Titus 🤟🏽

called out

growth of a seed

nature is raw af

REPRESENTATION MATTERS.

The racist practice of mispronouncing names

The other day a man came to install my internet in my new house and he told me about his wife. He said her name fast and then said “she usually goes by Mia though” and I thought about this post and wondered if the reason she went by Mia was because of the pronunciation thing. He said people thought his wife’s name was difficult. I asked him to repeat it literally one time, and then I said it. It wasn’t difficult. And then I got mad that I was right, because people shouldn’t have to change their names for the sake of others. I told him “people just need to try harder,” and his face lit up and he said “exactly!” And I think it made his day. This post genuinely helped me in real life make a positive change. A little effort goes a long way

They do this with white people who have non “English” names too. It’s like people have a set group of names that are acceptable and anything outside that is just not able to register in their tiny brains. My daughter is Saoirse, it’s Irish, it is pronounced Sear-sha, we currently live in Britain and no matter how many times she and I try to teach people how to say it she gets called Sarah or at best Sur-sha. It’s laziness. Ireland has more names like this and English speakers refuse to learn them. I cannot imagine what it is like with people from other cultures if they do this with a language and culture they try to pretend they own or are a part of.

I know we’ve had some questions about how to handle it when your name gets mispronounced. So I just thought I’d share these wonderful lessons about having pride in your name and how wrong it is when other people don’t make the effort to learn.