Thank you for bringing this up. It’s amazing to me how white mayonnaise American these arguments become.

There’s a real white privilege basis to the framework this entire discussion. It’s reflected in your essay, but I can’t say that you are guilty of an oversight that isn’t echoed by the larger culture.

You know, a lot of cultures, including my tribe, didn’t have last names until an outside culture forced it on us. In our case, it was the US government and it’s “Manifest Destiny”.