Megan Mulls It Over

+JMJ

Welcome to the very first post on this blog. If this is your first time here, please consider visiting the “Background” section first.

A topic that has been on my mind for several years has been celebrities who change their names to something that obscures their ethnic origins. I understand that many who do this have done so for the following reasons:

–Rampant discrimination against members of their ethnic group that would make it difficult for them to find work with their real names; and/or

–A belief that their real names would be difficult for most people to pronounce.

I am not condemning these reasons and the people who have used them. However, I am uncomfortable with the practice of not reverting back to using your real name once you are no longer in danger of losing work for using it. One example of this is Martin Sheen, born Ramón Estévez. He has probably received several “Hispanic achievement” accolades along the way, yet no one who saw his name without knowing anything else about him would know that he is Hispanic. Wouldn’t it have sent a great message to aspiring Hispanic actors (as well as a great fist-shaking at any past and present discriminators) if he would have announced in one of his many acceptance speeches that he had chosen to return to his birth name?

Another example of this who makes me even more uncomfortable is Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz. The “kicker” for me when it comes to Simmons is found in his real name itself. You Fiddler on the Roof fans out there will probably guess where I am going with this. Does it make anyone else hurt a little inside to see the son of a Holocaust survivor not use his real first name when it literally means “life”? Compounding this is the fact that Simmons wants every American to be a devoted Zionist and never question the Israeli government or how much money our government sends it every year. If our money and manpower is so necessary to the survival of your people and homeland, could you bolster that argument by showing that you care enough about them to use your real name?

Simmons is also one of those name-changers who has failed to give his real last name to his children. Here is a man who has spoken at length in public about the pride he feels in his Jewish and Israeli identity, and yet he apparently feels like giving his children one of his Jewish surnames is not an important part of preserving that identity. What’s up with that?

For the record, I also wish that Ted Cruz would consider using his real first name, Rafael. When I first learned that he had taken “Ted” from “Eduardo,” I immediately thought of Ted Kennedy. Now some of you might be thinking, “Come on, Megan. Ted Kennedy doesn’t own that nickname.” Fair enough, but Ted Cruz’s own father refused to use his nickname for a time after Cruz’s mother pointed out that it paralleled Ted Kennedy’s nickname. Look at it this way: even though this wasn’t his intention, Cruz technically went from the name of an archangel to the name of a notorious philanderer whose ideology clashed drastically with his own. Just some food for thought.

Verso l’alto and l’chaim,

Megan