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Y’all need to put some respect on Black people’s names.

As a Black woman with a traditionally “ghetto” name, I’ve experienced far too much shame and discrimination, and enough is enough. If you have a name like mine, no doubt you’ve had a basic Becky go out of her way to pronounce it in the exact opposite fashion. Meanwhile, she has no problem pronouncing "Tchaikovsky" or showing off somebody else’s indigenous language she picked up while volunteering abroad.

What hurts the most is when it comes from our own community.

Too many Black people have snickered at another Black name for being too "ghetto." Just so we are clear, there is not a thing wrong with being ghetto. We should know by now; there is a difference between being ghetto and ratchet. Ratchet is negative, ghetto is not. Being ghetto means nothing more than you grew up in a condensed urban area and you share some similar cultural traits to the people around you, which often include good things: loyalty to your friends and family, love for your community and an innate creative spirit from making something out of nothing. The ghetto is a birth-place of plenty of the things y’all like. It's not up for debate.

Get it? Good. Let’s dig deeper.

While people are flagrantly belittling Black names, I’ve frequently heard the defense, “but the names don’t mean anything.”

That’s some bull.

Ghetto names mean just as much as the names “Ashley” or “Steven” do. Please, let’s stop acting like just because it is an English (or white) name, it holds some wonderful meaning that is inherently better than the meaning of a name we create ourselves. Just because you can Google it, doesn’t make it more legitimate. In reality, if you share a name with a billion other people, the meaning is not all that significant anymore. I’m just being real. I’m not trying to shade anyone with a basic name, but if that stung, well, now you see my point.

Assuming a Black person’s name has no meaning just because it’s not a European name, or even a name that sounds like it is non-English, is racist. Period.

People who think my name means nothing also seem to assume I am uneducated. Internalized white supremacy is not talked about enough. Colorism and texturisim have made an appearance most recently, but we need to dig deeper and call out the internalized disdain for anything associated with Blackness. It has to stop, for the self-esteem of our children and for our right to be free, creative individuals.

My government name is Danisha. It’s a simpler name, yet somehow pronounced incorrectly all the time. On top of that, as soon as someone reads or hears my name, they assign judgment about who I am, where I’m from and the mama who named me. As a teenager, I went by “Dani” to avoid being judged by my name and to avoid constantly correcting people. I changed that when I went to work for an urban middle school.

My students needed to meet a “Danisha.” I had to make the conscious decision to reject internalized racism and go by my full name so that the next Danisha can come through and be herself. I wanted my students to see somebody who not only looks like them, but someone who speaks their native language and has a name like theirs, out here serving the community. Representation is more than just getting a brown-skinned person in the door. Our names are so important to our identity and need to be celebrated and elevated. Furthermore, the days of us going back to nicknames to make it easy for white people need to end. It's laziness not to learn someone's name properly. That's it and that's all.

I have yet to meet someone with a creative name that doesn’t have a story attached. Even if there is no deep history behind their name, it is their name. Refusing to acknowledge and respect their name is erasing a major part of that person's identity. In a world where we often have to conform to ascend to the top, it is a double-wound to be ridiculed by your own community for who you are.

In my very convicted opinion, naming your child Jessica so they might have more job prospects is too much of a concession to white supremacy. I understand that it is a real concern; studies show that it is statistically proven that ethnic-sounding names face discrimination in hiring practices. However, we should be teaching our children that Blackness is not less than. Naming your child a Black/African-sounding name back in the ‘90s was a radical act against assimilation. I would argue that naming your child a name of your own creation is the same thing; especially when it is an obviously ethnic-sounding name. Instead of teaching your children to change themselves to fit into this society, let’s empower them to be unapologetically themselves.

I am completely over bougie people and their “proper” English and “proper” names. Learn all of the English grammar you want and you will still be a Black person trying to assimilate into a culture and heritage which will never be yours.

As we work to decriminalize Black bodies and other aspects of our humanity, let’s start putting respect on our names.

The World Is Yours Always

Writing since February 2022 · 1 story contributed