And You Know What I Mean.............
I am still pissed about Hillary Clinton’s dropping of the “P” word, what’s next, she’ll be referring to Al Sharpton as “ My Ni&$a”?
The use of the “N” word by our enlightened hip hop artists, and others, has always been a thorn in my side, especially the double standard they reserve in it’s use. You know the rule, “let no one born of woman that lacks dark skin pigmentation, and be not of Negro origins, use the “N” word.” I hate it when some hold others to a standard that they themselves can not keep. It is one of the things in life that really fires me up.
Hillary looked pretty damned cozy, hanging with the brutha’s and sista’s, shootin’ the shit, talking about, “the Man”. I don’t ever remember in the entire eight years of her husbands Presidency, seeing here so relaxed, and at ease around the same group. Hillary is not a people person, never was, never will be. All of a sudden she is. Who’da thunk’ it.
Well, it’s Friday and the weekend calls, to keep this post short and to get to the point, I guess my problem with Hillary using the “P” word is I have always believed she is infinitely more knowledgeable about the “H” word. As in Ho’s, like all the woman she had to keep away from Bill, and as she says, “and you know what I mean”
Later’
posted by bold as love at 3:45 AM
5 Comments:
Bold,
D'ey be her peoples. Her husband Bill... he gib dem midnite basketball, Ron Brown, Joycelin Elders and all dem hambones dey can eat.
Now all she git in return is bad press. Um, Um, Um Um Um!
Stop ripma, that is too funny-
I am always agitated when I hear politicians, or anyone else, prostituting the African-American community because they need to bolster an argument or position.
Senator Clinton is merely following the orthodoxy of American politics. It’s no different than when Senator Lott essentially winked and nodded about all the “problems” that wouldn’t exist if Strom Thurmond has been President, in front of an audience enthusiastic to hear such a thing. There should be no need for surprise.
While I agree with you on your view of Hip-Hop artists, I offer something to consider:
All forms of media, left/right and otherwise, fall into the trap of looking to the Hip-Hops kids as the “voice” of Black people because of their popularity in mainstream modern-pop culture. These rappers are mostly under the age of 25; some are as young as 18 or 19 years old. The same goes for athletes.
What other community is taken to task for what its children under the age of 25 say?
If people went to rock shows and hung out with snowboarders and asked them what they think of the world, White folks (or any other community) would look just as flaky.
Is it really that shocking that Senator Clinton would participate in something that every other politician and mainstream America itself promulgates openly and regularly, especially considering her audience was as egger to hear her race-baiting as Senator Lott’s audience was to hear his race-baiting?
Whatever your politics, this particular incident is far from evidence that there is something wrong with Hilary Clinton; I see this as an endemic flaw in the system of how we deal with race in this country. It’s just more of the same.
In a broader context,
Thanks for your thoughts, I agree with your opinion concerning other culture's taking their under 25 year olds to task, but I want to know what other culture has the problems with their under 25 year old that the black culture does?
Later
In any society on this planet, youth and poverty breed concerns that soon become problems. My concern with the view that it’s “the Blacks” that are having all “the problems,” is that the issue is always framed as a function of being Black. The debate seems to revolve around, “what’s wrong with Black people?”
For instance, consider the first commentator mocking language I’m sure they assume is “Black” in nature. The cadence of that brand of speech is a function of learning English phonetically, which is something African-Americans were forced to do, both by culture and law. Today, there are still those who have retained this speech pattern because it was handed down from parent to child; although it ceases to be as prevalent when formal education is a factor in a child’s upbringing. But like any dialect, from Boston, the South, or out West, the speech pattern is often retained.
However, phonetic English is also found in every trailer-park in America, and it is also handed down from parent to child; and it also has its roots in a lack of formal education. The distinction: “trailer-park” English is not seen as a function of being White. It is distinguished, and determined to be a result of an inadequate education. The same is not true when the discussion turns to Black folks. What is true is that the speech of Black folks who have learned English phonetically is mocked. A view that overtly and subconsciously reinforces the theory that there is “something wrong” with Black folks.
Ultimately, my problem is with adherence to certain cultural orthodoxies we have been weaned on that detract from problem-solving. The mainstream conclusion that, “there is something wrong with Black people,” is all too commonly accepted en masse. From there, numbers are then used to justify this already accepted thesis, rather than addressing the messy and inexact sources of detrimental practices and behaviors that can cripple any people struggling to emerge from poverty.
And thank you for the respectful response you gave.
Post a Comment
<< Home