My Name Change

On Monday, June 15, I stumbled on an article about our local cafe, Kickapoo Coffee, who is changing their name to Wonderstate, due to the cultural appropriation of the name “Kickapoo,” (intended to reference the river, but “Kickapoo” is the name of tribes in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, as well as in Mexico). The cafe is owned by two white males. To put the cultural appropriation into context, as a Milwaukee resident, if I hear the name “Kickapoo” and think at best “that’s the name of a river,” and at worst, “that’s the name of a cafe,” if it’s the latter, this means the Kickapoo Tribes – still present and active today – has been downplayed or even erased from our modernized [white] culture.

In a letter written on June 10, 2020, co-owner TJ Semanchin explains:

“We were finally pushing for an April launch of this year, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This dramatically slowed production times and our team’s capacity for a period, and we made the tough decision to change the name by August 3rd. As soon as we recognized the stagnation of our process, we should have fully decoupled our name change from our larger rebrand. But we didn’t. We made a professional choice, instead of a human decision in line with our values. Once again we would like to commit to righting this wrong, starting with taking action tomorrow to do everything we can to stop perpetuating our use of the Kickapoo name.”

Let’s back up a second. I’d like to define a few terms, just to make sure we’re on the same page. I know that taking about race might be uncomfortable right now, and I want to make sure nothing I talk about is confusing or unclear. Above all else, I want to welcome you into this experience of mine, not push you away.

Full transparency: I’m currently in the early stages of learning more about moving beyond just “not being racist,” but rather acting as an antiracist. Committing to this is very important to me and I do not take it lightly. Thus far, I’ve purchased and completed a small course with lectures and materials created by Antiracism Educator L. Glenise Pike, who has helped me define the following terms:

What is Antiracism?

From L. Glenise Pike: “Antiracism is the act of opposing racism/white supremacy in all forms – even the racism that exists within me and the forms I perpetuate with my behaviors. It is about identifying the root causes of racism and putting an end to them.” (source)

What is White Supremacy?

As a white person, I always just stereotypically boxed in the term “White Supremacy” to mean racist white people in the south who might either be active or closeted members of the KKK. But as I’ve learned more about how systemic racism has played a role in all parts of our country’s structure, White Supremacy also means “white superiority” “white-washing” “white-first” and “white-centered” – really, any experience where an area directly or indirectly benefits, supports, or centers around white people before it trickles down to non-white people, or worse, cuts out or erases non-white people altogether.

While I’ve been digging in deep over the past two weeks to become far more educated about my personal roles and responsibilities as an Antiracist, after reading formerly-known-as Kickapoo Coffee’s rebrand apology, I quickly scanned my life for examples of cultural appropriation or even flat out Racism or White Supremacy, as it relates to my professional business life. So with this upgraded lens in front of my eyes, like a cleaner pair of glasses, it hit me: my freelance business name, “As The Crow Designs” has got to go as soon as physically possible.

Why? How is this name hurting anyone?

While the name itself is pretty benign, there are two very distinct pieces of folklore connected to both the logo + the ‘mythology’ of my freelance design business. To not own up to and acknowledge how these two aspects of my business could have been or could be offensive and hurtful to members of the Black, Indigenous, and people of color community is at best: naive … and at squishy middle: ignorant … and at worst: outright racist. I want to rectify all three of these so there’s no room left for error. Again – to clarify the definition of being an Antiracist – I must identify, unpack, and dismantle how my behaviors perpetuate white supremacy and harm the BIPOC community.

So here goes:

1. The Crow Feather: Yes, I could pass this off as but a mere cute design element that’s representative of my business name and story which is centered around the old English nautical phrase “As The Crow Flies,” the most direct route from one place to another. (reference) 

But while this external-facing brand story is relatively benign, I created an internal mythology – which I’ve definitely shared with others – from the story of Dumbo: specifically the group of crows take pity on poor Dumbo and his tragic story of life in the circus. In order to inspire a boost of confidence, they give him a “magic” feather to help him fly – eventually Dumbo realizes he can fly on his own. In the context of my business mytholody, letting go of my “magic feather” was to let go of the stability of the traditional workforce in order to venture out on my own. When I started my business, this mythology was a way I instilled confidence in myself because quitting my job and jumping into the freelance world was definitely scary!

Dumbo: an innocuous children’s tale, right? Wrong. The main problem here is in the crows themselves. In short: the 1941 Disney film depicts these crows with overt and harmful racial stereotypes, namely their color, their style of speaking, and the most obvious of all: the lead bird’s name is Jim Crow (referencing the U.S. racial segregation laws). And while the other crows are voiced by black actors, Jim Crow is voiced by a white actor. I apologize if Disney’s role in harming Black, Indigenous, and people of color with these sorts of stereotypes is distracting from my overall point, but please listen to this interview with scholar, writer, and activist Walidah Imarisha to learn more about it.*

2. The Crow Philosophy: Here’s my original written philosophy, which I have since changed, and I’ve bolded the two references that are direct cultural appropriations of the Indigenous community:

“You need the crow: A symbol of change and opportunity, a lucky totem, a wise sage, a guide who is eager to reveal how to maneuver to point B. I’ve spent 15 years in the print and digital space, improving client and customer experiences through architecture, layout, and design. I’ve met some invaluable people along the way — spirit animals, teachers, and guides who’ve helped me transcend the limits of this ever-changing terrain to push forward.”

Again, at first glance, these are terms many of us throw around with no over harm or offense intended, myself included. But, again, once I see, I can’t unsee. So here are just a few of the reasons why these terms are lazy, harmful, and offensive:

• By using these terms to define me and my business, I’m effectively perpetuating the white-washing and watering down of the original meaning of these sacred terms. Consider this: I would never intend to use any other culture’s God/god/Holy Spirit or otherwise to refer to myself. Also, whether or not I believe spirit animals helped me in my journey (honestly, the concept of ‘spirit animals’ does resonate with my soul tremendously!), this is a term pulled directly from the Indigenous community’s spiritual practices, of which I am not part, therefore I should replace it or remove it altogether.
• By assuming I can use these words because “everyone uses them nowadays” is just another way I’m perpetuating the ways white colonialism erases and displaces Indigenous people in America to this day.
• This description I’ve used isn’t just me writing for the sake of writing. I make money from my business and if using these words directly or indirectly attributes to that income, I’m profiting off of a culture that is not my own.
• I’m a storyteller and a copywriter, there is absolutely no reason I need to use words to describe my business from cultures that aren’t my own. I can definitely come up with something more reflective of myself and my culture.

As an aside, if you’d like to learn more about this topic and what helped me see the err of my ways, please read the Indigenous organization Cultural Survival’s* article, “Cultural Appropriation and Indigenous Stereotypes in the Current Political Climate” from Feb. 2017. 

So the real problem here is that, once this became crystal clear I said to myself, if I don’t change my name immediately, I go from blissfully ignorant to much worse real quick. Sure, I could simply come up with a new logo, delete any references to the cultural appropriation and offensive references, but from my perspective, that’s simply not good enough. In my heart, I want to make full amends.

So for the time being and for future reference: I’m simply using my first and last name as I move forward as a freelancer. At this time, this is a strong symbol and reminder that I – Katie Robleski – am 100% accountable when it comes to being more inclusive and respectful of all people and all cultures. While it won’t be an instant process, I’ve started to take the necessary steps to inform my clients and remove “As The Crow Designs,” along with the feather, from the web and my materials. I hope to carve out some time for a proper brand story, logo, and design that reflects my new chapter. Being a brand strategist and designer with a full client load – I knew how much time that would take, and I wanted this interim phase to happen immediately (I published three days after I read the Kickapoo story once my website was scrubbed and re-domained.)

To close and reiterate my goal today and with absolute clarity: as a brand storyteller and a white person, it’s not just my job, but my responsibility to ensure the business stories of my clients, but most importantly myself, are at the very least doing absolutely zero harm to Black, Indigenous, or people of color. That change starts with me.

Perhaps it goes without saying, perhaps I’m going overboard, but if I feel the tug to apologize, that’s what I’m going to do. To individuals who are part of any community who stumbled onto my website or actually worked with me and felt at the least awkward and uncomfortable, or on some level white-washed, offended, or worse, I am sincerely sorry for any discomfort or harm I caused you. I can do better and I will do better. That is my pledge.

Revealing this story of mine today is my personal way of identifying and unpacking any behaviors of mine – no matter where they fall on the grand spectrum – in order to do my part to dismantle white supremacy. Perhaps by doing so, just like the Kickapoo owners’ apology made ME come to terms with my actions, perhaps it will encourage someone else reading my story to do the same. I open this to any and all comments, public or private (email me at katie@katierobleski.com). I’ve tried my best to be as clear and direct as possible, but in these early stages of learning, it’s very possible I’ve stumbled somewhere up there. If I’m informed of these mistakes (or as I come to realize them myself) I’ll continue to return to this statement and adjust and edit as necessary with references to why, so it’s clear.

Thanks for reading. Truth be told, it’s really sad to say goodbye to my business name. She served me well…for nearly four years to the day I started out on my own: Independence Day, funny enough. My heart was indeed in the right place back then. But this will be nice clean break to start something new and on the right foot.

If you made it all the way to this sentence (whew!), I honestly do hope this story resonated with you. If it did, in any way, both negatively or positively, I urge you to follow that call and learn more about why. If you’d like to chat more about it, my door is ALWAYS open.

*I have compensated all intellectual labor contributors to this post for their efforts.