And I never even knew it.
Names like Mindy Kaling’s kids’ are often a result of parents always hearing theirs mispronounced
The decision to change one’s name to better assimilate in America can be based in experiences of name-based microaggressions, defined as name mispronunciations, renaming practices and the diminishment of names of ethnic and religious origin based in majority ethnic figures’ either conscious or subconscious beliefs that non-American names are an inconvenience within Western society.
Nobody outside of the family pronounces my surname correctly the first time; and often not the second, third, fourth… yadda yadda. It’s a German name, but even in Germany no one got it right because it comes from a very old regional dialect.
Other than the childish slurs in elementary school, I never sweated that. I used it. If I met someone I wanted to get to get along with, I used the difficulty with my name as an excuse to get on a first name basis immediately.
If the person was an asshole, or I needed leverage over them, I’d insist on them saying, “Mr. Bussjaeger,” and flatly correcting their mispronunciations over and over.
But now I see the light. It was all microaggressions the whole, not merely difficulties with an unfamiliar word/name.
I demand reparations.
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