Humans like to identify with their origins. We also have these stereotypical names in which we see others. The United States is such a vast and immense expanse, and all of the diverse cultures come from everywhere else except for the peoples who were already here, and we rudely and horrifically moved them to the most unacceptable pieces of land possible.

When I was a kid, I grew up near San Francisco in a smallish town in the 1960’s and 70’s. I had neighbors who were Black, Asian, Mexican, and Indian. We rode bikes together, played hide and seek, ate dinner at each other houses, slept over and walked home from school together. We never saw each other as different, but we did have different cultural traditions and food. I really enjoyed all the vast quantities of tea and cookies, tortillas and beans, homemade pesto and pasta and learning about the differences in cultures.

I had wondered why we call the different names and when did that begin? How come did we call the natives Indians and that became Native Americans. Surely they didn’t have a vote in that name – Americans? I have heard they would prefer to go by their Tribal name such as Ute, Cherokee, Pawnee, etc. Or is this too difficult for us? How about the Black people, they are not black, they are shades of brown, just as I am called White but my skin looks more like Cool Ivory/Beige. Then there are Mexicans which came from Mexico. So why aren’t the people from Europe called Germans, French, English, and I do realize that some do. But for those of us who call this North American country our home we are known as the color of our skin, sort of. I would be known as English-German from my DNA results.

So back to my original question, what‘s in a name? We usually go by how we were raised and the names our people used to assign to others.

How do you identify others?