What's my name?

Blackink, of course.

I have blogged under this pseudonym since firing up this little online operation almost a year ago. Before that, I used "blackink" to comment on other blogs and it's been the name for one of my e-mail accounts for a number of years.

For a number of private and professional reasons, I'm known - not all that widely - as "blackink" and not my given name.

Why do I bring this up? Well, in a rather childish and shameful fit of anger, National Review writer and blogger Ed Whelan outed Obsidian Wings blogger publius this weekend. Publius, one of my favorites in the blogosphere, responds here.

Anyway, I’m not sure whether I’ll start posting under my own name or not. And there were several people who already knew – it’s not like this is a state secret. But still, if I wanted my name out on this blog, I would have done so. It should have been my choice.

What he said goes for me, too. In fact, I'd venture to guess that most of the regular commenters on here know my real name, the real name of the First Lady, where I work and quite possibly, my apartment number. I have even apprised my managers at work about the existence of this blog.

I'm hiding in plain sight, essentially.

But because I sometimes descend into rank partisanship, because I still have the humor of a sixth grader, because I still have professional aspirations that don't include chasing sirens and harassing the family members of dead people, because I'm still wary of having my words used against me someday, I'm cautiously clutching to the pseudonym blackink.

Since we've never had that conversation on here before, I figured now was as good a time as any. I've been questioned about my anonymity in a handful of e-mails over the past few months, and a few have wondered why I don't relentlessly publicize my blog on Facebook. To answer, it's just not my thing. I'm willfully settling for a mediocre online presence to protect what's left of my identity.

And if you're curious as to the inspiration for the name blackink, I'm sorry to tell you that I can't quite remember. I got it either from a verse in a Mos Def rhyme ("flood your city with the blackink flow") or from Black Thought ("don't blink, blackink has arrived, all rise").

I'm hip-hop to my very core, I tell ya.