“What is in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Hold up, hold up, hold up.
What is in a colour? Do green eggs and ham sound appetizing to you?
Lucy Zelić, the SBS World Cup presenter of Croatian heritage, has been slammed for “over-pronouncing” the names of players during the World Cup. Not for pronouncing the names incorrectly, but for OVER pronouncing them.
She’s even copped flak for pronouncing Colombia ColOmbia instead of ColUmbia like 95% of white people tend to do despite having attained their pen licenses at 9 years old.
Names are easy to take for granted when they are not tongue twisters, when they are not controversial, when they do not immediately Other you or get in the way of employment.
My name—Saúl—is admittedly hard for anglophones to pronounce, I do not disregard that. I anglicise my name into Sah-ool for anglophones as a gesture of peace; a kind of I won’t make you squirm at the inherent racism of refusing to learn the true, proper pronunciation of my name. But I do ask that you call me Sah-ool or at the very least S-all.
It’s a basic gesture of dignity: I see you as a human, thus I will learn your name.
Instead of course I get a lot of Say-uhl. Hell, just the other week after someone took my name for an order, after I literally spelled out my name “Saúl, spelt es ay yew el,” I got an obnoxiously loud “COFFEE FOR SAYLEE.”
Not being able to pronounce a name is a forgivable offence—if I’m in a forgiving mood.
Not being willing to pronounce a name correctly isn’t a joke, it’s an affront. Abusing an immigrant woman who understands the importance of acknowledging the inherent dignity in all of us by properly pronouncing our names is something else. It’s misogyny trying to pass as tallpoppy-whitepower, and isn’t that interesting?
It is telling that Les Murray took the same approach and was applauded for his efforts, but when a woman does it, there are new and fascinating ways to tear her down, even if she is white. It’s sad that while misogyny is increasingly becoming a social taboo, assholes are still willing to cover it with wilful xenophobia and racism. It’s because despite all of our social gains, white supremacy is still currency.
What ‘PC culture’ is increasingly doing to our media, and what has-been comedians continually lament, is to create new taboos, and this is a good thing.
During the 20th century, our taboos were based on religious terms like “go to hell” or scatological/sexual terms like “fuck you” and “shit”. Nowadays taboos are increasingly being shifted towards issues of identity.
You may lament this as “identity politics” but how we are identified forms the basis for how we are discriminated against.
Increasingly shifting taboos from scat/sex onto identity is creating an extra layer of protection for minorities.
We fixed the legal issues, the de jure, and now we’re fixing the cultural issues, the de facto. Where previously we policed women and queer folk through social pressure and laws, we’ve today created laws against bigots and now added social pressure as well. Taboos are the ultimate form of control, and now they are controlling bigotry and hatred.
Which brings me back to Lucy Zelić. Isn’t it interesting that the obviously sexist backlash against her, has opted for a more ‘politically correct’ backlash, one of xenophobia?
Isn’t it interesting that so many of the white queer community, as ‘egalitarian’ as it is, will fight for abortions for anyone with a uterus, happily use a Beyoncé or Rhianna gif to sass someone, but refuse to date a black, Asian, or vaguely brown human being, and gladly promote this via their Grindr?
It shouldn’t surprise us; whiteness is the broadest privilege. Regardless of your other marginalisations—queer, female, etc.—if you are white, you still have that power. That is the broadest truth about intersectionality we need to digest: we all, in some way, hold power over someone else.
The strongest system to have continued to dominate is the imperial nature of whiteness through its most toxic tool: imperialism.
It may no longer be okay to be sexist. It may no longer be okay to be queerphobic. But it’s still more okay to be racist than sexist/queerphobic.
What is in a name? It’s the basic litmus test for how racist our society is. If you’re not even willing to get a name right, how egalitarian are you really?
About the author
Saúl A. Zavarce C. is a Melbourne-based Venezuelan-Australian Human Rights advocate who migrated to Australia in 1992. He identifies as a mestizo and gender-queer, with Indigenous, Afro-Venezuelan and European heritage. He is the Head of Advocacy at the Venezuelan Australian Democratic Council and Campaign Officer at Plan International Australia. He holds a Master of International Relations, specialising in gender and radicalisation theory from Monash University.