Way over yonder in GD, brickbacon offers up a definition of a “hater.” I’m tossing this into the Pit because I can’t help but be repulsed by the label and I have nothing good to say about it. I’m not pitting brickbacon, except maybe tangentially; I’m pitting the “hater” thing, and any use of “you” is purely in the generic sense. Got it? Good. Let’s roll.
Yes, Virginia, there are nosy, lying bastards aplenty in this world. There are busybodies and snoops and control freaks and all kinds of people who like nothing better than to give you a colonoscopy with their pointed, twitchy little noses. And certainly nobody likes a tattletale, particularly the octogenarian bachelor with a vendetta against those who dare to flush toilets past the sacred hour of ten PM.
But when did this whole “hater” thing start? And who buys into this shit? Labeling the person who confronts you as a “hater” is a transparent attempt to deflect responsibility away from your wrongdoing and onto the person who caught you. Your brains have twisted up, turned black and crawled out onto your pillow if you think I’m failing to show “basic respect” by turning a blind eye to your petty thefts, your constant screwing off on company time, or your fervent belief that the fire lane outside my window is a dandy place for all your pals to park because you can’t be bothered to shamble your saggy-pants asses the extra fifteen feet to the empty spaces across the way. If there’s a fire, I’m going to be out there using your Honda as a platform to hose down my roof. And I’ll be wearing cleats.
Perhaps the language I’m using makes it sound like I hate you. I don’t. I may think you’re an inconsiderate asshole, but that is a transient state which can be remedied by the careful application of a rolled-up newspaper. If I hated you, I’d skip the newspaper and go straight to the baseball bat. What I hate are your actions, and they’ve got to be patently immoral, illegal, or dangerous before I’ll confront you about it, much less report your ass to the Powers That Be. If that makes me a “hater,” I want my bumper sticker so I can wear the label with pride.
As I recall, “hater” originated in hip-hop culture as a way to dismiss someone excessively critical or jealous of a “player.” As you can imagine, the “player” is the hero of this particular narrative… the guy with the best clothes, the best cars, with the best women, and the best… uhmmm… “business enterprises.” One popular technique of the hater is to “throw salt” in the player’s “game” by reporting a player’s illegal activities (actual or imagined) to the police.
So, over time, “hater” has been generalized into a term to dismiss someone as a “snitch”, “rival”, “persecutor”, or “someone who said something bad about me.” As with many hip-hop terms, the precise definition is fluid and varies depending on who and what is popular in music or film on any given month.
Wow. My husband and his brother use this term all the time, but only when referring to someone who is jealous of another. I’ve have never heard it used to imply a snitch of any sort.
My husband is white, but he was surrounded by hip-hop culture growing up - at the school he attended, he was a minority. He manages to pull it off… he’s not so over-the-top that he acts like a white guy pretending he’s a black guy, he just sounds like a guy who grew up with the culture.
The snitch thing is new to me, and a little confusing, but I admit, I learn something new every day, and this is something I know little about. I’ll ask hubby when he gets home if he’s ever used it for that reason, or if anyone he knows has. Maybe it’s regional?
