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In the wake of the hullaballoo over folks refusing to say Quvenzhané Wallis’ name got me to thinking: what’s the most hilarious/horrifying experience people have had regarding their “unconventional” or “ethnic” names? Here’s how Twitter responded. [View the story “A Quvenzhané by Any Other Name…” on Storify] Got any stories/gripes of your own? Post ’em Read More

Refusing to learn how to pronounce Quvenzhané’s name says, pointedly, you are not worth the effort. The problem is not that she has an unpronounceable name, because she doesn’t. The problem is that white Hollywood, from Ryan Seacrest and his homies to the AP reporter who decided to call her “Annie” rather than her real name, doesn’t deem her as important as, say, Renee Zellwegger, or Zach Galifinakis, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, all of whom have names that are difficult to pronounce–but they manage.