If you've ever been in a big family, you probably know some of the perks and drawbacks. You generally have playmates all the time. You never feel alone. Although that could be looked at as a drawback. And then you have the drawbacks, one of which is loosing some of your identity.
I can't tell you how annoyed I was when people walked up to me and called me by one of my siblings names. I can't really say why it annoys me so much. It might have to do with feeling like people view me as a copy of someone else. To me this means that I don't really have my own identity.
Martin Luther King Jr. expressed a similar sentiment in his Birmingham Jail letter. I'm including the entire sentence in which this sentiment is found and highlighting the part that is especially relevant. In this letter he writes, "But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience."
( Just in case anyone is wondering, MLK is writing to a group of white clergymen in response to their criticism of his methods of promoting change in America.)
In the highlighted part, MLK is venting his irritation at people not addressing colored people properly. The part I especially liked was when he said your first name becomes nigger. When you're in a large family and associating with other large families, you will get called by your last name. "Oh look. There's a Clark." I can't tell you how irritating that phrase has become. I know people aren't being malicious, but I still find it annoying. We have have first names for a reason, people: so we won't all have to be called by our last names. Just in case you missed it, the last name becomes the first name, hence the title.
I can't tell you how annoyed I was when people walked up to me and called me by one of my siblings names. I can't really say why it annoys me so much. It might have to do with feeling like people view me as a copy of someone else. To me this means that I don't really have my own identity.
Martin Luther King Jr. expressed a similar sentiment in his Birmingham Jail letter. I'm including the entire sentence in which this sentiment is found and highlighting the part that is especially relevant. In this letter he writes, "But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience."
( Just in case anyone is wondering, MLK is writing to a group of white clergymen in response to their criticism of his methods of promoting change in America.)
In the highlighted part, MLK is venting his irritation at people not addressing colored people properly. The part I especially liked was when he said your first name becomes nigger. When you're in a large family and associating with other large families, you will get called by your last name. "Oh look. There's a Clark." I can't tell you how irritating that phrase has become. I know people aren't being malicious, but I still find it annoying. We have have first names for a reason, people: so we won't all have to be called by our last names. Just in case you missed it, the last name becomes the first name, hence the title.
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