Had a pleasant walk last night around nearby Bennett College, and couldn't help enjoying the fact that this (historically black, high-quality) college features Race Administration Building (named for John H Race), Black Residence Hall (named for Ethel F Black), and B Player Hall.
Which reminds to wonder if my kids have figured out yet that the Brown Building, on Market Street, probably isn't named after its crayola-perfect color. (Probably isn't, I say -- I should check.)
It also put me in the mood for the movie I saw after, "CB4", a fun hip-hop mockumentary which claims, diagetically, to be "a rapumentary by A. White". The character A. White is, of course, a cluelessly enthusiastic white frat-bro sort. On the other hand, one of our leading real-life film critics is also named A. White. He's black.
*****
While the most common choice among ex-slaves, naming-wise, was to claim as their own birthright the surnames used by their owners, there were interesting patterns among the exceptions. "White" was a common aspirational choice, as were "Free" and "Freeman": all of those today are blacker-than-average last names in the U.S.A. "Black" isn't, Ethel F. aside. "Brown" is a disproportionately black name too, although most likely it's more to do with ex-slaves honoring the abolitionist radical John Brown than it is to do with the color.
While the most common choice among ex-slaves, naming-wise, was to claim as their own birthright the surnames used by their owners, there were interesting patterns among the exceptions. "White" was a common aspirational choice, as were "Free" and "Freeman": all of those today are blacker-than-average last names in the U.S.A. "Black" isn't, Ethel F. aside. "Brown" is a disproportionately black name too, although most likely it's more to do with ex-slaves honoring the abolitionist radical John Brown than it is to do with the color.
Certain other famous names were common ex-slave surname choices, to the point where if all you know about an American is that she's named "Lincoln" or "Washington", you can reasonably guess she's probably black (also true, to a lesser extent, of "Jefferson" or "Franklin"). As far as I'm aware, "Douglass" and "Tubman" weren't common name choices among ex-slaves at all, nor "Garrison", nor "Paine". I assume this tell us mostly about the extremely limited educational opportunities most slaves were able to overcome their masters to use.
Also, possibly it reflected a feeling that Paine was a more appropriate last name for their prior life than the one they hoped to embark on, of course. What to make of the fact that the rap group House of Pain was white and goofy, I'm not sure.
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