I can't think of a time when a student was given a nickname because others couldn't pronounce his or her name..... I've known many students who shorten other kids' last names for nicknames- but I didn't believe it to be disrespectful- perhaps I am being naive!? I will have to be more cognizant of this!!! I feel like nicknames are almost a sign of a higher level of friendship in a way- but I need to think more about this.
The Hollywood story was thought-provoking. I am pretty sure Ryan Seacrest could learn to pronounce Quvenzhané with a little bit of effort. Of course, I had to read the original source- and sure enough....
The problems with this:
1. That isn’t her name.
2. To my knowledge, neither Quvenzhané nor her family OK’d this nickname.
3. That nickname wasn’t given to her out of love or adoration; it was given out of discomfort around something “other.”
Much different than a higher level of friendship respect!
Further, the article stated that the act of naming and/or re-naming something is absolutely about power and control, and this is something that slave owners knew very well–a standard practice in “seasoning” and “breaking” a slave was assigning them Anglo-Saxon names.
"Acknowledging a person’s self-approved name is to acknowledge the humanity in someone."
She, like every student we teach, is worth the effort of learning how to pronounce their name!!!