From Christensen, Linda. Reading, Writing, and Rising Up. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 2000. Print. 10-11.
I changed my name to Bakari Chavanu six years ago and my mom still won't pronounce it. The mail she send me is still addressed to Johnnie McCowan. I was named after my father. When I was brought up the subject with her of changing my name, she said my father would turn over in his grave, and "besides," she said, "how could you be my son if you changed your name?"
I knew she was responding emotionally to what I decided to do. I knew and respected also that she was, of course, the giver of my life and my first identity, but how do I make her understand the larger picture? That the lives of people are more than their families and their birth names, that my identity was taken from me, from her, from my father, from my sister, from countless generations of my people enslaved for the benefit of others? How do I make her understand what it means for a kidnapped people to reclaim their identity? How do I help her to understand the need for people of African descent to reclaim themselves?