The spelling of my name is a very Ghetto spelling. I welcome them both, and never want to be separated from either of them for as long as white supremacy exists. Anderson .Paak once said in a 2016 interview, when asked why he has a period before the start of his last name, that “the...
Tag: identity
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Women and Femmes Unite: A Structural and Political Analysis of Femininity
Women and femmes are not the same, but they are intertwined, and its exactly that mutual oppression and shared experience under patriarchy that has led activists today to identify “women and femmes” in their organizing spaces. [Editor’s Note: This analysis is being re-published with permission from B.B. Buchanan’s Medium page.] By B.B. Buchanan I need to start...
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I Have No Shame In My Difficult Black Girl Name
I wish that my name, and the rest of my existence, was untouched by white colonialism. My name has nine letters and three syllables, and is an amalgamation of the names of my parents: Shirley and Ronald. It is not hard to pronounce for most able-minded and able-bodied adults with typical linguistic capabilities. Most children...
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How Sexuality Is Crucial For Intersectionality: An Introduction
Ask Cam is not going to be a sexuality column that you’re used to – it is a space where sex and intersectionality are not divided but welcomed together. As intersectionality becomes more of a buzzword and an opportunity for mainstream (*ahem* white feminism) to co-opt Black-specific labor, I can’t help but see similarities between social...
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The Complicated and Sometimes Racist History of Referring to South Asians as “East Indian”
“East Indian” is a remnant of archaic geopolitical Eurocentric positioning and shouldn’t be used at all in a modern context, unless you are talking about people from the eastern part of India. Once upon a time, in the year 1492, a Portuguese sailor set off into the west, convinced that he had found a new...
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How Changing My Name Gave Me a Deeper Respect for the Resistance Trans Folks Face
There’s no doubt that so much of our identity is wrapped up in our name. Studies have shown how insidiously institutionalized racism and sexism appear when changing the gender or apparent race of a job applicant’s name. Economists have done studies on how people with African-American sounding names will be less likely to receive job...