"It's true, it's true--we're so lame..."

So I just came across this story about a mayor in California who sent an email of a picture of the White House with a bunch of watermelons on the front lawn. The caption reads, "No Easter egg hunt this year." I wish I knew how to spell that wonh wonhhh sound they play in shows and on the radio when someone does something stupid, because I think it's pretty appropriate.


For me the funniest part of the article is when the mayor says that he was unaware of the stereotype that black people like watermelons. Well, if he's unaware of the stereotype, why in the heck is he forwarding the e-mail? I need a comedy person to explain to me what level of humor that picture is working on, if not on the stereotype about black people liking watermelons.


As a side note: when I first read the headline, I thought it said the Mayor of Los Angeles and I thought to myself, "Uh oh--bye bye job, Mayor of Los Angeles." But when I reread and saw it was some small town I'd never heard of, two things happened. 1) I immediately thought that the guy would no longer lose his job over it, and 2) I thought, "Oh, that makes more sense." What's up with that?


My thinking on number one is that the more power and influence a person has, the more they're going to be expected to not say things that others might consider offensive. But why? It doesn't matter how much power and influence you have, the things you say and do can hurt other people's feelings. And on the second point: that's my bias that people from small towns are more likely to do racially insensitive things. Is that accurate? Is it fair? Why or why not?


For the record, I'm black and I do like watermelon. And my mom is black too, and she really likes watermelon, she might even consider it her favorite fruit. I'm not really sure how that is funny, noteworthy, or relevant to much of anything.

This article got me thinking how many scores of e-mails there must be out there like this now that Barack Obama is president. I haven't gotten any--have you? If so, how did you respond?


As always, I welcome your comments.

My pinky's valued over $300,000...

So the topic of today's post is about "talking black" vs. "talking white." Now, I have to be honest and say I know exactly what people mean when they say someone "sounds black." We like to get all indignant when people say stuff like that, like when Prince Harry said something recently to a black comedian. But what exactly are we getting upset about?


I want to take a detour here and share the first time someone decided to call out how I spoke differently. And newsflash: it wasn't a white person, it was some black kids from my grandma's neighborhood. I was about six or seven and visiting my grandmother in Cleveland. My grandmother lived in a predominantly black neighborhood, and I was outside with some of the neighborhood kids. The conversation went something like this:


Them: Are you here visiting your grandmother?
Me: Yes.
Them: Is (insert myblackfriend's mom's name here) your mom?
Me: Yes.
Them: (getting somewhat exapserated) Don't you know how to say, "Yeah?"
Me:


::wait for it::


Me: Yes.


Now, I don't actually remember these kids explicitly saying, "You sound white," but that was certainly the implied message. Because, I didn't use more informal language, something was weird or different about me--and they needed to make me aware of that. Now I know they were just kids, but the fact of the matter is even today in 2009, a black adult can tell another black adult that they sound white, and the "white sounding" black adult is the one that is supposed to feel bad.

Let me shift gears a little bit more. I'm going to link to a video and say that it is NSFW and has what some people might consider offensive language.




[Edited 4/2017: Chris deleted his youtube channel, so here is the same video that someone else reposted. Nothing you post on the internet goes away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjCCr6w9-wk]


So this guy is clearly white, and he "sounds black." There are lots of other white people in the world who talk like this guy, too. How do we explain this? Maybe because it's not your skin color that determines the way that you speak.


I also want to make it clear that I am not saying one way of talking is inherently better than the other way. Some people might argue that we should all talk the "white way" and those are the same people that think everyone in the world should speak English. That's boring. It might be a little harder to understand someone who speaks differently than you, but that's your opportunity to turn your ears on and work your listening skills. You might also learn some new words. And all people, need to lay off the idea that people who's skin is a certain color need to speak a certain way--because that's just wack.


As always, I welcome your comments.

Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon

So the other day I was on a message board (don't act like you don't go to message boards. You're reading this random chick's blog, so I know you get around on the internet,) and a woman made a comment that irked me. She was talking about how she was going to have a day of pampering, which included getting her nails done. She was very excited and she exclaimed, "It's going to be a really nice manicure, not on from one of those ghetto Asian places!"


Yippee!


I'm glad to see that ghetto is now not only derogatory for blacks and Jews, but Asians too. We really are moving forward in this country.


Once again we have an example of something that is non-white being synonymous with bad, substandard, run-down etc. Now, it is quite possible that this woman has been to some crappily run nail salons, and that those crappy nail salons have been run by Asian people. but to use the words "ghetto" and "Asian" in such a way that implies they are essentially one and the same is dangerous. She's associating them in her own mind, and in the mind of the readers of her post. It is statements like this that produce results we might not like to see on this test.


Now some people might think I'm overreacting, but I really don't think I am. This woman is most likely very nice, and probably treats most people she encounters (even the Asian ones,) with respect. She wasn't intending to hurt anyone's feelings, and probably made the statement without even giving it a second thought.


And that, my friends, is exactly the problem.

Don't be cruel to a heart that's true...

So a couple of weeks ago, I was invited by a good friend of mine to take part in a little pub trivia put on by a company called geeks who drink.

Like I said in my very first post, I know thing or two about a thing or two, and I enjoy searching the corners of my brain for some fact I learned in third grade in the quest for a free pitcher of beer. When it comes to bar trivia, I prefer trivia face off , but that's really neither here nor there.
We were nearing the end of the game, and for one of the questions the announcer said the name of a room and you had to say if the room was in Graceland or The White House. The first was the Raquetball room. Any guesses?
That one is Graceland.
The second one was the impetus for this post, The Jungle Room.

There were a group of white people behind me and while they were going over their answers, one of the guys said, "The Jungle Bunny room."
Hee hee ha ha ho ho.

For those of you that may not know, jungle bunny is an offensive term used to describe black people. On the one hand, I should be glad if there are people that have never heard that term. On the other hand, I should be not glad to know that I just heard some dude behind me at trivia use it. Even when I went to urban dictionary to find that link, I saw some disturbing entries that were being used for the definition.
There were two things that bothered me about the incident. Well, I guess three.


1. It's sad that there are people in the world that use racist terms. In public. Seriously, if this is the kind of -ish he says when a black person is right behind him , what, pray tell is he saying when he's in the comfort of his own home?

2. His friends said nothing. There was a chuckle or two, but silence from the rest. I'm going to go out on a limb and say one of them was thinking, "Dude, there's a black chick right behind you!" Some others may have thought it was clever. But from the silence, I'm going to guess that the majority were offended. The silent majority, that is.

White people, silence is not an effective strategy for dealing with these sorts of situations. It's not enough to talk about what a jackass the guy is/was when he's not around , you have to deal with it in the moment. If you think it's not funny, then say it's not funny. When you say nothing, he's just left thinking--" I guess no one heard my totally hilarious comment. It's ok, I'll get 'em with my next one." If we're really going to do something about the people who are still thinking like it's 1952, they can't be allowed to through life thinking that most people agree with them; which is what they think when no one calls them on it--
silence = consent.

3. The most important reason--what if this guy is a cop or a loan officer or a car salesmen or a hiring manager? Do you really think that a person that uses language like this really sees people as being equal and treats them as such professionally? This is when it starts to affect my life, and when it starts to affect my life is when I start to get pissed.



As always, I welcome your comments.

Peace, Love and Understanding

So I'm reading this book from the Opposing Viewpoints series called Interracial America It's kind of an old book, but I don't know that the arguments would be any different if it had been written today. It's a collection of essays dealing with various aspects of race relations. It's funny because I read one article and agree with it, and then I'll read the next one that is saying the exact opposite and agree with that one too. The book has got me feeling like both sides of this issue need to take some steps toward the middle. You know the Truth and Reconciliation Project in South Africa?
I feel like white people need to accept a lot more truth, and people of color need to be open to a lot more reconciliation.
For hundreds of years, white people were given advantages at the expense of people of color. I'm talking about a direct connection: white people gained precisely because black, brown, red and yellow people lost.
At the same time here in 2008, I think most white people consider themselves basically good, and are disgusted by acts of overt racism that they see today. Most white people are not out to get people of color, and they're not plotting in meetings about how they can keep us down. So...how do we make peace with the past? How to we move forward in a meaningful way? Certainly not by just forgetting about it, because the remnants of the past are still with us today. But also not by just throwing it up in someone's face, so that all that they feel is guilty or defensive or scared. I don't know what the answer is, but you can bet I'm gonna keep thinking about it...