Why Isn’t Your Name “More Ethnic”?

Hello friends,

My conversation with Shanti Joy Gold a while back got me thinking about other conversations I've had with white folx and this one about my name came to mind.

I was working in Warwickshire in England for a small national organisation with a tiny on-site team. I was the only Black person and the only person of the Global Majority. I've told you before about being questioned about my desire to take the job by a member of the board, who were also all racialised as white with a fair number of men (though I believe there were two women). So this was that workplace.

To take the job I'd moved up from London, moved in with a friend while I looked for a house, bought a car, and then started the job. My colleagues were friendly, and generally reasonably welcoming, though they didn't know a lot about people with my identity or my culture.

One of my colleagues had been particularly helpful in assisting me to get settled, providing what I needed to open another bank account - the town was so small there was just one branch of Barclays and I needed an account there to make it easier to pay me - and also facilitating things like getting to and from the airport when I had to take a trip at short notice.

She Was Disappointed? I Was Disappointed!