Dori writes…

 

We have rather exhaustively covered the story of the senseless death of James Paroline – and everyone who reads this blog knows that I would like prosecutors to take a long look at any charges they could file against the girls who started this whole tragedy.

 

But, in my post last night, an interesting topic emerged in the reader comments that I will explore on Wednesday’s show.

 

I named the six young women that the police charging papers have identified as witnesses in this case – some of them were in the car that refused to go around James Paroline’s hose and cone.

 

The six are: Ebonie Shepard, Patrina Hicks, Shawanda Meneese, Tawnetta Wyrick, Asanti Brown, and Prissa Martindale. I made no comment about the ethnicity of the six women, but many of my readers/listeners did.

 

GMckie wrote: As a black man, I hate seeing stuff like this, regardless of who the perp is. I am glad that the thug has been id’ed. Now he just needs to be caught. The little thugettes need to be punished for their part in this also. I know someone that screens applications and hires. They told me when they get applications with names like these thugettes, they get round filed. Why handicap your thugettes right from the start?

 

SeattleNative wrote: Ebonie. Patrina. Shawanda. Tawnetta. Asanti. Prissa. With names like these, how come I’m not surprised they’ve got no respect for their elders? Any of the girls that got out of that car should be charged with incitement of violence. And as an employer of young adults, I too would round file any applications with names like these. Shanequa, Jawanda, Roshanda, Lakeisha, Shaquetta, Takeela, Tashiya…c’mon parents, give your kids a chance at getting out of the ghetto.

 

With another perspective, jjmamaof3 said: not sure what their parents named them has to do with anything. I had friends in high school, white girls, with odd names, Octavia and Eurydice to name a few….a new form a bigotry I didn’t know was out there….judge by the name….I say judge by the actions, which was horrific all on it’s own.

 

I’m most intrigued with GMckie’s comment – he’s a black man who says he knows people who screen job applications – and he says they throw out those from people with clearly black sounding names.

 

That is consistent with a study that came out years ago about a bias against job applicants with “black sounding” names.

 

On the other hand, I know of a couple people with black sounding names – Barack and Condoleeza – who have done pretty well for themselves.

 

We’ll explore this issue in-depth when I’m back on the air Wednesday. Let’s face it, if a guy named “Dori” can get a radio talk show – anything is possible. Only in America!