This morning, after walking the dog, I watched one of my favorite movies from the 90's, "Higher Learning". If you don't remember or never saw this wonderful movie, it's basically about racial and sexual tension at college during the 90's. I'm not going to go in on an attack on Tyra Banks' horrible performance, I'm going to just say, that when I walked out of the theatre after viewing this, I wanted to hurt a Caucasian, not because I'm racist, but because the movie just enraged me to that exact point. Lets say, during that time period, it was seen as being "Pro-Black" to if not hate, at least, resent White people. Almost every African-American driven film produced during the late 80's and early 90's had a strong "Black people being held down by the Man" view to it. From "School Daze", "Do The Right Thing", "Cry Freedom", "Driving Miss Daisy", and "Mississippi Burning", films during this period made Black people want to hurt White people. I don't really want to get into those types of racism related films, I want to bring up a different type of racism related films, "forbidden love stories". Movies like "Jungle Fever", "Mississippi Masala", "Zebrahead" and "A Bronx Tale", explored the workings and social stigma of interracial relationships. I'd being lying if I didn't say that when I was a younger man, I entertained that oft heard opinion that people of different ethnic backgrounds shouldn't date. But as I've grown older, I've learned how ignorant and idiotic that particular notion is. And that brings me to the point of this blog post.
The other day, I received my copy of "This Christmas", a story of an African American family coming together for Christmas. A main plot device in the film is the acceptance of one of the children's Caucasian wife. It threw me for a loop, this being 2008, the President-Elect being of mixed ethnicity, and interracial couples everywhere. Maybe it's because I live in New York City, where there are so many people, there's a great chance of you being in an interracial relationship. Seriously, I know that racism is far from dead, but hasn't most of America gotten past interracial couples (I mean, we still have the NFL)? It seems idiotic for films to explore this subject, seeing as it is out of most peoples' head. Even in the new millennium, movies still attempted to tackle this non-starter, with "Monster's Ball", crappy films such as "Save the Last Dance", "Something New", "Lakeview Terrace", and "In the Mix". What is Hollywood going to do next, produce a remake of "Aaron Loves Angela", a story of a Black man and a Puerto Rican woman being in a relationship (make it a Dominican, and then they can just record my life)? Is it really possible that a large number of people still have a distaste for interracial dating? That kind of scares me!
I know that when I was younger, if I would've brought a White woman home, my father would have reacted in the way that families reacted in those films in the 90's. But now, I could care less, I'd date a girl of any persuasion. I've been around America and I've seen beautiful women of every race and ethnic background. I understand that there are still, and there will always be, ignorant people, that look down on people because of their race. But honestly, when whats the problem with me dating a White female? And it can be because she is taking a Black man away from a Black female (especially since most Black women don't like me anyway). Is it because, if I had children, my children wouldn't know which race to identify with? It can't be that, especially since our President is multiracial (and my kids will have that kinky mixed kid hair, word to Cree Summer). When I was young and dumb, I didn't fully understand why I thought the way that I did. Maybe it was too many Louis Farrakhan tapes? But as I've grown, I've learned to take people as they are, no matter what race or ethnic background they are. Why has Hollywood not realized that the idea of interracial dating is not taboo at all in this point of time?
Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 07, 2008
Teach the students what needs to be taught, cause Black and White kids both take shorts!
The readers of my blog know that for the past few years, I have been very worried about the Pussification of the world. I've been trying to impel the masses to revolt against this threat on manhood. The unstable influx of tight jeans, man-scarfs, DayGlo shoes, and other less than masculine objects that men have begun wearing, is blurring the line between flamboyant Gay's and straight men. What ever happened to real manly men like "Ironside", Raymond Burr; what, "Perry Mason" was gay? Okay, whatever happened to manly men like "Stewart McMillan", Rock Hudson; what, Rock Hudson was gay too, come on, it was "McMillan and Wife", not "McMillan and Husband". Okay, whatever, back to what I was really talking about. I was concerned with the Pussifaction of the world, but yesterday, I found a new scourge threatening the world's sensibilities, the Stupidification of the world!
Yesterday, I was on the telephone with my cuzo, Heezy, he was telling me about his school assignment. The assignment was to pick your favorite song and write about how it reflects society, pertaining to business (he's in business school). He told me that the song he decided to use was "Ebonics" by Big L (a song I embedded in a prior blog entry). The conversation led me to start thinking about the subject matter that is taught in schools presently, mostly I thought about "Ebonics" classes, which was pioneered by the Oakland, CA school board. Ebonics, supposedly, "linguistic and paralinguistic features which on a concentric continuum represent the communicative competence of the West African, Caribbean, and United States slave descendant of African origin", or as I refer to it, "stupidity rewarded". I may not be a linguistic expert, an English professor, and I, very frequently, use "African American Vernacular English", but I know that teaching this substandard jargon to children is counterproductive. When Merriam-Webster, the definitive lexicon, interpolates words, such as "conversate" (the correct word is "converse"), "ain't" (the correct word is "isn't"), and "crunk" (there's no correct word, this is just stupidity), it signals the end to education. Come on, they can't be serious, "ginormous", "himbo", "bling-bling", these are words that have been added to Webster's Dictionary. I understand that if the popularity of a word increases in the vernacular of the masses, dictionary publishers must add it to the word stock. But am I the only one that is a little scared that this is just awarding the misuse of well established words (what's next, adding "nahmean" to the dictionary?). Will it one day be acceptable to respond to questions during a business meeting with a loud "bong-bong"? When I was younger, a person from my neighborhood whom used correct grammar was seen as "trying to be White" or a "smarty-art nigga", will that be the norm for everywhere in the near future? Will the world be turned upside-down, and intelligence will be seen as stupidity and stupidity be seen as intelligence, as if we lived in some "Bizarro World" (word to Clark Kent)?
If you ask my sister, she'd probably say that the most degrading things she's ever been called, besides a "nigger", are "articulate", "eloquent", and "intelligible". Like I've said before, when I was younger, an intelligent Black person was referred to as a "sell-out" or an "Uncle Tom" (word to Ralph Nader). It's sort of a veiled insult to call a Black person "articulate", "bright", and "clean" (word to Joe Biden), because it is assuming that Black people, in general, cannot possess those qualities. So, you can call me a "sell-out" or an "Uncle Tom" because I see the teaching of the youth and the addition of ignorant vernacular to the dictionary as a huge disservice to the youth, who are the future!
So, on a parting note, I want to express a great deal of gratitude and appreciation to my family, such as my twin, Sean, my big sister, Si-Lo, my cuzos, Mercury and Starpower (who helped inspire this entry), and the countless others who dedicate their time and energy into the youth of the world. I also want to express the opprobrium I feel for the parents that allow this injustice to take place. When the world allows their children to be cheated out of a proper education and the misappropriation of their mental capacity, we are destroying not only our children, but our future as well (word to Whitney Houston).
Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!
Yesterday, I was on the telephone with my cuzo, Heezy, he was telling me about his school assignment. The assignment was to pick your favorite song and write about how it reflects society, pertaining to business (he's in business school). He told me that the song he decided to use was "Ebonics" by Big L (a song I embedded in a prior blog entry). The conversation led me to start thinking about the subject matter that is taught in schools presently, mostly I thought about "Ebonics" classes, which was pioneered by the Oakland, CA school board. Ebonics, supposedly, "linguistic and paralinguistic features which on a concentric continuum represent the communicative competence of the West African, Caribbean, and United States slave descendant of African origin", or as I refer to it, "stupidity rewarded". I may not be a linguistic expert, an English professor, and I, very frequently, use "African American Vernacular English", but I know that teaching this substandard jargon to children is counterproductive. When Merriam-Webster, the definitive lexicon, interpolates words, such as "conversate" (the correct word is "converse"), "ain't" (the correct word is "isn't"), and "crunk" (there's no correct word, this is just stupidity), it signals the end to education. Come on, they can't be serious, "ginormous", "himbo", "bling-bling", these are words that have been added to Webster's Dictionary. I understand that if the popularity of a word increases in the vernacular of the masses, dictionary publishers must add it to the word stock. But am I the only one that is a little scared that this is just awarding the misuse of well established words (what's next, adding "nahmean" to the dictionary?). Will it one day be acceptable to respond to questions during a business meeting with a loud "bong-bong"? When I was younger, a person from my neighborhood whom used correct grammar was seen as "trying to be White" or a "smarty-art nigga", will that be the norm for everywhere in the near future? Will the world be turned upside-down, and intelligence will be seen as stupidity and stupidity be seen as intelligence, as if we lived in some "Bizarro World" (word to Clark Kent)?
If you ask my sister, she'd probably say that the most degrading things she's ever been called, besides a "nigger", are "articulate", "eloquent", and "intelligible". Like I've said before, when I was younger, an intelligent Black person was referred to as a "sell-out" or an "Uncle Tom" (word to Ralph Nader). It's sort of a veiled insult to call a Black person "articulate", "bright", and "clean" (word to Joe Biden), because it is assuming that Black people, in general, cannot possess those qualities. So, you can call me a "sell-out" or an "Uncle Tom" because I see the teaching of the youth and the addition of ignorant vernacular to the dictionary as a huge disservice to the youth, who are the future!
So, on a parting note, I want to express a great deal of gratitude and appreciation to my family, such as my twin, Sean, my big sister, Si-Lo, my cuzos, Mercury and Starpower (who helped inspire this entry), and the countless others who dedicate their time and energy into the youth of the world. I also want to express the opprobrium I feel for the parents that allow this injustice to take place. When the world allows their children to be cheated out of a proper education and the misappropriation of their mental capacity, we are destroying not only our children, but our future as well (word to Whitney Houston).
Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!
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