Roland G. Fryer is a black economist and Harvard professor whose mission is the study of black underachievement. Part of his study involved an analysis of names black parents give their children and how that choice affected the children's lives.
“While discussing his names research on a radio show, he took a call from a black woman who was upset with the name just given to her baby niece. It was pronounced shuh-TEED but was in fact spelled “Shithead.” Or consider the twin boys Orangejello and Lemonjello, also black, whose parents further defined their choice by instituting the pronunciations a-RON—zhello and le-MON-zhello.
Orangejello, Lemonjello, and Shithead have yet to catch on among the masses….”
~ From the best-selling Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
1 comment:
My sister is a "special needs" teacher in a poor, inner-city school here in Ohio. She comes home and tells us ALL KINDS of names given these children that make you wanna laugh and cry at the same time for these kids. There are at least a half-dozen "shitheads" in her school right now but they all pronounce it different than your example. They pronounce it "shuh-THAY-id."
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