My God is Oath, My God is Abundance / Full of Grace / Ghost (Spectre)
At the doctor’s office, the receptionist tells me she likes my name.
It’s my third name, Sarah Ruth Elizabeth tells me.
I am Elizabeth Anne, and I carry both of my grandmother’s names.
Sarah and I are the only black women in the office,
So I listen closely to guess where she may be from.
Trinidadians sing their words while Jamaicans eat them, my mother told me once.
To call a people “black” is to say they can be from anywhere or nowhere.
To call a people “american” is to say that the origin no longer matters.
Growing up in New Jersey, I would say to people:
My dad is Canadian and my mom is Trinidadian.
People always ask how they met (in a Brooklyn bound train –
My father correctly identified her accent). Her last name is Irish.
My last name is the best indicator of where my father’s family came from.
(Gespenst means ghost or spectre in German). My last name is Spenst.
I am always and continually in the process of claiming my last name as my own.
The Spectres spirited themselves out of Russia. The part of Russia now called Ukraine.
It was the 1920s. There was war. They were pacifists. Their religion (Mennonite).
Demanded peace at all costs. Canada. Land to farm. Freedom to be.
Rights of Disposition
Rights to Use and Enjoyment
Reputation and Status Property
The Absolute Right to Exclude
Name: __________________
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[The table of contents image (above) is displayed in Whiteness As Property by Cheryl Harris, Harvard Law Review, 1993]