethnicity, is a twofold test: 

1) possessing some phenotypical characteristics associated with being black

2) self-construal having a continuity between past ancestry and future aspirations with regard to ethnicity.

In short: looking black, having black ancestry and having a black ethnic identity going forward. Yet none of the comments listed in the beginning have any countermand on being black. Why the disconnect between the stereotype of blackness and the identity of blackness? 

The problem is one of identity phenotype. Recall from biology classes of old that genes expression falls into two categories: genotype and phenotype. Genotype are what your genes are, phenotype is how they physically express themselves. Your genotype might say you possess the dominant allele for brown eyes and a recessive allele for blue. (forgive me for the simplification, biologists). 

In terms of identity then, there is a difference between one’s identity genotype and outward expressions of that identity. That is, expressions of things relating to black culture are entirely separate from being ethnically black.

There’s much to unpack, much more than what could be handled in a single post. I hope to treat this blog as a virtual punching bag, where I can take the time to explain nuances that day-to-day life does not have the time for. 

Until then, 

A Real Black Man

#race #ethnicity #political correctness #science #biology