Surname discrimination still prevalent in today's society

In an effort to bring together young girls for the future of female advancement and empowerment, Glamour Magazine and Orange is the New Black actress Uzo Aduba hosted the International Day of the Girl rally last month, where Aduba delivered a speech that earned her a standing ovation.

When using her opening keynote speech to discuss the reason why she made the conscious decision to not change her Nigerian name for the convenience of Hollywood, Aduba referred to her mother as she told the audience the story of when she came back home after a day of name ridicule from her classmates.

“I went home and asked my mother if I could be called Zoe," Aduba said to the audience during the keynote speech. "I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent she said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Nobody can pronounce it.’ Without missing a beat, she said, ‘If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.’”

Aduba’s remarks also gives way to the acknowledgement of a well-neglected subset of racial discrimination: surname discrimination.

Growing up as a child of two Nigerian immigrants was a journey in itself. The last name “Aghimien” subjected me to years of ridicule that are forever engrained into my mind. From the tight crossing of fingers when it came time for a substitute teacher to take attendance to the close mispronunciation of my surname as I walked across the stage at my own high school graduation, each joke and poor pronunciation attempt targeted at my name’s expense mounted up to a feeling that at times, still are sound to my 19-year-old self: the feeling of being less than.

Surname discrimination also transcends beyond the classroom, as stated in the findings of a 2017 study. Researchers at Northwestern University, Harvard University and Norway’s Institute for Social Research looked at every available field experiment on hiring discrimination from 1989 through 2015. Their research found that anti-black racism in hiring is unchanged since at least 1989, and concluded that on average, “white applicants receive 36% more callbacks than equally qualified African Americans while white applicants receive on average 24% more callbacks than Latinos.”

Despite your birthplace or your crystal clear native accent, a last name can subject someone to a lifetime of ridicule and disrespect, all stemming from an unhealthy assumption.

It’s easy to simply attribute a mistake when pronouncing a name to a poor-tasting joke. However, once a poor tasting joke makes the transition to a bad habit, it’s even easier to lose mindfulness of what may offend others.

It’s okay to mess up when mispronouncing someone else’s name. We are humans and we are all bound to make mistakes. What isn’t okay is turning a mispronunciation of a name into a comedy performance or an encore of apologies. Apologize once, ask politely how the name is pronounced and attempt once more. Don’t shake your head, only to move on to the Johnsons or Clarks or Martins in an effort to minimize your error.

Along with racial discrimination, we must not forget that surname discrimination is alive and well in today’s society. America is a country that thrives and flourishes with differences in race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality and of course, surnames. Until each person in every one of the 50 states recognizes that, we’re at a standstill when it comes to making the necessary steps towards a more just nation.