Jasmine Williams Dr.

George Jensen Rhetorical Theory 02 May 2013 The Freedom of a Name: Bakhtins Architectonic Model of Selfhood and the Complexity of Choosing a Name in African-American Culture Late 19th century, Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin was a peculiar man known for his wide variations of thought. He worked out his ideas through his writing, and inevitably with the complexity of the human mind, at times contradicted himself. Despite this, as a dominant scholar of rhetoric and psychology, his intellectual findings were critical contributions to his fields. Of his more popular ideologies, he is less known for contributing his interpretation of the human psyche. Sigmund Freuds well-known and taught version of the psyche was highly valued in Western psychology at the time of Bakhtins model. As a result, Bakhtins interesting perspective of the mind was overshadowed by Freud. There was stark distance between Bakhtins and Freuds model. One of the vast differences between Bakhtin and Freud was the role of creativity within the human psyche. While Freud viewed creativity as an unconscious negative act with suppression at its center, Bakhtin viewed creativity more positively and through consciousness (Morson and Emerson 186-187). He focused on the idea that creativity stemmed from personality, and, according to Bakhtin, personalities are determined by others as a social act. Personalities develop from interactions with each other; selves are creative in response to the images of themselves given by others (187). This model of the human psyche is known as Bakhtins Architectonic Model of Selfhood. This model consists of three parts of examination of the self: I-forothers (how I look from outside to everyone else), I-for-myself (how I feel from inside my own consciousness), and Others-for-me (how I view others through my consciousness). Bakhtins model

Williams Page |2 attempts to illustrate the human relationship with the world. He denies the concrete positions of the subject and object to a more dynamic approach of which there is no stable self (180). Bakhtin argues that the self is never stable because the process of developing the self is never complete; it is constantly influenced by others. Self is determined by pieces of reflections gifted by others that never amount to a unified image (Morson and Emerson 184). In this sense, the I-for-myself is depended upon the I-for others, always learning and changing based on those experiences (191). The perception of self, created through others is a social-constructed self. In fact, Bakhtin asserts that creativity is depended upon the relationship of the self to others is not one of fusion, which damages the relationship, but one of mutualism (183-185). This relationship produces new and valuable works and acts of creativity. Thus, it can be stated that the relationship of self with others determines the relationship of self with the world and enacts creativity. One of the most creative experiences humans share universally is the act of choosing a name for ones offspring. Using Bakhtins terminology, from the first utterance, naming has been a human right, a time to express oneself and the future hoped for ones child. According to a 2012 study Selling the Farm to Buy the Cow: The Narrativized Consequences of Black Names From Within the African-American Community, Ayanna Brown and Janice Lively stated Naming [is] a conscious choice that reflects an intention to identify a child ethnically, culturally, creatively, or not at all (Brown and Lively 689). In America, for some cultures, this universal experience has become slightly daunting. African-Americans specifically have struggled with the acceptance of the dominant society with African-American distinct names, more commonly known as black names. African-Americans question how to balance the heritages and traditions of creativity while avoiding pejorative racialized characteristics that are inescapably associated with being Black (688). Black names have been stigmatizing by their pronunciation and often, phonetically incorrect spellings resulting in furthering negative stereotypes of African-American culture. While [black] names reflect creative and unique ways of thinking, there is a looming deficient cultural perspective about them (Brown and Lively 668).

Williams Page |3 The process of selecting a name for a child in the African-American community is one of complexity. Names that African-Americans commonly select for their children have been termed black names or ethnic names. Black names have been associated with multiple stereotypes of AfricanAmericans; they have been deemed unprofessional, tacky, inappropriate, ghetto and phonetically impossible. The complexities of black names have become a milestone for AfricanAmericans in determining their identity in association with dominant culture. As an effort to dwell in a socially constructed reality where the language of a name encompasses the perception of the character of an individual, African-Americans struggle to choose names that allow assimilation into dominant culture but also affirm their roles as proud African-Americans practicing the freedom of naming. Black names are often stigmatized when compared to stereotypical names of EuropeanAmericans, often called white names. According to Roland Fryer, Jr. and Steven Levitts study titled The Causes and Consequences of Distinctly Black Names which uses data from Californias birth data from, black names are defined as names more frequently selected among African-Americans than European-Americans and white names are defined as names more frequently selected among EuropeanAmericans than African-Americans (Fryer and Levitt 769). For the purposes of this essay, Roland Fryer, Jr. and Steven Levitts definition of black names and white names will be adopted. In order to make a vast distinction between Black people as an African-American people and black names, I will refer to Black people as African-Americans and White Americans as European-Americans. History The stigma associated with black names underwent a stark evolution in the 20thcentury. According to Fryers and Levitts study, the history of African-Americans in the United States poses a correlation to the selectiveness of black names (Fryer and Levitt). According to this research, during the 1960s, African-Americans predominately chose names that were similar to white names (Fryer and Levitt 770). There was no difference in black and white names, nor was there a difference in the names of

Williams Page |4 African-Americans who lived in racially segregated neighborhood from those who lived in more integrated neighborhoods (Fryer and Levitt 770). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a drastic shift in the naming practices of African-Americans. According to the Identify Model of Fryer and Levitts conclusions, the Black Power Movement correlates with this drastic change (Fryer and Levitt 791). The Black Power Movement consisted of practices that evoked Afrocentricism (the shared identify of all peoples of African descent as one culture) and encouraged the selection of African and Islam naming of children. However, over the past twenty years, black names have drifted from the meaning and value system of the Black Power Movement toward created names. A 1992 study conducted by Stanley Liberson and Elanor Bell discovered that creative names were common in dominant culture and were not specific to African-Americans (Liberson and Bell 522). So one might ask, why black names? Why not Asian or Hispanic names? Fryer and Levitts study indicates that less than 10 percent of Asian-Americans select unique names, the majority of AsianAmerican names are parallel to white name choices (775). There is difference between the names of native born Hispanic-Americans and European-Americans but is not nearly in comparison to the selection of Black names (775). There are vast differences between white and black names. In fact, by 1980, African-American baby girls were receiving names that were 20 times more likely to be found among African-Americans (Levitt and Dubner, 183). I-for-others Bakhtins I-for-others is the identity that I create based on how I look from outside to everyone else. This part of the psyche is influenced by the perceptions of others. The identification of acceptance by everyone else is essential to this part of the human psyche. The tainted identity created by the stigmatization of a black name can cause African-Americans to be fearful of how they are viewed by others, specifically the dominant culture.

Williams Page |5 So why is there such a stigmatism toward black names? African-Americans with black names have been stereotyped to fit into multiple categories that affect their life experiences. Since the nomination of President Barack Obama, some have called America a postracial societya society where racism is no longer an issue and there is no longer a need for affirmative action and historically black colleges (Brown and Lively 684). Despite this belief, African-Americans still face what some call new racism which is characterized by a context in which there is a plausible, non-prejudiced explanation available for behavior that might ordinarily be considered racist (Watson et al. 2407). Starting at birth, an African-Americans black name can distinctly affect their childhood. Startling results about black names were revealed among the most innocent of our societychildren. In a 1998 study conducted by Jarlean Daniels and Jack Daniels on behavioral characteristics and names determined by preschoolers, results indicated that European-American children more commonly associated black names with negative behaviors, while African-American children showed little difference (487). More disturbingly, in a 2005 study conducted by David Figolo on black names and teachers expectation of academic achievement, yielded results that teachers treat students differently based on names which, in turn, affects their test scores (25). Workplace studies have shown that during the pre-interview process, African-Americans with black names are more likely to not be called for an interview. In Stevie Watson, Osei Appiah, and Corliss Thorntons 2011 study on name and pre-interview impressions of black sales job applicants, they found that White salespeople exhibited less favorable pre-interview impressions toward Black job applicants with ethnic names. In fact, Watson et al.s study states that white names received 50% more callbacks than did applicants with black names (2406). These results coincide with their conclusion that individuals with black or ethnic names have been strongly affiliated, outside of the African-American culture, with a strong affinity to the African-American culture. Because of this, there is an assumption that these individuals will be less likely to assimilate into the workplace setting, disturbing customers and thus decreasing productivity (Watson et al.).

Williams Page |6 Marriane Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathans 2004 study on job callbacks and black names determined that based on the 5000 resumes sent to 1300 employment ads, for every 10 resumes white applicants sent out to receive one call back, black applicants had to send out 15 to receive one callback. If applicants distributed on resume per week, this could result in one month and one week without income for a black applicant which is a significant contributor to poverty. Each of these discriminatory acts can drastically interfere with the development and economic experiences of African-Americans. These differences in culture, in creativity of names, can largely interfere with the acquisition of human capital or otherwise lower the labor market productivity of Blacks (Fryer and Levitt 768). Fryer and Levitts study indicated that African-Americans who had names closer to white names instead of black names, lived in neighborhoods of higher income. African-Americans who had mostly black names live in lower income neighborhoods consisting of mostly African-Americans (Fryer and Levitt). Black names were also more commonly associated with mothers who had black names themselves, were unmarried, low-income, undereducated teens from a black neighborhood (Levitt and Dubner 184). In efforts not to infer causation as correlation, Levitt and Dubner and Fryer and Levitts work concluded that a black name is less a cause of poverty, racial segregation, and inequality but a consequence. Thus a black name is more closely identified as an indicator of lower social economic status and not a determinant of any life outcome factors. I-for-myself Bakhtins I-for-myself identity is determined by how I feel from inside my own consciousness. Because consciousness, and thought itself, is based from language, which is socially constructed, this part of the psyche is, too, heavily reliant upon the perceptions of others. This is evident in African-American culture. African-Americans are very aware of the stigmatization of black names and the obstacles against those who have them. For some African-Americans, the creativity of black names is a form of liberation

Williams Page |7 from the former oppression endured by African slaves (Brown and Lively 668). They view the opposition of more commonly known white names as a way of acting black, signaling loyalty to the AfricanAmerican culture, and embracing their endowed right to choose or create a name for their offspring (Brown and Lively 668; Fryer and Levitt 789; Levitt and Dubner 184). Other African-Americans are incredibly concerned with societys perception of the African-American culture and view the name choosing process as stressful, possibly determining the social, cultural, and economic capital (qtd. In Brown and Lively 668) or sociocultural approval mediated by the norms of dominant society (Brown and Lively 668). Because of this cultural awareness, some African-Americans struggle with an attempt to divorce ones ethnic identity because of the deficiencies that have been attached to them (qtd. In Brown and Lively 668). So, though Fryer and Levitts study may conclude that ones name does not have an effect on life outcomes, Brown and Livelys study conclude that ones name has an effect on selfperception (Fryer and Levitt 801; Brown Lively 687-688). Brown and Livelys study attempts to examine the social reality of racism and how it interacts with African-Americans, as a speech community, as they deconstruct naming as both a process and product (673). Brown and Lively observed an online community of alumni of a historically black university and conducted a focus group of African-American high schools students and engaged them on topics about race and naming in African-American culture. The responses received shed light on the psychological struggles of African-Americans with black names as they attempt to establish an identity within the others experience to develop an identity within the self experience. The remainder of this essay will focus on the experiences of these participants. For African-American children with black names, the difficulty of a distinct name begins during childhood as noted earlier in the Daniels and Figolo studies. This creates the ultimate dilemma for African-American parents at the birth of their child (Levitt and Dubner).

Williams Page |8 Progressing from infant to childhood can also be a tantalizing experience for an AfricanAmerican child with a black name. An alumnus of the online community with the occupation of school nurse shared her experiences with children and black names. She stated, It is embarrassing to watch these preschoolers attempt to spell their name or correct others on the pronunciationthe little ones are tired of defending their names all day long (Brown and Lively 678). Note the alumnuss use of the term embarrassing. She personally identified with the struggles of the African-American children with black names and took responsibility as an individual for what she felt was a misrepresentation of the AfricanAmerican culture. Identifying with the blame as a collective unit, she defended the use of more mainstream names in favor of the innocence of children. At the adolescence stage, an African-American high school student named Kevin explained his dislike for his first name, and his preference for his middle name, Dion. Kevin stated that though he preferred his middle name, he would not be addressed by it because Its black (Brown and Lively 677). Kevin associated the name Dion with a black name and is, therefore, a hindrance to advancing his professional goals. Two participants in the online alumni group commented about the difficulty of finding products branded with their names as a child. This impacted the naming of their child to choose mainstream names that assimilated with the dominant society (677-668). All three of these AfricanAmericans viewed naming as important aspect of assimilating into the dominant culture due to their experiences as a child or adolescence. Others-for-me Bakhtins identity role others-for-me is how I view others through my consciousness. This part of the psyche ties into Bakhtins theory of the mutual relationship between self and others. As I perceive others, my perceptions influence their perception of self. In the African-American community regarding black names, this negative stigmatization is evident among other African-Americans.

Williams Page |9 One alumnus of the online community stated, We are already born handicap in America by being African-American. Why would we handicap our children with names (Brown and Lively 679). Another alumnus stated, giving names that sound complicated but has no significant meaning will cause problems for those children[and] automatically associate [them] to a poor, ghetto environment (679) . The use of term handicap by the first alumnus implies that being African-American is a disability fitting to the stereotype of deficiency noted in the Watson et al. and Levitt and Fryer studies. These quotes imply that African-Americans have come to accept this perception as a truth, not of actuality but as perceived by society, creating obstacles from birth. The use of black names further complicates this struggling according to the second alumnus. Once again, African-Americans are perceived to be adapting their identity to fit the others experience before first developing and identity with the self experience. As adults, many African-Americans with black names continue to struggle with developing an identity with the self experience. This can be noted based on the shaming they receive from other African-Americans. Another online alumnus participant made a similar statement, I hate when some mom names her kid something crazy and then gets an attitude when you mispronounced it (Brown and Lively 679). From these observations one can conclude that naming a child something that is difficult to pronounce in inappropriate for the dominant culture thus deeming it unacceptable for the AfricanAmerican culture. Even still, what constitutes as a black name is controversial among African-Americans, alumni participants in the study with names such as DeMarco, Zarin, and Iolantha considered their names to be culture neutral names while other African-Americans deemed their names to be black names unacceptable to society. Needless to say, this stirred controversy among the participants. A brave alumnus of the online community offered a controversial solution for the ongoing struggle with the disadvantage of a black name. She stated, So, maybe there is a time and place for the usage of certain names just like you may walk and talk differently at work, you may be called something different at work as well. Im not saying that I agree but the world we live in may require that ( Brown and Lively 679). This African-American has reached a place where she has decided to negotiate not only

W i l l i a m s P a g e | 10 her name but identity. This is evident in the quote, you may walk and talk differently. This quote implies that the difference of professionalism coincides with name as well. The high school partipcant Kevin mentioned this himself in shared experiences. The process of negotiating ones identity seems to be a more suitable alternative than accepting the difficulties associated with a black name. In addition to the quote recently stated, it is evident through other comments made that AfricanAmericans with black names must create entirely different personas to adapt to workplace settings. An African-American high school student named Thessely who conversed with Kevin shared her idea of how the professional world perceived black names. Thessely stated ...lets say your name is Laquinisha and Susan. You have the same criteria, same experience, same degrees and everything. Susan gonna get the job (681). Even as a teenager with likely little or no job experience, Thessely is able to determine the costs of having a black name in the professional world. An adult from the alumni group stated another issue of employment with a black name, stating that Black Americans are expected to have baggageconcerning holding white people accountable for slavery and Jim Crow (681). This is similar to the Watson et al. study which asserted that the stereotypes of African-Americans with black names have a strong affinity with Afrocentric behaviors and refuse to assimilate with mainstream society. Even African-Americans who are in positions of power where they are in charge of employment recruitment admit to throwing out resumes with black names or names that are not easily pronounced, indicating acceptance of mainstream values of appropriate naming practices (Brown and Lively 681-683). One of the strongest identifications with the dominant culture is stated in the following quote made by an alumnus of the online community: I think we have or will fail as parents if we dont leave our children better off than our parents left us. That may be a hard pill to swallow, but just look at our condition . . . My great greats were slaves, my grands had land and did farming, my parents got jobs and worked for someone else for 30 years. If my child HAS to do tomorrow what my parents had to do 50 years before

W i l l i a m s P a g e | 11 that, I think Im to blame. Of course, they have their own minds and can do what they choose, but we must have better options for them (Brown and Lively 683). This quote implies that naming African-American children a white name provides a helping hand to uplift African-Americans from poverty. In fact, by not naming ones child a white name, African-Americans are doing an injustice not only to their children but to their ancestors. Furthermore, they are not only setting back their children, but stunting the growth of the African-American culture. This participants experience says more than any other quote that the self experience of African-Americans is vastly more heavily dependent upon the other experience of dominant culture than the less dominant other experience of African-American culture. Based on this dominance, if one has to sacrifice their culture to gain access to the dominant culture they have traded little harm for the greater good of African-Americans individually and collectively. Brown and Lively call this trade-off selling the farm to buy the cow which is when African-Americans are willing to sell what they own (identity) in order to buy a smaller piece of capital in American society which is a risky investment (687). In this sense, it seems that the sacrificing of self is necessary to gain a clearer distinction of self more accurately viewed by others. African-Americans are faced with the ultimatum of choosing a name distinct to their culture or choosing a name that will make their culture indistinguishable. Which is for the greater good? Morson and Emerson assert that Bakhtin believed that the idea of unity contradicts the possibility of true creativity. For if everything conforms to a preexisting pattern, the genuine development is reduced to mere discovery, to a mere uncovering of something, that, in a strong sense, is already there (Morson and Emerson 1). If this is true, then transforming black names to more dominant names is a loss of creativity. There is too much unity and unity works in opposition to creativity. Moreover, Morson and Emerson fittingly describe Bakhtins ideas on the assimilation of selling the farm to buy the cow in the following quote:

W i l l i a m s P a g e | 12 If I become alienated from myself, if I no longer live so as to generate value from myself, and if I try to live completely in and for patterns set by others, then I will readily assimilate myself to their rhythm. In that case, I will live as if I had no creativity.[if] I live as a mere part of a social order or movement, a nation, or even all of humanity, and if I passively join myself to these larger entities, then I submit too unreservedly to rhythm and speak merely as part of a chorus of others (ibid.). In this way, I lose (or rather live as if I had lost) my uniquely responsible voice (ibid.) (194). The loss of the voice of the African-American culture could be at stake. But with culture as an everevolving morphing concept, perhaps, the assimilation of naming is a part of that evolution. Regardless of this change, the dominant cultures perception of the lesser dominant culture is significantly influential on the self experience of African-Americans as individuals and as a culture. Perhaps Bakhtin would argue in favor of creativity or maybe his ideas on the influence of others would predominate or even so, maybe he would defend one and then the other. The fact of humanity is that since the utterance, a persons name has been bestowed upon them by their loved ones to share who they are and the life they hope for their children. African-Americans who choose black names for their children are merely struggling to maintain an identity, something that is truly in their control, their own, in a dominant society they are striving to become a part of. Bakhtins architectonic model provides a clear lens to analyze this cultural crisis. Though Freudian ideas dominated Western psychology, certain aspects of Bakhtins theories are highly valuable and useful for analysis. His lens is one of distinct perspectives, let not his diversity overshadow his major contributions.

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Works Cited Bertran, Marianne , and Sendhil Mullainathan. Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination. American Economic Review. 94. (2004): 991-1013. Print. Daniel, Jarlean E., and Daniel, Jack L. Preschool childrens selection of race-related personal names. Journal of Black Studies, 28 (1998): 471-90. Print.

Emerson, Caryl, and Gary Saul Morson. "Mikhail Bakhtin." The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Eds. Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth and Imre Szeman. 2nd ed. The Johns Hopkins UP. 25 Jan. 2006. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.
Figolo, David N. Names expectations and the Black-White test score gap. Working Paper Series, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, 2004. Print. Freakonomics. Ewing, Heidi, et al. Magnolia Pictures. 2010. Netflix. Fryer, Roland G., and Levitt, Steven D. The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 3 (2004):767-805. Print. Levitt, Steven. and Dubner, Stephen. Perfect Parenting, Part II; or: Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet? Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print. Liberson, Stanley, and Bell, Eleanor. Childrens First Names: An Empirical Study of Social Taste. The American Journal of Sociolog,. 98 (1992): 511-54. Print. Morson, Gary, and Emerson, Caryl. Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of Prosaics. Standord: Standford UP, 1990. Print.

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