Freakonomics Radio

Hello, My Name Is Marijuana Pepsi!

Research shows that having a distinctively black name doesn’t affect your economic future. But what is the day-to-day reality of living with such a name? Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck, a newly-minted PhD, is well qualified to answer this question. Her verdict: The data don’t tell the whole story.

Some years ago, a new third-grade teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, was sitting with her colleagues at the beginning of the school year. The teachers had just been given their class lists, and one of the teachers was angry. After taking a quick look at her class list, she complained to the principal, “Every effing year, I get these bad-A students, and my test scores are going to be in the toilet.”

“And I am sitting there, looking at the front and back of my paper, because clearly I’m missing some sheets of paper,” recalls the new teacher. “Clearly, she’s received something with more information than I have. I’m like, ‘What am I missing? What is the matter? What does she know about her test scores? I don’t have any test scores.’”