April 14, 2011

The first time I heard the name Shaniqua in mainstream media was back in the late 1980’s with the song by Oran “Juice” Jones called “Shaniqua”.  The lyrics of the song were “Shaniqua got me Whipped”.  His video and lyrics depicted a vixen named Shaniqua who Oran “Juice” was dangerously in love with.  Her persona was sexy, fem-fatal and seductive.  The image was fine for me at such a young age because, what young girl doesn’t fantasize about being an object of a man’s desires at some point in her adult life.  At the time, the name Shenequa was alright with me.  Around that same era there was a Cosby show episode where a beautiful black princess named Shaniqua Watkins appears on the scene dating a male cast member on the show.  The young lady was pretty, intelligent, and gentle all the positive attributes little black girls needed in their lives.  Fast-forward to the 1990’s and Sheneneh Jenkins arrives on the scene and destroys the positive image and role model that was so carefully developed and morphed her into a comical and misrepresented character.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0uFcf7Cft4  Now I could go on and completely try to destroy the genius work that Martin Lawrence has done to create such character and that would not be very Shaniqua of me so I’m not going to do that.  What I do plan do with it is shed light on the negative persona and somehow change the branding of Shaniqua so that the Sheneoqua’s, Shenequa’s Shaniqua’s will never have to worry if when they submit their qualified resume online that they will be judged accordingly.  My goal is to take back Shaniqua and rebrand her image back into a positive one. 

A Human Being Named Sheneoqua

I have decided to begin a blog which will help to unmask the stereotype of the name Shaniqua. The purpose of this is to help other young women with “non- traditional” names come to terms with the stereotype.  I also want find out exactly how many Shaniqua’s, Shenequa’s, Shanekqua’s reside in the U.S. what has their experiences been as far as acceptance.  I want to know their age, their background, education, profession, good experiences with the name as well as the dark side of adorning such a title.  I Googled the origin of the name Shaniqua and it took me to babynames.com.  Now from their research Shaniqua was most popular in 1991 and number 313 on the list, it currently ranks number 794 in U.S. birth, and the name has never been rated as a favorite for baby names.  The alternative spellings for Shaniqua is Shaneikqua; I can certaintly add to that, Sheneoqua “o” is silent, Shenequa, Shanequa.  The origin of the name Shaniqua is American and the meaning of the name Shaniqua is an Invented name. The word “invent” the dictionary defines the word invent as, to produce or contrive something previously unknown by the use of ingenuity or imagination; to make up or fabricate, falsehoods.  When I read the word invented and the name Shaniqua in the same sentence I can just about understand why the stereotype exists. Since the name is made up that means the beholder of Shaniqua can create whatever fantasy or false representation one can fathom; and the stereotype will stick. With media, television, radio, I make Shaniqua look and be anything I choose.  This however does not benefit the real Shaniqua’s of the country the human beings named Sheneoqua the ones who have to boldly wear it.