So maybe I am just in one of my Brother Malcolm moods. I tend to get this way from time to time, where I become extremely sensitive to areas in which I think micro aggressions are occurring.
What is a Micro Aggression?- A theory that proposes that interactions between those of different, races, genders and cultures can be interpreted as small acts of non-physical aggression.
If you are fascinated by Critical Race Theory then this is something you should take a look at. It's really interesting and it can be connected to the subtle "jokes" that people make, to even the larger scale continuation of not pronouncing a person's name accurately or continually calling a Latina- Maria when her name is Elizabeth.
Anyway, it't the latter that kind of confuses me.
If you haven't seen this viral video of Mateo talking to his mom Linda, then I really need you to watch it for the pure humor. It only makes me more satisfied that little Mateo and his family are from San Jose California- Bay Area, stand up!
It's not this video that has me frustrated or annoyed, it's the video where Mateo and his mother go on the Ellen show:
I might also be frustrated by the cultural assimilation that Ellen- probably not intentionally, proposes. It's annoying that in order to make things a little more palpable for others we have to conform to some notions that our names don't matter. I don't say this without my own biases.. I choose not to use my full name- Nakeesha, when I am being addressed. I choose only to go by Keesha. But, in doing so I am taking away the power of the name that my parents blessed me with and the meaning behind that name. As I get older, I allow that name to be used more often, but it still doesn't come with a sense of some general shock. But it's a choice, that I MADE.. Not someone else.
Maybe I shouldn't be so frustrated, but I think the conflict arose when the mother spoke and she called him Mateo, but Ellen speaking to Mateo said "Matthew."
---Let the commentary begin.
