I agree. They don’t need to teach ebonics in the inner city, they need to teach ivonics.
Not for long. They managed to blend in pretty quickly. Irishness doesn’t show on your skin (I’m half Irish, by the way…I’ve never been persecuted for it).
Or Italian Americans. I just don’t know how I get through the day knowing that my grandfather and his brothers faced persecution in New York. It wasn’t their fault that they only spoke Italian and were forced to work crappy jobs that no one else wanted.
Bah, we all have our own sob stories. I just can’t fathom why it is ok for group A to attack group B; but if group B says something back, they are racist assholes.
An example of this: back in junior high school, a girl called my friend a “stupid white bitch.” My friends mom was pissed and went to the Vice Principal. He told her that there was nothing he could do. So mom said, "Well, what if my daughter goes and calls her a black bitch? His reply: “She’d be expelled.”
Good stuff.
Goddamned Half Mick.
You’re right. Life is horribly unfair. White people seem very good at accepting that it isn’t fair for anyone else, but lose they fucking mind when it turns it out’s not fair for them neither.
I’m losing my fucking mind, eh? Wow, I didn’t know this was ripping me up so badly! Thank you! Really! Thank you for telling me. Gosh, I better make an appointment to see the shrink.
All I’m saying is that this is a clear example of someone in the public eye who is making stupid, racist statements. No one is calling him on it because he is black and saying it about white people. If someone white were to make equal remarks, they would be attacked soooo quickly (and rightfully so).
But another question: how do I know when it is ok to use a word? I mean, I listen to the hippity- hop, so I’m pretty up with learning the slang. Is there a database I can run my word through to check?
Me: Awww… damn.
Where on earth has Diosa said that it’s fine that it’s not fair for other people?
I for one wish Kanye West was on TV every night babbling this nonsense. Even people who agree with him that Bush “doesn’t like black people” would start cringing as went on and on.
But you think Kanye is pissed off now? Just wait 'til his next album bombs and he realizes he was simply this year’s Hootie and the Blowfish or Tracy Chapman.
I think this may be the root of it. Kanye knows he has a lack of street, but needs some street for his profession. However he is black. Black and street are somewhat related. So Kanye tries to play up the connection between blackness and streetness, so that his blackness is worth more streetness.
In fact all his crazy theories could be overcompempensating for his lack of street
Mmmm hmmm! You go, boy.
Because they are not trying to be anybody else. It is similar to the looks I get when I wear my black power fist afro pick in my hair.
Speaking of racist idiots, I figure this is the best place to share this lil’ story from a few minutes ago.
The scene: 10 AM driving to work by an elementary school, no less. Our protaganist, Diosabellissima, is driving along happily in her dad’s car with the top down, enjoying the sunshine and a lil’ Shakira. Our scene begins when Dioaspulls up to the stoplight at the corner and waits. . .
Idiot Redneck in some P.O.S. Pick up: “Go back to your fucking country, you fucking wetback!”
Diosa (confused, as she is neither a “wetback” or from any other country. But she giggles because she thinks of the Dave Chapelle.): “Um, I’m white, you fucking douche bag.”
I.R.i.s.POS.P.u (confused, but then he realizes): “Yeah, I thought that car was too fancy for a dirty spic. You do have pretty dark skin. Well, a nice white girl like you shouldn’t be listening to that fucking Mexican music.”
Diosa (Realizing she is dealing with an A-1 idiot here): “First: she’s Colombian, not Mexican.”
I.R.i.s.POS.P.u: " heh heh Same difference."
Diosa: “Not really, the countries are actually on different continents. Not to mention the fact that they have completely different traditions and history. In fact, the only thing they have in common is the language. That would be like saying America and England are the same thing.”
(this is a long light, in case you can’t tell)
I.R.i.s.POS.P.u: “Well, whatever. A nice white girl shouldn’t be listening to that music. Keep fighting the good fight, my sister!”
Diosa (realizing she cannot win this battle): " :eek: Right… uh 
… white power :rolleyes: ."
I would just like to point out that in the lyrics of (one version of) Kanye’s moving song “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” (WARNING: may be popups), he asks the burning question,
Based on all the evidence, Kanye cares, damn it. He cares deeply about those blood diamonds! 
And besides, everybody knows that white people have no idea what “skeet” means, or otherwise they would have never allowed it on the radio for impressionable children to hear. So come on, everybody, say it with me: skeet skeet skeet!
. . . but what if Kanye hears me? :eek:
Heh. . . skeet skeet. Giggle.
Seems to me that anyone, white or black, speaking like this is trying to portray an image, and is trying to be someone else.
Essentially anyone, speaking any way, is adopting the behaviors and mannerisms of their cultural group. However, I see no evidence to suggest that young urban African American men are putting on an affectation when they greet each other in any distinctive way. Can you provide any evidence that these behaviors and mannerisms aren’t indicative of a real and distinct cultural group?
I think I’m simply agreeing with your first sentence. When I shake someone’s hand and say, “Nice to meet you,” it’s because that’s the way that people around me speak, and I recognize that this is an accepted greeting. I have little doubt that if people around me greeted each other with “yo, yo, yo, wassup, my homies” then I would too.
I don’t think the above quoted “yo, yo, yo, wassup, my homies” (which is, albeit, stereotypical, and likely to get you laughed at wherever you say it) is any different. I think (opinion) that it’s all just based on popular culture. The P.Diddys(just Diddy now?) and the 50 Cents currently hold a lot of sway with people in their teens and early 20s, white and black.
If these guys started saying, “Verily, 'Tis truth!” instead of “yes”, you would start hearing it out of the mouths of people in this age group, black and white. But neither group has any more right to it (unless you want to give rights to the group because the originator of the phrase is of that group, in which case Irish-Sicilians now can law claim to “Verily”); seems that both groups are just parroting what they hear on tv.
Just my opinion, and I have little dog in this fight. I’m so uncool, I hadn’t heard of Kanye West before a week ago.
Not if he covers the old Garrett Morris classic:
I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see…
I figure it fits in perfectly with everything else he’s said lately.
Not that I’m agreeing with Askia by any means, as it’s been well established in another thread that he does not actually understand the definition of “racism,” but not all bigotry and prejudice is necessarily race-based. Lots of bigots out there are prejudiced against gays, for example, which is by no means racist.
Lucky bastard. And, uh. . . Verily, Bitches!
My one and only experience with Kanye West:
Yesterday, driving in the car, listening to some top-40 countdown. As one of the filler bits, the host has an interview with Kanye West.
West talks about some problems he’s had with reporters (?), then uncorks this gem: “I can’t blame them. I talk in color, and they have to translate it into black-and-white.”
Took me 14 minutes to find my eyeballs by feel in the floorboard of the car, because they had rolled out of my head.