Margarita Politte
Jul 23, 2017 · 1 min read

Something I think about from time to time is that some black people say white people discriminate against them because of the color of their skin, which they can’t change. They don’t think about the things they CAN change. That would include their behavior in general, the way they talk, the way they dress, and, yes, the names they choose for themselves & their children. I have read that Asian immigrants have English-sounding names that they use in their public dealings, but among the other Asians, they continue to use their birth names. I think if a child is born into a middle-class black family, the parents probably encourage assimilation, but if a child is born into a poor black family & wants to work himself or herself into a middle-class life, friends & neighbors & maybe even family members will say the child is “acting white.” Black & white is not my issue, but I think a lot about what I could have done in my younger years in order to work toward a middle-class life.