What’s your name?

1: “What’s your name?”
2: “Taquim”
1: “Are you Muslim?”
2: “No.”
1: “Where you from?”
2: “Jamaica.”
1: “Oh I see. Sounds like an Arabic name.”
2: “Yeah, hmm.”
1: “Some Jamaican’s have Arabic names, like Latifah.”
2: “Oh yeah? That’s Arabic?”
1: “Yeah yeah.”
2: “Oh I never knew that.”
1: “Omari…from Omar, Shakur.”
2: [A look of surprise on his face.]
1: “Like Tupac Shakur…Shakur from shukur, to give thanks….Shakeel, yeah there’s a good number of names, a lot of Black folks in the States use these names too.”
2: “Nice.”