the sound of music

what's in a name?

i was taking orders in the drive through last week. taking orders and getting names can be tricky. most days it feels like you can hear everything except people’s names and what they are ordering over the headset. thankfully people are understanding more often than not. getting a name wrong when i spell “ashley” as “ashleigh” or put down “caitlyn” instead of “katelynn” isn’t a very large transgression.

but for people on the receiving end of microaggressions and “jokes” that are actually overt racism, a name being misspelled is a much bigger deal. for that reason i try to be extra careful with customers who are Black, Indian [as in, from the country of India or of Indian descent], Asian or of other lineages with names that do not always translate well into english. i try to follow their lead.