SALAS' POINT

In a blistering attack against the poor, "Uncle Bill Cosby" foamed at the mouth when he said that blacks with names like "Shaniqua, Taliqua, and Muhammad and all that crap, and all of them are in jail." According to Dyson, "Cosby is the first to lash out at poor black youth . . . for what seems to be the infernal nonsense of their names." Dyson says that often the black elite feel threatened by these black names because the white elite does not approve. The black elitist classes feel the "stares of white disapproval." Gosh Mr. Cosby, sorry we made whites look at you.

Dyson points out that back during slavery the masters often tried to strip away black African identity by naming blacks after animals. Names like "Jumper, Bossey or Postilion" are examples. African were given biblical names, often against their will and sometimes named after Greek gods. This mockery by White slavers tried to denigrate blacks by naming them "Hercules, Cato, Othello, and Claudius." If a black appeared to be "particularly dumb" he would be named Plato or Socrates. What is interesting is the naming process that came from Africa which involved great celebrations at the naming of a child. Black slaves tried to preserve their African customs by waiting seven days before naming a child. Their names would reflect important events that surrounded the birth of a child. They were named for the month they were born in like "April, June and August." Some would be named for times of the day they were born, like "Morning."

According to Dyson, names like Becky were kept because they sounded like "Beke" from the African tribal system. After slavery some Blacks changed their last names to names that reflected their status. Names like "Freeman, Newman, Freeland, and Liberty" were adopted. Some chose surnames that identified their color like "Brown." Not all Black surnames came from the slave master and its institutions, but from inventive rebellion against a racist white culture. Children from other African customs were named after events at the time of birth, like "Blossom, Storm, Cotton, and Freeze" and others. Some names were rather fantastic and may have been the result of trying to remember African survival pronunciations. Names like Limmer, Eldeese, Agenora, and Orlaydo" are examples.

In the 1960s, names that reflected the loss of African identity became names like "Malcolm X," while Stokely Carmichael became "Kwame Toure." Thomas Meloncon, the famous African American playwright from Houston became "Muntu." When Bill Cosby hypocritically critized the black poor for names like "Shaniqua," he never said anything about names like "Oprah." And, according to Dyson, there is nothing more "ghetto" than a name like "Condoleeza!" A lady without leadership skills by the way. What about "Shaquille?" To be sure some racist minded employers screen applicants based on race by the images that they conjure up. When whites hear names like Tashika they conjure up images of drugs, floppy shoes, Black Entertainment Television (BET) negative jive, and other negatives media images. These images are formed by the "Colonial Matrix," a term I like to use. Nevertheless, many African Americans refuse to be cowed by persistent forms of racism. For many African Americans, these name choices represent a rebuttal to Americanization (the whitening of America), and resistance to the stripping of their culture. Just ask "Oprah" Mr. Cosby!

Bill Cosby has shown a propensity to make films and TV shows that portray a mythical color blindness, according to Dyson. I would agree. Racism has not gone away Mr. Huxtable! Huxtables were the surnames of the mythical black characters that lived "high on the hog," like few African Americans can. I am still looking for a Black Huxtable. Whites viewed the Cosby Show as if there were no reason for Blacks to be complaining, for these false images were projected as if it were the norm of Black family life-the colonial matrix illusion. Mr. Cosby, come down off of your high horse, or out of the make believe world of illusion (take a red pill!), and realize that just because you have money and are the object of white colonial love, does not exempt you from racism, or make you an expert on political and sociological issues! Gosh Mr. Cosby, with a name like "Bill" it’s easy to stay in the good graces of white folk!