Fun with ghetto names

[Elok]

No, my ex teaches in a very diverse neighborhood. I've seen plenty of name like the ones in the OP. I just don't think it's particularly funny. Names are made up. Some were made up thousands of years ago. Some were made up ten years ago. /me shrugs.

While I agree it's not terribly funny--Doc's right that those kids are probably going in the resume round-file in ten years, but that's just one more reason why it's not funny--I think it's more complicated than that. I picked two really odd names for my son, not just for originality's sake but because those names have a special meaning, to our church and to me in particular. Someday, when he's old enough to understand, I'll sit down with him and explain why I saddled him with "Lazarus Maximus." It'd be nice if names like Shay'kwonda or whatever meant something, but I seriously think they don't. The kid's parent or parents just picked some random set of African-ish or pseudo-French syllables that sounded good and called it a name. I was named for an ancestor from the seventeenth century. My brother's middle name was the name of both of his grandfathers. And these kids get some random gibberish; seems like a raw deal to me.

Re: the study Al cited, I'm not sure it's a sign of 100% racism. I mean, yes, there's some racism there, but there's probably a class element as well, because a lot of names we think of as "black" are actually more "lower-class black," while stereotypically white names may have a middle-class or even posh connotation. To put it another way, I think Tyrone, Jamal and Shamiqua get ignored more than Cody, Hunter and Cyndi, but neither group does very well.

[Donegeal]

Wow Doc. This is incredibly stupid. Welcome back to my ignore list.

[Captain ******* Kirk]

PC my ass. You are a racist fuck.

QFT

[giblets]

'Maximus'? His middle name is 'Maximus'?

[notyoueither]

Better than Minimus.

[Elok]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_the_Confessor

[DinoDoc]

Christ! What an ass!

[Sava]

used my thanks already

DD

[Tuberski]

used my thanks already

DD

Used mine for ya!

ACK!

[regexcellent]

Naming your kids dumb ghetto names is dumb and bad for their futures but I'm not going to give DFG the benefit of the doubt here on just plain being racist.

The insistence of poor urban blacks on diverging from mainstream American culture with stupid names for their kids and mangled language only serves to prolong their endemic poverty and marginalization.

I have a few black friends at RIT who are in CS or other computing programs, and we have a couple black cadets in the ROTC battalion here. None of them have "ghetto" names, probably because their parents are middle class and understand that people, for better or worse, carry preconceptions about those with names like DeShawn and Precious.

edit: THAT SAID, I don't have anything against people who might have those names, but I think it's somewhat irresponsible for parents to give them those names.

[Docfeelgood]

****, is this another thing no one ever told you? DFG, Santa Claus isn't real, and names are made up.

I didn't understand what you were trying to explain, that's all.

[Docfeelgood]

Not being racist isn't "politically correct" nowadays. It's just correct. It was always correct. Good thing is that old racist twatburgers are a dying breed.

DFG, if you have kids, I would imagine you are the racist old asswipe that they apologize for. You are the guy at the end of the Thanksgiving dinner table that everyone is forced to put up with. You are used as an example (or will be) to their kids of how things used to be... before they got better.

So please. Don't ever change.

Thank god you don't reproduce

[Docfeelgood]

Christ! What an ass!

Thank You, I work hard to keep my buns tight.

BTW
Sorry, I'm not your type. Don't do the man on man thing but thanks for the compliment.

[Docfeelgood]

While I agree it's not terribly funny--Doc's right that those kids are probably going in the resume round-file in ten years, but that's just one more reason why it's not funny--I think it's more complicated than that. I picked two really odd names for my son, not just for originality's sake but because those names have a special meaning, to our church and to me in particular. Someday, when he's old enough to understand, I'll sit down with him and explain why I saddled him with "Lazarus Maximus." It'd be nice if names like Shay'kwonda or whatever meant something, but I seriously think they don't. The kid's parent or parents just picked some random set of African-ish or pseudo-French syllables that sounded good and called it a name. I was named for an ancestor from the seventeenth century. My brother's middle name was the name of both of his grandfathers. And these kids get some random gibberish; seems like a raw deal to me.

Re: the study Al cited, I'm not sure it's a sign of 100% racism. I mean, yes, there's some racism there, but there's probably a class element as well, because a lot of names we think of as "black" are actually more "lower-class black," while stereotypically white names may have a middle-class or even posh connotation. To put it another way, I think Tyrone, Jamal and Shamiqua get ignored more than Cody, Hunter and Cyndi, but neither group does very well.

Ther is nothing wrong with "Lazarus Maximus." Good strong name with meaning.

BTW
My third son's middel name is "Orion", first nam Tristan. If you star gaze as I do then you know what this means.

[Docfeelgood]

Naming your kids dumb ghetto names is dumb and bad for their futures but I'm not going to give DFG the benefit of the doubt here on just plain being racist.

The insistence of poor urban blacks on diverging from mainstream American culture with stupid names for their kids and mangled language only serves to prolong their endemic poverty and marginalization.

I have a few black friends at RIT who are in CS or other computing programs, and we have a couple black cadets in the ROTC battalion here. None of them have "ghetto" names, probably because their parents are middle class and understand that people, for better or worse, carry preconceptions about those with names like DeShawn and Precious.

concur

How is pointing out stupid ghetto names racist?