What's In a Name?

On The Blogger’s Roundtable on NPR’s News and Notes, Lauren Williams of Stereohyped, Jozen Cummings of King, and Desmond Burton of Afronerd, discussed the controversial police shooting of unarmed woman 26-year-old named Tarika Wilson and her 1-year-old child in Lima, Ohio.

But, well, okay. We’ll let you read.

Burton: … In looking at that story, I saw pit bulls being mentioned; drug dealing; stereotypical, underclass Afrocentric names — those kind of things. No one really wants to talk about it. I feel that we have to speak honestly about what is actually happening with some of our underclass black folk …

Farai Chideya: Don’t tell me you are blaming Afrocentric names.

Burton: … If we’re going to talk about LaKiesha, TryKiesha, LoKiesha, there’s a constant theme we’re seeing with these kind of stories. I think that we’re going to have to really be honest about what’s happening with some of these communities.

You can listen to the whole discussion here. (The conversation containing this quote begins at around the 11-minute mark.)

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.

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  • Desmond Burton? He must be Jamaican.

  • desmond burton

    Actually I am african american…and not of caribbean extraction

  • Self-Google, much?

    (I’m pretty sure she was joking.)

    Would you mind going into greater detail about the connection you made between what you termed ‘inauthentic African-sounding names’ and stories like Tarika Wilson’s?

  • Yeah, I was kind of kidding. I’m half-Jamaican, and that comment sounded like something people on that side of the fam would say…

  • LH

    Lauren Williams seemed put-off by the suggestion that Tarika Wilson’s choice to date an alleged drug-dealer may have had something to do with her fate. I think this is a glaring example of valuing sociocultural correctness at the expense of honesty. When and why did this come to be en vogue, and what has it benefitted anyone?

    The idea that “what is happening with some of our underclass black folk,” is related to their names has traction if the discussion is about getting a job or applying for an apartment lease. But the suggestion that Tarika Wilson was killed because of her name strains credulity. I would be interested to read Burton explain the connection between Wilson’s name and what happened to her.

  • Actually, I’m not put off by the suggestion that dating a drug dealer was related to her fate. It obviously was — if that guy hadn’t been her boyfriend the police would have never stormed her house looking for him and shot her and her baby in the process. It’s common sense. I’m not put off by the suggestion that we should look at Tarika Wilson’s story as yet another example of a major societal problem. We should! I AM put off by the suggestion that we should shrug aside her death because of her association with a drug dealer or ignore the fact that the police in this town somehow murdered a woman who was not under criminal investigation. They also shot her BABY. She made poor choices, but her life had value.

  • LH

    @ Lauren: Did anyone actually suggest that or you superimposing an inference you made on what people actually said or didn’t say? I’m not being argumentative or combative, mind you. I’m interested in isolating the suggestion you took issue with.

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