Growing up as the child of immigrant parents, I often felt out of place in my predominately white neighborhood. Aside from being one of the only Brown kids in my school, I also had — at least according to many of my teachers and peers — a “hard to pronounce” name. (FYI, it’s not that hard to pronounce! Here’s how you say it.)

In my twenties, when I decided to reclaim the correct pronunciation of my name, one of the things I repeatedly heard from people who had only ever known me by the incorrect pronunciation of my name was:

a) that they wish they’d known they were saying my name wrong and

b) that they don’t know how to ask someone the correct pronunciation of their name in a way that doesn’t seem rude or awkward.

Learning the right way to ask someone about the correct pronunciation of their name is such an important skill for anyone who wants to be more inclusive. So in this video, I share a helpful script for you to use when you want to ask someone about how to pronounce their name correctly.

Watch now!

The post How to Ask Someone the Correct Pronunciation of Their Name appeared first on Ritu Bhasin.

Our names are so important. Names are a huge part of our identity, a reflection of our cultural backgrounds, and more. Speaking from my own experience, having your name mispronounced repeatedly feels really awkward and alienating — you start to feel like you’re the “other” or an outsider.

But correcting people when they mispronounce your name can also feel awkward and difficult, especially as a person of color, when you’re already consistently on the receiving end of biases related to your cultural background.

In this video, I share how to get people to pronounce your name correctly if you have a “hard-to-pronounce” name, based on my own experiences with people mispronouncing my name.

Watch now!

The post How to Get People to Pronounce Your Name Correctly appeared first on Ritu Bhasin.

You may have noticed in your discussions with others about race or when you’ve been reading through the comments section on content posted by a BIPOC writer (including on some of my own videos), that people use the phrase “reverse racism”  to talk about how white people are also the target of racism.

This perception comes up in many different situations, whether it’s because a white person feels adversely affected by affirmative action policies or because they’re upset that they’ve been called out for cultural appropriation.

This phrase has now become a full beehive in my bonnet and so I’ve been itching to take this on because reverse racism reflects a lack of understanding of white supremacy.

In this video, I explain why reverse racism doesn’t exist and share a helpful way of explaining the difference between racism and prejudice the next time someone brings up reverse racism.

Watch now!

The post There’s No Such Thing as Reverse Racism appeared first on Ritu Bhasin.