Making Neccessary Changes To Secure Your Future

Yesterday I read an interesting blog post about a 19 year old biracial girl legally changing her name from Keisha to Kylie in order to overcome bullying and in hopes of bettering her chances in securing a job. Keisha Austin grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood and was picked on a lot because of her name. Keisha has always felt that her name carried too much of a burden and negative stereotypes when she lived in a neighborhood where she was one of the few people of color. Imagine being asked if your name had a “La” or “Sha” in front of it or your teacher asking you if you spelled your name like “KE$HA”..that’s what Keisha Austin had to grow up with.

“It’s not something I take lightly. I put a lot of thought into it. I don’t believe you should just change your name or your face or anything like that on a whim. I didn’t want to change my name because I didn’t like it. I wanted to change my name because it didn’t feel comfortable. I don’t connect to it. I didn’t feel like myself, but I never want any girls named Keisha, or any name like that, to feel hurt or sad by it.”

“It’s like they assumed that I must be a certain kind of girl,’ she said. ‘Like, my name is Keisha so they think they know something about me, and it always felt negative.”

For an early Christmas gift Keisha’s mother (white) gave Keisha the money to change her name.

It’s no secret that employers look a certain way at ethnic names too. In fact, many African American parents shy away from certain names because they think of their child’s future. I personally shied away from any crazy names or spellings of my child’s name because I wanted him to be given a fair chance on paper. Although I don’t think Keisha is “ghetto” and I happen to know a hand full of white Keisha’s, I can only imagine the pain it must feel growing up uncomfortable with your own name because the society you live in has convinced you that all “Keishas” are hot ghetto messes. Keisha’s mom, who’s name is Cristy, had NO idea how to deal with the criticism and was by no means ready. She raised an obviously mixed child named Keisha in a not-so-mixed neighborhood and was in no way ready to explain to the poor baby the beauty in her name. Then you have to question whether Keisha’s father or even the black side of her family are involved in her life. Where are they to balance out the hate that has manifested inside of her for being black.

I’ll say this, I don’t blame Keisha for changing her name because if you look at the circumstances she was brought up in, it was survival of the fittest. I do have to question what made her mother name her Keisha if she wasn’t prepared to defend her choice.  I will agree however, some parents go completely overboard with the names for their children and I dont think they think of the children’s future when they name them. However, who am I to judge. If the name means something in your heart, have at it.

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