Over the weekend, CNN ignited a debate after they highlighted the story of a woman from a small town in western Ohio with an “ethnic-sounding” name.
LaKeisha Francis is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed bartender who did not know that her name was “stereotypically black,” as her parents believed it was just a beautiful name that they wanted their daughter to have. However, as she grew older, she realized that her “ethnic-sounding name” was making life difficult.
“I was joking with my co-worker one day and said, ‘I’m just going to tell them my name is Emily so I can avoid all of this,”’ Francis says of the comments she receives in response to her name, which range from snickering to disbelief from others due to her appearance.
“So if black-sounding names are looked at with such suspicion, why do some black people persist in using them?” one of the questions raised in the article read. “And where did the practice start in the first place?”
Later in the article, CNN reveals that LaKeisha is married with two kids who bear non-traditional names as well, and that she has “learned to live with being black for a minute.”
“A name doesn’t make a non-Black person ‘Black for a minute,’ that’s a trash take,” wrote one Twitter user in response to the article. Another wrote “I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish with this when black folk faced with ethnic names faced more consequences than a white chick name lakiesha.”
Where do you stand on the topic? Let us know in the comments, and check out a few opinions below.
Read it twice just to make sure I didn’t miss anything the first time. And sure enough it was worse the second time around. A name doesn’t make a non-Black person “Black for a minute,” that’s a trash take. S/n: Jamal while a somewhat common name in the Black community is Arabic. pic.twitter.com/O6HXYeM66M
— IAmDamion🎤 (@themorganrpt) June 16, 2019
I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish with this when black folk faced with ethnic names faced more consequences than a white chick name lakiesha. I’m sure with her complexion she still got the American protection!
— H Boog (@HankDon_1) June 16, 2019
I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish with this when black folk faced with ethnic names faced more consequences than a white chick name lakiesha. I’m sure with her complexion she still got the American protection!
— H Boog (@HankDon_1) June 16, 2019
I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish with this when black folk faced with ethnic names faced more consequences than a white chick name lakiesha. I’m sure with her complexion she still got the American protection!
— H Boog (@HankDon_1) June 16, 2019
I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish with this when black folk faced with ethnic names faced more consequences than a white chick name lakiesha. I’m sure with her complexion she still got the American protection!
— H Boog (@HankDon_1) June 16, 2019
She can change her name. But we can’t change the color of our skin or the hate they have for us.
— Sh (@shersweety) June 16, 2019
