So. There seems to be a new tool in the Marxist Shame Shed . . . mispronouncing names.
In case ya missed the news, this past July 28 there was a rather tense House Judiciary Committee hearing about the “protests” destroying our nations cities, and the use of federal law enforcement agencies to control same. During the hearing, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) interrupted Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) after Lesko asked AG Barr, “Mr. Attorney General, is that your understanding of what happened here? Do you agree with Ms. Jayapal that there was no takeover, it was jus . . . “
BUZZ!!! Bad, bad White Supremacist Lesko!
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the first American of Indian descent to serve in the House of Representatives, interrupted Lesko mid-sentence to forcefully state, “JYE-ah-paul. If you’re going to say my name, please say it right. It’s JYE-ah-paul.” Jayapal has been serving citizens of the State of Washington since 2017. Her congressional district, the 7th, includes Seattle.
Lesko acknowledged the rude interruption, carefully articulating “JYE-ah-paul,” before getting back to the business that was at hand – interviewing the invited witness, Attorney General William Barr.
Which now brings us to last night and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA.) Harris was born in the US of A out of an Indian mother, by a Jamaican father (if a Stanford University professor can be called a man, that is) and was announced as Joe Biden’s pick for Vice President. Her first name ain’t standard ‘Merican. So, it gets mispronounced by standard ‘Mericans.
SIDENOTE: I embrace ‘Merican as apostrophes designate a missing letter, not a misspelled rest of the word
. . . no offense to my fellow ‘Muricans and ‘Murikans out there.
A Democratic political consultant what goes by the name, Richard Goodstein, appeared on the Tucker Carlson show last night. As the two chit chatted about Joe Biden’s new VP pick, Tucker continually mispronounced Ms. Harris’ name the way most of us mispronounce her name – kah-MAH-lah. The way her mother actually intended the name to be pronounced is, KAH-mah-lah.
Goodstein felt as though Carlson needed to be schooled in public, apparently. “Tucker, can I just say one thing?”
Carlson, “Of course.”
Goodstein, “Because this will serve you and your fellow hosts on Fox. Her name is pronounced ‘comma’ — like the pronunciation mark — ‘la.’ Comma-la.”
“I think out of respect for someone who’s going to be on the national ticket, pronouncing her name right is kind of a bare minimum,” Goodstein replied when Tucker tossed out a jaunty, “So what?” in response to the tacky, public correction. (Currently resisting the urge to now refer to her as, “ComeOnY’all” just to cheeze the Left.)
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I awoke today wondering how Kamala Harris is feeling about a white man defending her name virtue. I’ve not ever seen her, personally, correct somebody who mispronounced her name. Lack of eyewitness testimony on my part does not mean it hasn’t happened, of course. Does Kamala Harris not care how people say her name or does she have the decency to correct those who misspeak unintentionally in more private environs than a television broadcast? Or . . . is Mispronunciation Shaming a new method of Ivory Tower judgement dispensation being adopted by the “woke” members of our increasingly fascist society?
The answer is a toss up, considering how tolerance for others and basic manners seem to run counter to the Progressive/Social Justice Democrat/Marxist mien. Gently correcting an error in private seems de passe in today’s, “ME! ME! ME!” world. As I pondered our degrading civilisation, wondering how Jayapal may have found disrupting a public hearing to try and embarrass Rep. Lesko in any way appropriate behaviour (particularly when presenting her supposed belief in propriety and respect,) NBC News enlightened me:
“Experts said mispronouncing a name can be a form of racial microaggression.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/rep-jayapal-asks-her-name-be-properly-pronounced-after-colleague-n1235147
Rita Kohli, a race and ethnicity scholar at the University of California, Riverside, said last month that mispronouncing names is part of moving through a diverse, multilingual world. Pronouncing a name correctly the first time can be difficult without the proper tools, but mispronunciations and Anglicization of names can suggest that the dominant culture is superior and that assimilation is the best option, she said.
Catherine Ceniza Choy, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said last month that names are crucial to a person’s individual, family and ethnic identity. She said the simple act of learning people’s names acknowledges their history and presence.”
Oh. OK, then. Mispronouncing the name of a person who is not of the same cultural or ethnic descent as one’s self is now an act of open disregard for others and supremacism. White U.S. of Americans are so racist, they don’t even give a hoot about trying to properly pronounce names that originally contained characters not found in the modern English alphabet. The proper pronunciation burden lays on the majority . . . to KNOW . . . to be SENSITIVE enough to seek out a lofty height from which to toss our unworthy selves when we mispronounce somebody’s name. There seems to be no onus at all on people who know their name is other than mainstream to politely correct a person if they’ve been called, “Jake” instead of “Jay-Kay,” as Mom meant for it to be pronounced. (I missed the lil accent on the ‘E’ as well, because it’s not there, don’t feel bad.)
Arrogant, dismissive and bigoted people drowning in oceans full of White Privilege are not interested in properly enunciating unfamiliar monikers. Mispronunciation errors are a manifestation of disrespectful racial supremacy, nothing else. At all. That logic helps to explain why my friend Augustine from Nigeria still pronounces my name with long vowels instead of short. Huh. There must be loopholes.