Today I'm working on Khadijah

Hey there!

I have been working so very diligently on Book II that I have neglected one of my very favorite pastimes...YOU! So I said to myself, "Self, how can you be two people at the same time? Brainstorming the next greatest novel while keeping this wonderful fan base captivated with your charm? Can these different tasks be completed, surreptitiously?" And the answer (um, I wouldn't normally suggest that talking to yourself and then answering, is in anyway a sane occupation, however, at this juncture I take creative license) is to simply share with you what I am working on!

"Do you think this will work?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"IDK." she answered, seemingly annoyed.

Noted.

Sharing here with you guys gives me the opportunity to break away from the quiet and sometimes lonely process of writing a novel. A novel mind you, where I am intermittently author, editor, writer, editor, critic, character, editor. It's the life I chose though...who could edit my story better than me..or is it I?

Writing out my unfocused thoughts and ideas before, during and/or after the actual process is helpful, me thinks.

At any rate, this is what I propose, what say you?

So I am working on this story-line involving a character named Khadijah. As a writer I tend to distance myself from certain references, certain sentence structures, and certainly names that carry the opposite connotation of my works. I create from a blank sheet hoping to color the mind of the reader with my personal crayon of choice. Leaving her to wonder who this person is or who this person may grow to be over time. If I choose a name like La-a (pronounced La-Dash-a...I kid you not, this is an actual name) the reader assumes something about this character intentional or not. I do not much care for made up names for my characters, inasmuch as I appreciate names with meaning. Don't get me wrong, I understand and also support whatever individuals choose to name their offspring.

At one point in history slaves were named Queen or Redboy or Donkey or Cook or Mammy so that they could be distinguished easily. I mean we all look alike so that's understandable.

Black folk then wanted to blend in and just BE. Black grandmothers named Edith and Ethel and Estelle and Mary and Essie short for Elizabeth and Mable were so given to assimilate and not make waves. These women named their sons Michael and Robert and Jason and Thomas and Kevin and Joseph. The next wave brought on the Revolution that did seem quite televised with the then eccentric Muhammad (character watch!) and Kalik and Jabreel and Jitu/Jiti (inside joke, lol).

You see, what happened was that we (they) wanted others to then KNOW that this child's history was written loud and it was black and it was proud with his dashiki and bongos and afro seen simply and formerly in voicing his first name. When you called his name in class, when you addressed him at his place of business, even at the car wash, you felt our struggle thick in your throats hesitating with incorrect pronunciations as the letters laid flat on your tongues, was it sour to the taste or too sweet still causing you pain?

And then, Father God, came the next generation that took pieces and scraps of people and things that were loved, like the quilts that we used for the Underground Railroad showing the way to those that had the mind to escape: the Ta'Briana and Alexus and Sha'Rahn and Mercedes of the world, the D'Brickashaw and Anquan and Knowshon NFL'ers of the world. We may not all agree on the likes and dislikes of these names, the origins or state of minds, but can we at least agree that they have as much a right to name their child as any person speaking freely? Freedom of Speech has its goods and bads, who is the decider?

I continue to wonder when the ease of speech shifted. How hard must it have been to get used to that taste as it now rolls of the palette as if it is the mother tongue.

Even the parents that named their son Adolf Hitler and one of their daughters JoyceLynn Aryan Nation (I kid you not, look it up), who did so in support of their racist and discriminatory belief system, had every right to do so because, after all, this is a free country. And if I can choose to name my child King Ra or Your Majesty or Legendary or La-a or Destiny or Miracle or Jesus or Angel, they certainly have the same right to use what idiotic piece of their brains are left from hate mongering to do the same.

What was I talking about, again?

Oh yes, names! For all the new comers mine is Ayesha it means Life.

For all intents and purposes, fortunate or un-, this is my Life:-)~
Aisis