<p>10 points for political correctness Mr. Tubbz :)</p>
<p>daAlfred, Katiesha and LaJonathan sound better anyway</p>
<p>Groenveld9- what are you saying? Political correct meaning? those names sound better meaning?</p>
<p>Laquatifah (I guess her mom idolized queen latifah?)</p>
<p>“I don’t think talking about ridiculous names is racist.” </p>
<p>Of course it isn’t. Of course, talking about ridiculous BLACK names, is.</p>
<p>If the title of this thread was Asian or White names no one would have said anything.</p>
<p>I am so tired or people thinking it’s okay to make fun of people for being white or asian, but not okay to make fun of black people.</p>
<p>–LaJonathan.</p>
<p>CNN did a report on this issue once. What they did was they sent in two job application to various companies. Both resumes from both applicants were identical, meaning both had similar levels of job experience and education. Of course the only difference was in the name, I believe one of them was Lafonda and the other was Leann (but I may be wrong). Without ever seeing the actual applicants in person, the company chose Leann over Laura. I’m guessing this was name discrimination.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s okay to make fun of people for being white or Asian. I see no reason to make fun of African-Americans. But I’ll be damned if I’m not supposed to find humor in the name Clitoria Trembull. She could be green or someone’s dog and that name is funny because the name is funny, not because she’s black. In fact, the skin color is irrelevant to the humor behind the name.</p>
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<p>It is specified though that they are black names. Which means that you are making fun of another culture because it seems “ridiculous” to you. This is racist.</p>
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<p>I don’t think its ok for people to make fun of Asian names, and if this was a thread about Asian names and was about how “ridiculous” it was to have children named “Akira” or some other Asian cultural name, it would indeed be a very racist thread and I’m sure many would have strongly objected. Unless of course it was a group of Asians themselves, in a non-serious way (that is to say in the non-self-disparaging way).</p>
<p>The problem is that this thread appears to be a bunch of people who aren’t African-American making fun of African-American culture in a rather disparaging way… and people are clearly taking offense.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the connection you’re making. The original post says one thing. I actually replied to it. From there the thread has mostly been about ridiculous names. I just read back from the beginning and maybe people are reading the first post and superimposing that on top of the other comments that are picking up on the names and not tied to race. Many of the posts make a point that the race is unknown or irrelevant or that their message covers many ethnicities.</p>
<p>I don’t see anyone “making fun of African-American culture” – which is a big stretch from lots of posts about peculiar and humorous names. Apart from the first post, the focus is on funny names, not black names. Perhaps people are leaping to conclusions and assuming that funny names = black names. If that’s where the stereotyping comes in, it’s not from the people who are focused on the humor here. The people who are posting here to laugh at humorous names are interested in humor without regard to race. The people who have been fretting over racism are the ones insistent on there being a direct correlation between ridiculous names and ethnicity.</p>
<p>I find those names fascinating, as an ongoing process in African American culture. I find the La and D’ prefixes interesting…wonder what the origin of those is? You can see trends in general American baby names online. There are a few that seem to always survive like Emily and Frank and Thomas and Michael. Most of those persist because many Americans name their children after themselves or thier relatives. But over the years, the most popular names change. 70 years ago we might have found Joane and Doris and Joyce. In the 50’s we would have found Janet. Now we’re seeing Navaeh, Madison, Brittney, Courtney, Ava…most of them new or never really popular before. The “new” African American names don’t appear on those top 20 lists, probably because they are unique. I love the individual creativity of those names. Just as I was one of 5 or 6 girls in my 5th grade classroom with my common Irish Catholic name, these kids have a chance to stand out. Nice.</p>
<p>“Pierre” believe it or not is a common Africa American name as well, despite its french origin. I find it awesome.</p>
<p>Oh stop with the racist garbage. This thread is about names I hate how people take something so innocent and blow it WAAAAAAAY out of proportion. This thread has nothing to do with Black Americans or African Americans or what ever black people like to be called in America its about the origin of ghetto names. </p>
<p>Anyways to the OP I am not sure how it started. I am going to go out on a limb and say they wanted to sound more sophisticated and mingle with the middle and upper class of society. I know personally when I see a French name it gives off a feel of sophistication kind of like when I hear a British accent. Most of the ghetto names you see are in fact French. I read some where that Latisha is a French name and if you say some ghetto names in a French accent they don’t sound so bad.</p>
<p>jhe quaqe jene’ temei pleu? Weren’t parts of Africa (upper north west) once under French rule? For instance if you visit Pakistan, you’ll find many streets with English names because of their once domination under British Rule. My point is, maybe the early French rule could have influenced the African American culture…maybe thats why " 'D, La, Sha, Le, " are so common. Just my theory.</p>
<p>Ahh, yes, just remembered a long jumper from Nationals when I was in high school named I-Perfection Harris from Poly Prep in New York. Kid was an unbelievable long jumper, I think he might’ve won nationals junior and senior year, so his name suited him.</p>
<p>EDIT: And my roommate is friends with a kid named Ja,mes. Yes, it’s a comma in his name and not an apostrophe and it’s pronounced JAH-MEEZ.</p>
<p>Immaculate Perfection Harris plays for Georgia Tech now: <a href=“http://ramblinwreck.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/harris_iperfection00.html[/url]”>http://ramblinwreck.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/harris_iperfection00.html</a></p>
<p>Your roommate is friends with Ja,mes? Well that’s much easier to believe than your earlier claim that you know of twins named Lemonjello and Orangejello (a long-time fable that’s famous for the “I know someone who knows someone…” preface it’s usually associated with): <a href=“http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FOAF[/url]”>Urban Dictionary: FOAF;
<p>The Title of the thread is “Black Names” not ridiculous names unless you equate 'black names: with being ridiculous. IF you read through the first two pages you can read posts mocking African American culture. As I said earlier I do not find it to be funny, rather I think it is highly offensive. African-American names are indicative of a unique culture that’s not fully African or American, it’s a reminder of the vicious legacy of slavery and white sepremacy, and frankly I don’t find it to be a laughing matter. If the post was titiled ridiculous names,then I wouldn’t have a problem with it as long as some of the names mentioned were from Anglo-Saxon, Mexican,Asian and other cultures. With that being said, I never realized the impact the French had on the ‘ghetto names’-that’s interesting and something that I will look into.</p>
<p>The evolution of this thread went from Black Names -> Made-up Names -> Ridiculous Names. I don’t think it completely went from a discussion of Black names to stupid names. Somebody mentioned how many Black names seemed made up on the spot, then somebody else mentioned “orangejello” and then it diverged from the original discussion to a celebration of the absurd.</p>
<p>I have another question: if a Black parent names their child Ja,Mes or anything in the same vein, do they have a right of complaining when society treats him differently, knowing that while society accepts a certain level of uniqueness/ethnicity in names, there are certain boundaries? Every ethnic group knows there are certain names that are disadvantageous. For example, a White kid named Melvin Eugene will probably get beat up a lot at school. An Asian kid named No Wang will be in misery for a good deal of his life. So when a Black parent names their kid a name heavily associated with ghetto culture, then cries discrimination when that child tries to seamlessly blend in in a non-ghetto setting, is that right?</p>
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<p>I know the joke, but the Orangejello/Lemonjello kids were from New York and ran track also five or six years ago. I wish I remembered their last name, I think it might’ve been Keatts or Keats or something like that, though.</p>
<p>EDIT: Ja,mes works with my roommate doing construction in the summer in Cincinatti.</p>
<p>do they have a right of complaining when society treats him differently, knowing that while society accepts a certain level of uniqueness/ethnicity in names, there are certain boundaries? </p>
<p>I do because one’s name should have no influence on how one is treated, unless one culture is inferior than others. But how many black kids are truly given these names? For example, my mom had me as a teenager but my name is Michael. I don’t think those names make up the majority of the names of African Americans, so yes if any group is treated unfairly, regardless of cultural differences, they have the right to complain.</p>