There Was a Time

A few years ago, MadBlogger and I had a conversation about baby names. Finding a name for our eldest son was easy. When his gender was revealed, the decision was made. He would be named Carmelo after his late grandfather, my dad. As for our youngest, well, let's just say his name was "Baby Boy" for a little over twenty four hours before the name Ajani was decided upon. We have no girls so we started with girl names. Maybe on our next try, we will have a girl, I thought. MadBlogger suggested the name Nyabinghi. We could call her Nya for short. At first I thought, "cool." Within five minutes I came up with five unintelligent reasons not to name my future daughter Nyabinghi:

She will be be unable to obtain a job with that name.

My family  will make jokes instantly.

Nyabinghi is similar to my middle name which I disliked for a long time...

It was then that I realized that I have assimilated into this person who was ashamed of her culture. 

There was a time when I let society as well as the reactions of others affect important personal decisions that I made daily. The reality that I am no different than those who are uneducated about their cultural background simply because I was denying mine. I was just as confused as my son was when he asked "Why am I this color?"

Unconcious thoughts are our biggest oppressors. I'm making a conscious decision to claim victory over those thoughts.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

Happy MLK Day!

-Shay Nefeteria

PC:coollastname.com