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My Alabama Shaw Family on My Father’s Side From 1861-2014

Granddaddy nicknamed my daddy, Adam Shaw, Jr. “Boy” to keep him humble, to serve as under-patriarch of the Shaw family farm business

Posted Oct 12, 2016

Annie Shaw-Barnes, Ph.D.
Author and Speaker
Cultural Anthropologist
Family Specialist
Family Education Specialist
Spousal Abuse Specialist
Christian Church Specialist
Racism Specialist

Hi everyone,

Granddaddy prepared to become a businessman farmer.

Foremost, he nicknamed my daddy “Boy.” In later years, I asked Daddy why Granddaddy nicknamed him “Boy.” He said, "I believe Paw nicknamed me “Boy” to keep me humble. He gave me a lot of power over the younger children. He wanted to make sure that I never used it against him. I didn't. I know Paw called me Boy to make sure I worked his land, and all my brothers and sisters worked his land.” Daddy grew tired of hearing his parents and sisters and brothers calling him “Boy” and, with passion, he disliked being called the demeaning name white bigots called grown black men. Daddy continued, “When people started calling me Adam, Mr. Adam, or Mr. Shaw, for the first time, I felt like a man.”Daddy shows that black men want to be respected as men, like all other men, and, when he was called “Mr.,” the style of black culture, he felt like a man.

Beloved, let’s make every man feel like a man by addressing him by a title, and it feels good to them. When I was teaching in college and had called a young man’s name during roll, before he arrived, at the conclusion of roll call, he raised his hand and said “Mr. Lane is here.” Yes, I respected my students and called them Mr., Mrs. Miss, or Ms. and they, black and white students, loved it.

Join me and call all young black men to older black men by a title, Mr., Dr., or whatever title is theirs.’ When they have not yet earned a degree, let’s continue our rich black culture and call men by the title Mr. According to Mr. Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia and President of the United States, the best title for men is Mr. It follows that all of us students at his university called our men professors, and they all were men, then, “Mr.”

In this title scenario, recall that, if one is older than you, old enough to be your father, for example, even strangers, you must call them Mr., unless they have given you permission to call them by their first name.

I know, for sure, that black men like their titles, and they all have a title, and it is “Mr.” Of course, if they have achieved title, call them by that title because it helps them feel like men.

Guess what? When you respect the title of a person, you respect yourself. Hence, help men to feel like mem by following the rules of culture.

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