By now everyone knows that Kamala Harris is Biden’s pick for Veep. What everyone doesn’t know and can’t seem to get right and in some cases REFUSES TO CARE ABOUT (I’m looking hard at Tucker Carson here, among others) is how to pronounce her name. It’s Comma-la Harris. Like the punctuation mark with a la added. Just to make this clear, k? She has explained this in her memoir (The Truths We Hold: An American Journey); she’s explained time and time again in public interviews; and OTHER people have now made helpful Tik Tok videos to instruct the clueless. Look, folks, this should not be that difficult. UNLESS you have a political WALL that forbids it.
Why am I writing about this? Because I share her story. I live in rural Southwest Virginia. Appalachia. And my name is Kel BasAvraham. Yeah. You can imagine what folks here do with THAT. I sometimes get asked (on the phone) if this is Indian (no); Muslim (no); Arabic (no); Indian (meaning Native American-again no); and very occasionally Jewish (YES). Usually, it’s “Sorry for mangling your name.” But rarely does anyone ask the logical followup: HOW IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE PRONOUNCED? Sometimes I can feel the waves of “you’re not from around here, are you?” coming through the phone line or in modern parlance, bouncing off the cell tower. I now have a practised response: a laugh and a reply that I realize my name gives SW Virginians fits and, no, I’m NOT from around here. Then we get on with with our phone call. Sigh.