Black people catch a lot of shade from their names. Whether you have a “black name” or a “white name,” these struggles are just part of being black.
When People Think You Have a White Name
In Season 4 of 30 Rock, they came up with a joke about a white man named Wesley Snipes. When Liz Lemon made fun of the Wesley character’s name, he said:
It’s insane that the actor Wesley Snipes has that name! Look. If you saw a picture of him, and a picture of me, and you were asked “Who should be named Wesley Snipes?” You’d pick the stuffy Englishman every time! Every time, Liz!
When we have “black names” white people shade us for being ignorant. When we have “white names” that reflect the country we’ve lived in for several hundred years, we’re trying to be like white people. It’s impossible to win.
