5 Things I can’t believe still exist in the Black Community.
I live in the Hood.
It wasn’t always the hood, at one time, a long time ago it was a very nice little community called Sulphur Springs, where you could leave your doors unlocked and walk to your friends house in the evening and not have to worry about getting raped or murdered. It was a beautiful little neighborhood built off of the Hillsborough river. There are several beautiful landmarks here as well.
But a couple of decades ago some dicks came in here and bought up a lot of houses, tore them down and built duplexes. Duplexes that were supposedly illegal at the time, but that didn’t stop it from happening. After that a lot of low rent families were moved in and eventually most of these houses were sanctioned into section-8 housing. Once that happens it’s pretty much over.
So anyway, I have lived around black people most of my life, and there are some things that I am stammered in disbelief that still happen in their communities. Here are 5 things I just can’t believe still exist. Worst of all is the fact that I believe that these things were, at one time brought to the black communities to further segregate blacks from whites and to help the upper class individuals to easily recognize people from “da hood”.
5 – Sagging Pants.
I don’t even understand how in the Hell this bullshit started in the first place. I have heard from multiple sources that this started off in prison as a way to determine that you “belonged” to someone. In other words, please don’t rape my ass, because someone has already claimed my hairy shit-chute for their personal fuck hole. Now, how this became an acceptable fashion outside of prison is beyond me. Why would you want people to think you gladly take it up the ass? But somehow, it’s looked upon as a cool thing to do in the black community. And what I really cannot fathom is how this ridiculous fashion abortion is still around over 20 years later!? It has gotten so bad that towns have implemented laws against it. The NBA had to make a rule against it!
You have to walk around all day holding your pants up, which takes a lot of effort and dedication. Plus it eliminates one of your two arms for most day-to-day activities. Not to mention the pants hanging halfway down your legs, placing the crotch around your knees. I don’t see how they even walk with that shit. Seriously, it’s gone on long enough and it makes you look ridiculous! What if M.C. Hammer pants had been the fashion to survive. That would make more sense to me. Roomy and good for dancing. Dressing like a child wearing it’s fathers clothes makes you look like you have basic mental problems. People judge each other on looks. It’s a first impression thing that is embedded in our DNA. So what advantage does dressing like this serve?
4 – Ridiculous Hoopties
Now, back in the 70′s pimps were known for their bad-ass Cadillacs. And I can totally understand that because Cadillacs were awesome vehicles up until about 15 years ago. But I’m not even talking about Cadillacs here anymore… I’m talking about fucked up cars from the 80′s and 90′s being “pimped out” with giant wagon-wheel spinning rims and unbelievable paint jobs. The worst part about these ridiculous cars is that the owners have spent thousands of dollars to upgrade them from a worthless POS to a worthless POS with a theme, and a lot of these guys live in section-8 housing and their kids run the streets in rags. Here’s a tip, buy a Toyota and take that extra money and put some shoes on those kids. Oh, and try Payless, because buying $200 Jordan’s for your 4 year old is an idiocy in its own right. Why spend so much money on a car, when there are plenty of other things that you need, that you could easily better yourself with?
3 – Bragging Rap
Rap has been around for a long time. Now, I used to listen to a lot of Rap and Hip-Hop back in the day. But I’m talking about the old stuff, most of which told a good story or had some meaning behind it. The rappers told stories of growing up in the hood and trying to make something of themselves, to better themselves and fight against oppression, to hopefully one day make it out of their current situations, and for the rest of the black community to hopefully follow.
But nowadays it’s all about how much better the rapper is than you are. How much money he has and how extravagantly he blows it at the clubs. How bad-ass his Benz is and how many bitches and hoes he conquers on a nightly basis. Everyone in the world is shit compared to him, including you, the listener… yet somehow people still buy this crap like it’s the greatest thing there is. I just cannot understand why the black community buys into this!? Does it make you feel better to listen to how much more money and fame someone else has than you, when you can’t even pay the electric bill and your family is eating Ramen Noodles… again!? At least Country music makes you feel good about yourself. It makes you feel like you’ve been having a bad day, but at least you haven’t fucked your sister. Rap today just makes you feel like your life went horribly wrong somewhere along the way!
And the “bling” they wear would make Blackbeard cum in his pantaloons! So much gold, platinum and diamonds that they qualify as a walking jewelry store. The worst part of this particular fashion problem is the fact that many of the black community feel like they have to prove their worth by emulating this ridiculous fad by buying gargantuan chains and rings that they practically have to take out loans to wear! Newsflash… the rappers themselves rarely actually buy that crap! It’s loaned to them by jewelry makers trying to get their names out on the street for just the aforementioned reason. You look like a fool.
2 – Ebonics
The way people speak in the black community is horrific and it’s spreading like an epidemic. As it is now, we’ve gone from a few slang terms here and there to a full-on fucked up language that even the speakers can hardly understand. I mean, the English language has rules to maintain a level of comprehension among the communities which speak it… just as any other language does. This is why children are taught the correct version and corrected diligently when pronounced incorrectly. Because speaking correctly is widely regarded as a sign of intelligence and civility. And I understand that all languages evolve and change… but “Ebonics” is just raping the language. It is a de-evolved, backwoods, mush-mouthed way of talking that eventually one day will go all the way back to grunting like cave-men. Talking like this only makes you seem ignorant. People base their estimations of your intelligence upon your dress, mannerisms and your speech. So why would one want to sound like an idiot!?
1 -Hood Loyalty
This is the thing that I cannot understand the most. Hood loyalty is about the stupidest form of loyalty I have ever seen. It’s a mixture of wanting to maintain ignorance and poverty. Bettering yourself and getting out of the hood is actually looked down upon by many in the black communities. One of my good friends is a black male that was brought up in the hood. We’ve known each other as far back as I can remember. At an early age he set out to get the best education he can get. He is very well mannered and speaks very eloquent English. Yet his “brothers” in his community chastise him for speaking “white” and “tryin’ ta get all smart n-shit”. Instead of going to school for art like he has done, they told him he should “sell weed like a real nigga” and “quit frontin”. This makes me incredibly sad.
This mentality is heartbreaking and it is the primary reason for black people being “kept down”… not “da man”! The doors of racism swing both ways and too many younger black people are getting caught in the trap of “trying to keep it real”. Keeping it real will never get you anywhere… it will only ensure that you never progress in any way that is beneficial to you or the rest of your community.
What puzzles me is why these things are so prevalent in black communities today, after so many years of people knowing for a fact that these types of things are so detrimental to the well-being of black individuals. I don’t understand why they haven’t stood up as a whole and fought against these atrocities instead of embracing them!?
What is there to gain? Absolutely nothing.
Posted on October 23, 2011, in 5 Things, Rant. Bookmark the permalink. 41 Comments.
While I won’t cover any of the other topics as they are opinion, calling what you refer to as “ebonics” as “raping the language,” “de-evolved,” “backwoods,” “mush-mouthed,” and compared it to as you said, “grunting like cave-men,” could not be farther from the truth. A few examples of the phonology in African American Vernacular English (AAVE):
* Word-final devoicing of /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/, whereby for example cub sounds like cup.
* Reduction of certain diphthong forms to monophthongs, in particular, /aɪ/ is monophthongized to [aː] (this is also a feature of many Southern American English dialects). The vowel sound in boil (/ɔɪ/ in Standard English) is also monophthongized, especially before /l/, making it indistinguishable from ball. Conversely, older speakers in some regions (such as the American South) may use [oɪ] in words like coach and road that have [oʊ] in SE (i.e. [koɪtʃ], [roɪd]).
* AAVE speakers may not use the fricatives [θ] (the th in thin) and [ð] (the th of then) that are present in SE. The actual alternative phone used depends on the sound’s position in a word.
o Word-initially, /θ/ is normally the same as in SE (so thin is [θɪn]).
o Word-initially, /ð/ is [d] (so this is [dɪs]).
o Word-medially and -finally, /θ/ is realized as either [f] or [t] (so [mʌmf] or [mʌnt] for month); /ð/ as either [v] or [d] (so [smuːv] for smooth).
An early form of AAVE contributed such words as yam, banjo, and cool. If you’ve ever said any of these words, you yourself have “raped the language.” There is no “raping” of any language. All languages follow rules, including AAVE. If you would like to learn more on this subject, take some college classes on Linguistics, or the following free classes from MIT:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-901-language-and-its-structure-i-phonology-fall-2010
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-902-language-and-its-structure-ii-syntax-fall-2003
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-903-language-and-its-structure-iii-semantics-and-pragmatics-spring-2005
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-906j-the-linguistic-study-of-bilingualism-fall-2006
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-919-topics-in-linguistics-creole-languages-and-caribbean-identities-spring-2004
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-961-introduction-to-phonology-fall-2002
ebonics was probably the wrong term. I think they meant things like “right dur” and “shawtie” lol That’s all I could think of, but I find it ridiculous that it’s so bad some people actually go out of their way to type words incorrectly. :/ In other words, this: http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Facebook+Dipshit+Some+Facebook+OC+for+ya_97cd49_2736463.jpg
Actually “right dur” and “shawtie” fall under AAVE and can be analyzed in a scientific context. As far as the people “go[ing] out of their way to type words incorrectly,” more than not the system has failed them rather than choosing to do this. It’s not just those who say “shawtie” that type words “incorrectly,” as you could say that the way Modern English is written would probably be, as the poster of this blog put it, “raping the language” to someone who spoke Old English. It’s all perspective in relation to the language that is changing. People are influenced by their parents, relatives, and friends as to what English should be when language is a constantly evolving thing. If you spoke to a boss at a job the same way you do to your friends during an interview, chances are you would not receive that job. Different groups speak in varying ways because they have developed their own speech community. Speech communities are groups of people who, through their own personal rules and norms, expect certain things with the way people use language. While you may not share a speech community with them, that doesn’t make their speech community any less important.
Another thing I forgot to include that ties in with speech communities is register. You may have a speech community with someone, and even within that community you could have different levels of formality with each person — which is the register you have with that person. Outside of a speech community context, you have different registers with everyone from younger than you, older than you, a waiter/waitress, your boss, your parents, etc. Some registers may share features with others, or may be included in with other registers, but you do have different levels of this formality based on the context you are speaking.
You are Adorable!
None of that is even mildly relevant. Evolving sounds is different from disregarding sentence structure. Obviously purposely spelling and using existing words incorrectly can’t even be blamed on ignorance. If you read between the lines you can see what is really being said; “look at me! look at me! I can’t stand out for my merits so I’ll just act retarded!”.
This may sound rude but theres a reason you can’t help but stare at handicapped people.
As far as sentence structure is concerned, AAVE has been influenced by a lot of West African languages. When AAVE uses completed actions like, “He done walked,” and habitual actions such as, “We be walkin’,” they are syntactically sound. This same tense-aspect system is used in many different languages. If you would like more information on Syntax, the following links should help:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-902-language-and-its-structure-ii-syntax-fall-2003
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-951-introduction-to-syntax-fall-2003
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-952-advanced-syntax-spring-2007
Evolving sounds is no different than an evolving sentence structure. Language is always evolving. More than not, as I stated above in a reply to Raoul, the system has failed them rather than them directly choosing to spell words incorrectly. Although this may be the case, an alternate case may be that the language itself is changing in how it’s being perceived to be written by the newer generation. The sentence structure is syntactically sound in AAVE. Such completed actions as,”He done walked,” and habitual actions such as, “We be walkin’,” are influenced from their West African origins where these types of verbs are common place. There are many different ways in which words can be related and used with one another within syntax. For more information on syntax structure, the following links will be helpful:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-902-language-and-its-structure-ii-syntax-fall-2003
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-951-introduction-to-syntax-fall-2003
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-952-advanced-syntax-spring-2007
Uhh yeah, evolving sounds are different from differences in sentence structure. One is called phonology and the other is called grammar. Both are distinct in AAVE and neither is “acting retarded”.
You’re a racist.
And you’re an idiot.
No, you’re just racist,.
Bullshit. and you know it.
I mean nobody who can read can be that stupid for real.
Oh, wahhhhh, not everyone follows me and my trends! Not everyone looks like me! Everyone talk the way I do, otherwise you’re a fucking dumbass! Everything I do is the right way to do anything, and everything you do different should be outlawed! Embrace my values you stupid motherfuckers, you don’t know anything but “da hood”- move to the suburbs and join my homeowners association so that I can further control your lifestyle!
I agree with a lot of what you say, but I have to add one thing; that guy in the picture with the eyepatch is Slick Rick, I think. If that’s him, he’s a talented dude. I don’t even like rap, but he’s impressive.
Very true… but did you see the ridiculous bling factor there?
Shhhh…. it’s a self-perpetuating system to keep the minorities and idiots at the bottom of the ladder, assisted by the entertainment industry. We have to keep the consumer society going, so we have to keep the consumers overloaded with debt and buying shiny shit that they don’t really need.
“How bad-ass his Benz is and how many bitches and hoes he concurs on a nightly basis.”
I think the word you were looking for was actually “conquers”.
Thank you… good eye.
extremely smart well said couldn’t have been a better written truth to everything u said and hopefully the poor souls including the white boy Ryan Clossen up there that tries to understand something he is not, is an idiot trying to fit into something he has no business of his own but being frown upon the same ones he is trying to take up for boooooo to you thank you for putting true and valid points that are not options but the truth only cause it is seen on a daily basis in the every day real world life of living
Ok…. you see that whole part about “the English language has rules to maintain a level of comprehension among the communities which speak it…” under the Ebonics section ?
Now read your… I don’t know what to call it… it isn’t a paragraph. It isn’t a sentence. In fact not one bit of punctuation is used in that whole blob of text, save for a comma and an apostrophe. I suppose I should be glad for capitalizing a proper noun, but I suspect that you copied and pasted it, rather than typing out a whole twelve characters (including the space). I don’t even want touch on the prolific grammatical errors like ’cause’ being used instead of ‘because’, or ‘frown’ instead of ‘frowned’ or who could overlook the ‘u’ instead of ‘you’.
u
That may, in fact, be the most difficult thing to read in the world. What puzzles me is that you still put in commas for punctuation!
*opinions
saggin = niggas backwards.
^^^^ mind=blown
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Appreciate word choice-”my hairy shit-chute.”
I’m just going to comment on the Hood Loyalty part of your your post. ‘Hood Loyalty’ as you call it, such as rappers shouting out ‘Bankhead’ ‘Bedsty’, etc. on their tracks is the rappers way of showing they haven’t forgot where they came from. Even with the benz’s and the jewelry they still remember what it’s like to be sitting there in the house eating Ramen Noodles every night.
We all have opinions or values and we will not all agree. You have made some very good points which I can say on balance may be correct when looking at some individuals. I too question why certain fashions are followed even when they are wrong or crazy like not wearing trousers that actually fit as stated in your post, I’m been mindfull of the use bad words used in typical slang. The cars I think they look cool, not something I would or could drive as they are crazy and OTT but nice to look at. It’s personal choice we all need that. It’s perception that is the real issue marketing people putting out the wrong message and images. Music and videos portraying something that is OTT and the uneducated masses thinking this is how it is, wanting that and following. They need Islam or something else to open ones eyes and things will change before they get too old.
funny part here is that everyone agenst this article will say the writer is racist, rather than trying to escape a cycle of shit that wont actually lead them anywhere…..
http://cache.reverbnation.com/widgets/swf/44/pro_widget.swf?id=artist_1454600&skin_id=PWFS5002&border_color=000000
THOSE BOYS SAGGING BOTH HAD NICE BUTTS, EVEN THOUGH THERE UNDERWEAR LOOK SOILED…..LOL
DOO DOO BROWN….!
http://occupyhiphop.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/occupythenba/
i’ll spare you the lecture about walking a mile in a man’s shoes before you judge him because you couldn’t possibly walk that mile. even though you’ve “lived around black people most of [your] live”, your historic experience is vastly different from ours. so to quote a t-shirt that was wildly popular in the hood in the 90′s, “(good, bad or indifferent) Its a black thing, You wouldn’t understand”. but your sensationalized post title got us to come read your blog entry. and thats what important isn’t it?
it is hard not to understand something we see everyday @ ashazenzi because it shows in the picture a man regardless of where u come from where u grow up or who u are around is how the man or woman chooses to live if u are comfortable living with nothing u will continue to be nothing and continue to live the same all the excuses are out the window now cause we have a black president so how ever a man wants to live is on him if u were raised in the “Hood” that doesn’t mean u have to be “hood” why not get out of the “hood” and go back to show the youth the better way of living it is all excuses u see it in everyday real life when there are plenty doing better then the rest be comfortable and want nothing u become comfortable with nothing and show for nothing
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You will know the truth… and the truth will set you free.
Wow…well, after reading all the…intelligent comments left, I would have to agree that those things are quite befuddling. However, I believe that the reasoning behind these subcultural attributes is that the upper class (1% if you will), wants to keep the lower class, especially the working whites and blacks, separated, because they know that if these two classes are able to form one singular class, then the upper class will have quite the problem on their hands (even more so than they do know in NY). So the music companies try to perpetuate this “lifestyle” in order to keep the black working class down and separated from the white working class with debt and ignorance, when they really need to be shown that the better way to show “hood loyalty” is through organizing and working together to pull their communities out of the hole they are in.
I think maybe they’re just trying to take over…wait till we invade Australia and leave america to the hoods till they starve or become the second Africa…dam cockroaches.
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