What's Your Name, Girl? By Maya Angelou

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In her narrative piece “What’s Your Name, Girl?,” Maya Angelou describes some of the challenges that she faced as an African American girl growing up in the South. At the age of ten, Angelou experiences racism from Mrs. Cullinan, the woman she works for. One day, after serving Mrs. Cullinan and her friends, she is asked what her name is. Mrs. Cullinan tells her friend that the girl’s name is “Margaret,” to which her friend remarks is “too long,” and that she would shorten the name, had Maya been her slave. The day after this incident, Angelou, already upset about the comments over her name, is referred to as “Mary” by Mrs. Cullinan. As “Mary” is the name that Mrs. Cullinan’s friend said is the name she would have called her, this offends Angelou.

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