<p>I spent a good chunk of my career in an industry where the name was part of the package and for a while there most people, myself included, changed their names. One girl I worked with for a time was asked by a manager to alter her very ethnic sounding name and was offended. But, he also had a work name and was somewhat surprised by this reaction. A few years later ethnic names were all the rage and probably still are today. I will say Turkeysha probably wouldn’t fly, though.</p>
<p>Now really, marie1234, how many Turkeyshas do you think there are? You are making a judgment about the names of that particular ethnicity. What about Tameeka or DeShawn or Shanice?</p>
<p>Turkeysha was not my example. Someone else upthread came up with that one.</p>
<p>Yes, I am aware of that. But just because a name sounds ridiculous to you doesn’t mean that the name wasn’t given in love by the parent of the baby.</p>
<p>I must say that my daughter (18) is much less aware of the connotations of names than I am. She grew up in a very diverse environment and to her a name is what someone is called, nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>We had a secretary of state named Condoleeza. It didn’t hold her back but she was a brilliant Stanford graduate. </p>
<p>I still maintain that it’s the grades, not the names when you look at the employment figures overall. T</p>
<p>oldmom, no–I don’t think people should be penalized for things they can’t help, such as what their parents named them. And I think ethnic names are a wonderful way to carry on someone’s heritage in a new country.</p>
<p>My personal dislike is made-up names and others with “imaginative” spellings–Bryliee, Braxlee, Braxtyn, Luxx, Ryker, Kaydyn, etc. I don’t think any of these come from a specific cultural tradition–they are just people trying to be “unique.” We know a child named Haliey and an adult named Carylnn (who hates the “impossibility” of the “lnn” ending in the English language). It is NOT the kid’s fault that he or she is saddled with such a name but some people do have visceral reactions when they see them.</p>
<p>Actually, Madame Secretary Rice received her B.A. from U of Denver. Hope you won’t hold that against her.</p>
<p>“I never understood the complaint about overly harsh treatment for drug offenses. Thank goodness someone cares enough to stand up to drug use and provide a disincentive. If you don’t like unfair punishment, stop using drugs!!”</p>
<p>So it’s OK to meet out punishment according to one’s ethnicity? I thought this was the kind of thing we are trying to root out of the justice system and American life in general.</p>
<p>More whites use marijuana. More blacks are arrested for marijuana possession.
<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/</a></p>
<p>The answer is education, perseverance and a thick, thick skin. </p>
<p>A thick, thick skin is not enough to offset discrimination that stems from the color of that skin.</p>
<p>I’m glad my kid doesn’t need a thick, thick skin.</p>
<p>“More whites use marijuana. More blacks are arrested for marijuana possession.”</p>
<p>That is likely true, but it’s not because of race and it’s not a contest. There is a higher concentration of law enforcement activity in the areas where there is a higher rate of crime. In other words, a group of white kids smoking pot in their middle class parents basement are less likely to get busted than a group of inner city kids outside of a convenience store that is frequently getting robbed where cops are patrolling the area regularly looking for criminals. It’s chicken or egg. not white kids getting a pass. And, of course there is also the whole who gets off because they can afford a good lawyer part of the equation which is more about money than race, too. There is some overlap of course but making it sound like LE is targeting black kids for minor drug offenses is a huge misunderstanding of what is actually happening.</p>
<p>Additionally, all kids start with a varying degree of a head start so if we are talking about black ghetto kids having it harder than white upper middle class kids, of course, that’s true. But, there are also black physician’s kids who have it a whole lot easier than white cashier’s kids so calling some of this a race issue is just nonsense. And, any two kids of any shade or skin tone staring at the same place both have a pretty good chance of doing okay these days, depending on what they do individually.</p>
<p>Oldmom, sally used unequal treatment for drug use as one thing harming black achievement. Think about that for a second. First, its got to be the most solvable issue they face-- decline when offered drugs. And second, whom does it help to be easier on drug users? Isn’t it better to provide folks with every available reason to NOT to use them? I don’t want to get arrested. I can’t afford it. It will screw up my life. Saying “no” is both a sufficient condition and a. necessary condition in avoiding drugs. There IS no other option. IPL</p>
<p>@marie1234 Your logic doesnt necessarily hold up because it insists on some idea that white kids are more likely to smoke weed inside their own homes and that blacks do it outside where they’re more likely to be caught. It makes the arrest based on physical/literal location, and there’s nothing to substantiate those claims. In all your talk of causation vs correlation you didn’t even make an effort to talk about racial profiling as something that may actually be important. That’s not to say that SES doesn’t outweigh race, but I think you’re overstating the absoluteness of your argument. And as one of those black physician’s kids (well my dad isn’t a physician but that’s neither here nor there) you’re definitely understating the issue of race and what it has on society’s interpretation of you, even if it doesn’t have an immediate or obvious impact on one’s options and opportunities. </p>
<p>Sorry, above was response to lake wash, not oldmom.</p>
<p>@TheAtlantic I agree it’s complicated. on all sides and people are enormously oversimplifying and the immediate or obvious impact on opportunities is all I was addressing and it sounds as though you realize they exist. Where exactly people smoke pot probably varies by region. Around here it’s inside or in cars for the white kids, while the black kids are more likley to gather at parks and whatnot where more things tend to happen. YMMV. There are just more opportunities to get arrested for anything in the inner city because that’s where most of the cops and the criminals are, for a reason called high-crime.</p>
<p>Also, this is getting pretty far off the topic of college grads getting jobs. For that, I agree with those who say we need to compare similar schools and GPA’s to reach a meaningful conclusion. </p>
<p>Atlantic, dont know if ur responding to me or not, but let me propose that this whole topic if unequal drug treatment is a huge red herring. What does it matter if blacks are arrested ten times more or ten times less or at exactly the same rate as others? Regardless of how they are treated relative to others, its necessary that they (like anybody.who wants to succeed) avoid drug use and addiction. All the effort spent on achieving equal treatment would be better spent on encouraging folks not to use drugs. What sort of victory is it if this equal treatment is achieved? YIPPEE!! We can ruin our lives exactly as easily as other groups!!</p>
<p>marie, you are the one who is “enormously oversimplifying.” I have a hard time believing you can accurately describe the pot-smoking habits of all white kids OR black kids. (If part of what you are saying is that white teenagers are more likely to own cars than black kids are, I’ll grant you that.)</p>
<p>Cops patrolling high-crime areas still have the choice to pursue or not pursue low-impact crimes. (In fact, one would think they would ignore “victimless” activity such as kids getting high in a park if they are genuinely worried about reducing the overall crime rate in a particular neighborhood.) Unfortunately, an entire prison industry rests on getting people incarcerated. </p>
<p>One cannot talk about the differences in life achievement between blacks and whites starting with college. Most of the important stuff happens in the formative years leading up to that point. To use my Milwaukee example, if a smart young man in an inner-city neighborhood has to manage more than his white suburban peer because of issues beyond their intelligence and drive, that is going to have an impact. Living in a financially unstable household or attending bad schools or having parents gone during homework hours because they have to work second shift are all factors that can take a real toll on a child’s ability to focus on school. The middle-class kid who doesn’t have to worry about these things has a built-in advantage starting from an early age.</p>