Is there more to a name than just the name?

I was looking for something to blog about, when I went onto the cnn website today and found an article entitled Does you name shape your destiny?. When I began to read it I found that it talked about whether or not the name you are given has an impact on things such as your. According to the article people with "black-sounding" names such as Lakisha and Jamal are 50 percent less likely to receive a call back for a job interview compared to "white-sounding" names such as Emily or Greg." I found this interesting because it related to TV Tokenism that Mr. Bolos had talked about. Something he didn't address but I would be interested to learn about would be the names of the characters who represent the minorities. It seems to me that is there is a black man who is playing the role of police cheif, he is less likely to have a "black sounding" name than a black man playing a role of the criminal. Examples of this that I found was from "24", the president's name is Dennis Palmer, a very "white sounding" name and from Grey's Anatomy with the token asian character being names "Christina".

Not only did the article talk about how a person's name can influence their lives both negatively and positively, but it talked about the growing diversity of names. Even the most popular names now don't represent as many people as they used to. As the article points out, parents now don't want their children to fit in with society, they want them to stand out and be different. Names now need to have a special meaning like the name "Nevaeh"which is heaven spelled backwards. This made me think of our discussions on class. We watched the video about class and how lower classes had to learn how to act and be part of the upper class. Classes in America aren't just about how much money you make, they have become socially distinct. Names have a lot to do with this, you won't find many "black sounding" names in upper class family. Now, with names beceoming more diverse I believe that names won't be as influential in playing a role in class. We looked at the interactive chart that Mr. Bolos showed us that showed the popularity of names in America. But now with more diverse names I don't think that emplyers will be able make such judgements only based on a person's name because they will come across a name they have never heard before and won't have a preconcieved opion about the name.

What do you think? How much influence do you think names have?

American Studies Day

Even though American Studies Day was almost five days ago, it seems that everything I consume relates back to this day. I thought the Day was a perfect way to help cap off a wonderful year in the class that I felt I have gown the most in. After American Studies Day i discovered that my older sister often attends Slam Poetry events in her college town of St. Paul. This excited me because I enjoyed the Slam Poets that came so much and want to attend the Louder Than A Bomb festival next year. In fact Thursday night I went home and found this clip on YouTube:


I have watched this clip several time and continue to get goosebumps.

Another encounter I have had with American Studies Day has to do with Mr. B's TV Tokenism. One of my favorite shows is Friday Night Lights. The fourth season recently started and Saturday Afternoon I sat down at my computer to watch the episode I had missed. While watching it I witnessed the very thing we had talked about the day before. Although I cannot figure out embed a clip from Hulu, I can send you to this link and tell you to start watching at 23:40 and continue watching until 25:54.

The "token" black character in the scene is referred to as being some kind of  "voodoo" women. This is exactly how the medical examiner in CSI was referred to from the clip we waatched in class and both characters are black. I think this strengthens Mr. B's argument because of the similarities between the two scenes. Just as Mr. B argues, minority characters although being put in positions of authority are the roles are very 2-dimentional. Something else that I noticed in this scene was that the "token" black character was actually very fair skinned. She fulfilled the requirement of a minority in the show but has fair skin and looks "white".