,la

Saying and spelling names correctly is a core component of inclusive language.

Since late July, I’ve been watching how Kamala Harris’s first name has been treated on a national stage. And it has shown me, yet again, that despite how important names are, many people put little-to-no effort into them.

My first two principles of inclusive language are:
1. Reflect reality
2. Show respect

Saying and spelling names correctly allows us to reflect reality and show respect.*

When we say or spell names incorrectly, we are not reflecting reality. And we are showing disrespect.

Sometimes on purpose, like when Republican politicians and spokespeople deliberately mispronounce “Kamala” in order to show their disrespect.

But sometimes not on purpose, when people would like to be respectful and don’t understand how their lack of effort makes them disrespectful.

For example, even though the delegates at the recent Democratic National Convention (DNC) all seemed excited to read out their state or territory’s nomination of Kamala Harris for Democratic presidential candidate, a good number of them (it felt like a third, maybe even more) did not say her name the way that Harris herself says it.

Harris’s first name is mispronounced so often that at the August DNC, they even brought out her grandnieces and Kerry Washington to give a pronunciation tutorial.

Here in the US, Kamala is a low-frequency name. People who are not familiar with it usually do not know how Harris pronounces it.

And then, like with many low-frequency names, if they don’t genuinely practice and lodge that pronunciation in their mouth and in their memory, they forget and go back to the wrong pronunciation.

I devote a section in my book to names and making sure you’re being respectful. When you consistently say or spell someone’s name wrong, you’re sending a message.

You’re saying, “You’re not important enough for me to put in effort.” And, “You don’t matter enough for me to be careful with you.”

This is the message that Republicans deliberately mispronouncing Kamala are sending on purpose.

But if it’s not the message you want to send, you’ll need to put in time and effort and practice to make sure you are treating all the names around you with the respect that they deserve.

Actor Uzo Adubo’s mother once told her, “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.” Let’s put in just as much effort for the names of women of color as we do for white men in power positions.

*When I talk about “saying” names in this piece, I am focusing specifically on speakers of oral languages. I’m not sure how low-frequency names play out in the Deaf community, and what disrespect towards names might look like.

On an inclusive sign language note, linguist Nancy Frishberg tells me that a sign has been borrowed from Indian Sign Language into American Sign Language. Since Kamala means “lotus,” some Deaf Americans are now using this sign to refer to Harris.

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