WATCH FIRST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODZzSOelss
I am an avid viewer of the Comedy Central show Key and Peele
and they recently aired a skit in which they were pretending to be college
football players in an East vs. West showdown. What makes this skit hilarious is
the names to that the two actors use during this skit. The two actors, Key and
Peele, are both black and they pretend to be the different players that are
competing in the football game. They use names like: Tyroil Smoochie-Wallace, D’Squarius
Green Jr., Jackmerius Tacktheritrix, D’Isiah T. Billings-Clyde, Javaris Jamar
Javarison-Lamar. You get the idea. This relates to our course concept of
racialization, which is the process by which an object or idea becomes
racialized through association with a particular racial group. Names are not
racial entities by themselves, however the person to which the name is assigned
gives the name racial meaning. By using names like D’Squarius, Jackmerius, and D’Isiah,
Key and Peele have created an association between those names and members of
the black community. What highlights this racialization is the fact that the
last player introduced in the clip, a white male, is named Dan Smith. This
contrast between Dan Smith and the names of the rest of the players highlights
the difference between “Black names” and “White names”.
This is an interesting product of the racialization of names. I remember there was a study done where duplicate resumes were sent in with the only difference was one had a 'white-sounding' name and one had a 'black-sounding' name. The people conducting the study found that the resumes with whiter names were disproportionately accepted over their equal counterparts, showing the effect racialization of names can have on possible employment. This also ties in with Bonilla-Silva's theory of color-blind racism, that there can still be discrimination in the workforce without blatant racism.
ReplyDeleteHere is an article on that: http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html
My Family and my friends absolutly love this video. Its hilarious, one because of the names and the acting and second because of its truth. We watch a ton of college footbal and it is true that African American names are a lot different than white names. I agree that names can be a form of racialization, there are names that, when heard, can automatically be linked to a certain race. There is another Key and Peele sketch called "Substitute Teacher" where a black substitute, who normaly subs highschool in the intercity, is now subing in a white suburbian highschool. While taking role he pernounces typical white names so they sound like they are steryotypical black names. This is another example of the name as an object of racialization, showing how white names differ from black names.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw