Heavy Names

“Give your daughters difficult names.
Names that command the full use of the tongue.
My name makes you want to tell me the truth.
My name does not allow me to trust anyone
who cannot pronounce it right.”

 Warsan Shire

“But I need a job. I need a call back. I need an opportunity for an interview. And my name, as strong as it is soft, is heavy.”

“to the black girls with the heavy names
that make them feel ashamed and wish they could change.
sister.
love your name.
even if it’s as long as a thesis.
correct them when they say it wrong
then
watch them become speechless.”

Nyakour

“But I need a chance. I need a call back. I need the space between ancestral dreams and present reality. I need the safety of a name safe enough for resumes. Scholarships. Business proposals. But my name, deeply rooted in heritage I can’t quite reach and stories I’ve not yet heard, is heavy.

This week alone, my name died a thousand deaths on unyielding tongues. I did not have to read the statistics to know that applicants with non-traditional monikers are 50% less likely to get interviews, even when their resumes are identical to those with normative names. I am living that statistic daily. I carry it with me wherever I go. Its weight, my shackles in this foreign land as much as it is my roots. My name, my calling as much as it is another closed door between me and a new opportunity, is HEAVY.”

To all the girls with heavy names
Correct them
when they say your name wrong then watch their tongue stumble
over its own discomfort
as it tries to find its footing
on a land it cannot steal

Elisabet Velasquez

“Still, it is my name. It is my “reminder that although I am far from home, home is still calling me by my name” (Nyakour). I have carried its weight for years. Together, we have survived the awkward stages of it not fitting me until I realize that I must grow to fit it. Together, we have mastered the balance of that weight: sometimes as a shield, other times as a crown. It is my name, and my love for it – buried deep within me – is complicated and heavy.”

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Originally published August 4, 2020 Dannemart Pierre (danneunscripted). This post is part of a series for a course on Diversity and Social Justice in Higher Education.