Earlier this weekend, CNN started a debate on social media after sharing the story of a White woman named “Lakeisha. ” The article traverses the life of the woman, who lived in a little town in western Ohio and experienced a lot of troubles due to her “ethnic-sounding” name. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed Lakeisha Francis is a bartender but did not know that her name was “stereotypically black. ” She claims her parents simply wanted their daughter to have a beautiful name because of the latter. As she grew older, her trouble started when people she would meet found her name did not match her physique. She claims that her name has made her life more difficult for her. Despite the article’s first intentions, but social media did not take it well. That is especially with the article ending with Lakeisha saying she has “learned to live with being black for a minute. ”
What it's like to be a white woman named LaKiesha @CNN https://t.co/jJ3lM3RZrJ It can be strange but illuminating to go through life as a white person with what's called a "black-sounding' name. Here's LaKiesha's story
— John K. Blake (@JohnBlakeCNN) June 15, 2019
“A name doesn’t make a non-Black person ‘Black for a minute,’ that’s a trash take,” wrote one of the Twitter users. “I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish with this when black folk faced with ethnic names faced more consequences than a white chick name Lakeisha,” said another. Clearly, the article rubbed folks the wrong way.
What it's like to be a white woman named LaKiesha @CNN https://t.co/jJ3lM3RZrJ It can be strange but illuminating to go through life as a white person with what's called a "black-sounding' name. Here's LaKiesha's story
— John K. Blake (@JohnBlakeCNN) June 15, 2019
Read it twice just to make sure I didn't miss anything the first time. And sure enough it was worse the second time around. A name doesn't make a non-Black person "Black for a minute," that's a trash take. S/n: Jamal while a somewhat common name in the Black community is Arabic. pic.twitter.com/O6HXYeM66M
— Damion's Exhausted but Alert (@themorganrpt) June 16, 2019
What it's like to be a white woman named LaKiesha @CNN https://t.co/jJ3lM3RZrJ It can be strange but illuminating to go through life as a white person with what's called a "black-sounding' name. Here's LaKiesha's story
— John K. Blake (@JohnBlakeCNN) June 15, 2019
