Full transcript
0:03my thing is that if I say my name is
0:05Barack or but you can call me whoever
0:07that's different if you ask me what my
0:09name is and I say my name is Barack or
0:10clearly it's because I want you to call
0:12me
0:13[Music]
0:17my name is benico I grew up in South
0:20Africa in Johannesburg we used to go to
0:23school with a lot of Afrikaans people
0:25like kids so I would run around shoeless
0:28most of the time when I was in like a
0:30nursery school but that was a while ago
0:32hahaha
0:34I often have to um repeat myself a cup
0:37more than once and then other times
0:39people just like okay okay and then
0:41whether it's right or wrong they're just
0:43kind of
0:44um too unbothered to figure out whether
0:46that's you know whether that's okay
0:48whether they could do better for
0:49themselves in terms of how they say my
0:51name
0:53sometimes people are like oh like where
0:55where is she from where do I box you or
0:58where do you fit um in the world
1:01way someone has said my name is Pico and
1:04I was like no that's really not even
1:06trying it's better go
1:11um but other people have been like oh
1:12what's your English name or what's your
1:14white name and I'm like I don't have an
1:16English name or white name
1:18you can feel really
1:20um shoved to the side and I felt like I
1:23had to you know almost English if I my
1:26my name
1:29PK that's what a lot of people through
1:31that slapped that name rather on me and
1:34then from there there was no turning
1:35back so
1:37um I'm very particular with what I like
1:40to be called
1:45is like a language
1:48um it's related to work because it's to
1:50work in setswana is or work is
1:53a lot of African people they'll try and
1:57name you based on where they see your
2:00future taking you
2:02a couple of years back I did used to
2:04feel
2:05um pressured being in like very
2:07predominantly
2:08um wide spaces or whatever or whether
2:10I'm you know meeting important people
2:14who you know I'm trying to give a good
2:16impression to or
2:19um things like that but these days no no
2:23not at all
2:25nor I say my name the way I say my name
2:28I'm a person of color I'm a South
2:30African and I'm black and my name and
2:33how difficult it is all the politics
2:35that come with it all of these other
2:37elements let me say of who you are come
2:40into place it's a part of my identity
2:43it's an extension of my roots and where
2:45I come from it's part of my being as a
2:48person because I like to think I'm a
2:50hard worker and I hope that one day I
2:51will reap the benefits of that it's more
2:54than just a couple of you know letters
2:56flung together and thrown at you
3:04foreign