I have once again been influenced by the remake of Roots , as I was by the first version. I once thought about changing my name, haunted in some ways by the identity distance between my legal name and my early ancestors.
As in Roots 1 and Roots 2 identity and ancestry are currents of pathos, joy, angst and understanding. The comment below by my good yet recent friend David Cedric Rico, Yale Class of 2016 (See Below) reminds me that the striving for self expression and personal authentic branding is a desire that we all share.
Whose your daddy, where are you from, why does the state have some power over whether you can legally change your name?
Be it societal or personal , whether one identifies as a one particular chromosome or another, language certainly conveys the appearance for some apparition for others of circumstantial personal power.
Another good friend recently remarked that the difference between critique and criticism has been lost in public discourse.
For me all communication(internal thoughts and external public record pronouncement) is emotional unwrapping available via either reflective insight or external recognition.
My nig or or your saltine semblance, my code or your ignorance, by chosen camouflage or your surveillance does seem to make the world go round.
My black coworker explains that 'nigga' is his favorite word. Tells me that he loves calling Asians and white people 'nigga', has all the kitchen staff call him that. I tell him that I wont say it, its' history is too heavy to sit inside my mouth. He calls bullshit, says it was just another word invented by another person. I still refuse. He makes sure to say it real loud with the white coworkers whenever I'm around. Smiles at me. I stare back. I know that he was born in the deep south, family left him as a child, in his hood they'll kill you for a car. Me, I read about this shit in a text book. So who's the fool; the man who swallows trauma like a party trick, or the boy who spent 4 years locked in a castle tower.
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