LaKiesha Francis with her mother, LaDeana Diver. “I never realized my name was an African-American name because where I grew up we literally had one African-American child during the whole 12 years I had gone there in school,” says Francis, a petite woman who exudes a Midwestern friendliness. The town has one main street and is surrounded by cornfields. She describes it as a “super-quiet” village of more than 300 people, virtually all of them white. Let me see your ID.’”įrancis didn’t know much about the baggage attached to her name where she grew up, and still lives: Pitsburg, Ohio. “If I go to a bar, they’ll say, ‘That’s not your name. “The first thing they’ll say is, ‘That’s not your name,’ or, ‘That’s not a name that suits you,’” she says. Add into that mix names that are traditionally Asian, Latino or, say, Muslim.īut when you move through life with a name that violates those racial and ethnic boundaries, Francis has found that people will often treat you as an imposter. And names favored by black parents, such as Aliyah, DeShawn and Kiara. There are names that seem traditionally reserved for whites only, such as Molly, Tanner and Connor. What she has discovered is that the names of Americans are as segregated as many of their lives. They are those rare white people who can credibly say, “I’ll be black for a minute.” Francis says she’s glimpsed racial stereotyping, what it’s like to face discrimination and even a degree of acceptance from black people that she may have otherwise never known. Comedy Central/YouTubeīut hardly any attention is paid to people like Francis and other white folks with distinctively black names. Comic duo Key & Peele lampooned creative black names in their "East/West College Bowl" clips.
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