A couple of years ago a female colleague of mine from North America – let’s call her Lorna Davis – was presenting an academic paper with a research partner who is from a state in Africa. His first name is common in the UK – Edward – but his second name is not. The person who was chairing the panel professes to be an ‘expert’ in the politics of Edward’s home country. This panel chair asked Edward to pronounce his second name, then he asked again, and when he still couldn’t pronounce it he asked again. Eventually the panel chair said ‘I’m sorry I can’t pronounce that, so I’m going to say this paper was written by Lorna Davis and Edward.’ Once again it’s paternalising, and denigrates the work of the Black researcher.
