What's really in a name?

I haven't written in a while because the pressures of graduating school have been weighing on me lately, but today was my final class, and I won't get back to it for another few weeks. So now I have time to think about more important things...blog topics for example. I do have a few blogs that are "in draft" mode, and I may publish them shortly...maybe.

With my juniors we are reading Assata. For those of you that aren't familiar, Assata was a black panther who served time for alledgedly killing a NJ police officers. She escaped in 1986 and has been in Cuba since. A few weeks ago, the US raised her bounty to$1 million. Not sure why they would do this now, well I'm a little sure, but won't get into that now. Anyway, her autobiography is really good and the kids are really into it. Last week we discussed a chapter about self-identity, and we started talking about different things that create our identities. We had some very good discussions about education, class, the clothes we wear, hair, and NAMES. Assata changed her name from JoAnne Chesimard to Assata Shakur, which has significant meaning. Assata means "she who struggles" and I can't recall what Shakur means right now. Anyway, her name shaped a discussion about how names may or may not say something about who we are as individuals. We talked about how names sometimes are the representation of the complete opposite of the people who have those names, and how some people "live up" to their names. It was a really interesing discussion. Today I received an email from a friend that contained an article that is titled "Exotic Names Don't Make Grade for Black Students." The article basically says that black kids with "exotic" or "unusual" names don't do as well in school as black students with more "common" names. David Figlio, economist and the University of Florida says "This study suggests that the names parents give their children play an important role in explaining why African-American families on average do worse because African Americans are more inclined that whites or Hispanics to give their children names that are associated with low soci0-economic status." WTF??? It goes on to say that children with exotic names are less likely to get into gifted and talented programs, because many teachers associate "exotic" names with poor academic performance. So what are these names you may ask??? Names that begin with certain prefixes like "lo" (i think that was a typo...i think they meant la..don't know any names that start with "lo"), "ta," and "qua." The study also shows that names are partly to explain the gap between black and white standardized test scores. Now I have an "unusual" or "exotic" name by these standards, and know a lot of black intellectuals with these names, and I have to say this is bullshit. So how do I feel about this? Can't say I'm thrilled about it at all, and that has nothing to do with the fact that my name would be deemed "exotic" according to these standards. I wonder what my kids will have to say about this. And who defines what is "exotic" and "common?" I guess those will be questions I pose to my class tomorrow. And by faithful blog readers, I wonder how you feel about this? Are any of you just as disturbed as I am???