A rose by any other name

I really don't like the first day of the quarter.

If you have a name like mine, you'll know what I mean. You sit uncomfortably and grit your teeth while TAs start reading down the attendance sheet. They get past all the Josephs, Stevens, Marias, Angelas and then there's you.

The TA stares at the sheet, frowns a little bit and then sheepishly makes an attempt to pronounce your name, which didn't fit on the attendance sheet because it has more letters in it than a high school spelling bee.

If this unpronounceable situation repeats itself for you several times each year like it does for me, you're probably used to it. Note to university instructors: avoid this discomfort by having each person in the class say their name, repeat it to make sure you got it right and then mark it on the ever-important attendance sheet.

But it doesn't end there.

After the name butchering, there usually come a good dose of questions from classmates during the course of the quarter about where you're from and if you're an international student. Don't get me wrong; talking about yourself is always fun, just so long as you don't feel like the newest animal at the zoo.

For some people, it just isn't feasible that certain individuals, due to their names or their appearance, could be born and bred U.S. citizens. The questions they ask may very well be a need to satisfy some innocent curiosity or even a genuine interest in a particular individual. Nevertheless, the exasperation that comes along with being assumed as a foreigner in your own home can get discouraging.

The recent debates and widespread protests sparked by HR 4437 concerning the position of illegal immigrants in the U.S. should be watched carefully in this regard. The proposed legislation would dramatically affect the legal position of many in the U.S. who have crossed the border seeking employment from Latin America. The recent peaceful protests were a testament to how close to home this issue is for so many people.

That isn't to say that anyone with a Hispanic name has suddenly had their entire life in the United States put into limbo because of the legislation. Certainly, there are plenty of individuals of Latin American origin who are active citizens and very much a part of U.S. history.

It's unreasonable and even insulting to simply assume that anyone with a name like Martinez is eager to discuss the immigration debate, just as it's unlikely that anyone with the surname Bush is prepared to discuss the details of the events preceding the Iraq war, or anyone named Mohamed is capable of clarifying Osama bin Laden's ideological motives.

Martinez, Bush and Mohamed may all lead very different lives, but they have one thing in common: they are from the United States. They are law-abiding citizens that hold U.S. passports, report to jury duty, and dutifully pay their taxes to Uncle Sam. Their names and appearances might be tempting in subconsciously drawing assumptions about them and just how American they are, but those assumptions can be deceiving and detrimental to understanding individuals.

If we are to assume anything at all, let it be that a U.S. citizen by any other name, be it Ahmad, Elizabeth, Guadalupe, or Chang, would smell as sweet.