The Mis-Education of the Negro...CONTINUED

So...

I am having a conversation with someone via telephone about 2 nights ago....And he proceeds to ask me the following question;

"Do you ever speak 'Ghetto' or 'Hood'?"

And so of course that question pissed me the fuck off. I asked him what the hell he meant by that. And he was like,

"Don't take it personal, I ask my hood friends if they can speak proper english."

I had to laugh...But then I proceeded to inform him just how ill-informed and ignorant his statement(s) were...

I mean, I understand that SOCIOLOGICAL reasons why someone would ask me that question but it does not make it any less ignorant. There is and should not be some litmus test for proving the authenticity of one's blackness...In his estimation, because I have (relative to some folks who are from where I am from) a slightly more extensive vocabulary means that I have no connection to the reality or the struggle of Black people living in our increasingly BLIGHTED Urban landscape...It's BULLSHIT...

We as a people need to stop measuring our success and worth against a white standard. There is beauty in the proper speaking of English and also in the colloquial version that is spoken in Urban America....Neither one is superior than the other...

We also need to recognize that Black America is not a monolith...We come in many different shapes, sizes, classes, sexualities, and political affiliations...We all should be bound together by an understanding of a shared history of struggle (and not only in America). We can appreciate our ethnic differences while being congnitive of the fact that BLACKNESS was, is, and seemingly will always be under attack in our world community...Whether it's AIDS and poverty in Africa, police brutality in Bed-Stuy, or Chinese women performing faux-rap in blackface...The world has continually let BLACK people know that they still view us as niggers. Nothing more and certainly nothing less...Let me pause and say that KNOWING this doesn't mean accepting your NIGGERDOM as a personal characteristic...But we must know what attitudes have infiltrated and corrupted the minds of the powerful and the decision makers and how those corrupted and twisted views of reality affect the impressionable minds of the people (especially poor people who are looking for someone or something to blame their condition on).

This whole "talking too white" phenomenon is just another way to further divide and conquer a people who could, in their collective unity, stirke a mighty blow to THE SYSTEM.

Let's not be satisfied living in ignorance...

Let's get higher together...

PeaceLoveandEternity

Q