How’s it hanging World?
I went to a discussion recently where the theme was to “be the change you wish to see in the world” (an old Ghandi fave). I left the discussion with the general idea that Black people are expert complainers but also expert retainers (in other words, we can point out a problem, but rarely do we do anything about it…), there’s a tendency to complain about a problem but retain the actions that got us in the mess in the first place (welfare, voting rights, rap culture in general, etc.). So with that being said, I’M STARTING A LIST! In response to BET’s “Top 25 Things that Mishaped Black America” (see post below), let’s list out all those things that plague Black America and then narrow it down to 25….
…I’ll DEFINITELY need help on this one, so PLEASE chime in with any additions to the list!
Let’s see, I’ll start with (in no particular order) :
Flaming Hot Cheetos BET Crown Royal / Hennessy No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Ward Connerly…Any additions???
Holy cow, where do I start?
Gold teeth or Grillz. (I’m trying to figure out when this actually became an attractive trait in a person.)
Ebonics. (Folks, it’s okay to enunciate your words.)
MTV’s Pimp my ride.
BET.
I’m sure there’s more and I’ll add them later.
What do gold grills have to do with Black people struggling? Man when Black people get educations all they do is look down on the people who are form the same hood they grew up in. Yall so uppity…slow down and learn to appreciate the qualities and characteristics that helped Black people make it this far…
…gotta add more…
text messaging
the words “irregardless” and “conversate”
Whatever line that is in “INDEPENDENT” when he’s talking about onion rings
the Jena 6 debacle (are you seriously going to go to award shows sagging and putting money in your mouth???)
Keyshia Cole’s momma
Apple Bottom jeans
Boots with the fur
Kwame Kilpatrick
@KING: Hey bro, I don’t see myself as one who teases Black people, but I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror in the morning if I didn’t speak out and constructively critique those things that perpetuate the cycle of Black poverty, Black naïveté and Black desparity…I can’t do that. I fear that Black people die each day without fully understanding the power we hold individually and even moreso collectively. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…
What do you suggest that we do to better help the needs of Black people than to focus on the issues facing Black people???
//TCS
Flavor of Love / I Love New York…..
These both showcase ignorance at it’s finest. A big disappointment….
How about we start a list of the positive things that have kept us in the right direction?
Hey can we add BlackPlanet.com to the list? I think it started off as a good idea but basically became, like BET, crap over the years.
I’m going to have to agree with In the Mix on the show’s listed. Another show to add to that list is “Hell Date” and the now defunct “Hot Ghetto Mess” aka “We Got to Do Better”.
Marion Barry
OJ Simpson
@King I don’t look down on others. I try to figure out why they enjoy acting the way they do and then getting pissed when someone tells them they aren’t living up to their potential and that they need to fix their habits. Acting like an idiot is not and never has been cool. When our race looks at living in poverty, yet trying to have the “fly” gear as well, as a source of pride there is something wrong.
Derrick Alridge
Jamster Ringtones
Anything that makes you look cool (i.e. Blue Tooth)
Chrome
Keisha Cole’s Mama (Maybe if she left the club and talked to her daughter they would have a better relationship)
Talk Shows that only invite black people (Maury, Jerry Springer)
Flava Flav (He used to fight the power, now he works for them
Lay A Way (started off with good intentions but everything shoudn’t be put on lay a way like underwear…underware i mean DAMN…was it that good of deal you just had to have K Mart hold those for you?)
R. Kelly (he set us back one year for every new chapter he makes for Trapped in the Closet)
Black women who BEAT they kids in the store for touching toys and candy (He’s only 5 years old b***h he supposed to like shiny things and skittles)
Anystore with the word Dollar in them (because when people come into a REAL store they forgot how much stuff really cost)
Rent A Center (already lol)
Fat Joe (crack crack crack crack crack crack crack)
Mick Vick (Somebody told that boy to quit f**king with them dogs…should have listened)
Rev Al Sharpton (have a seat and let us young black people find our own voice…and BRUSH your hair Negro)
Britt
@ Mix: Say what you want about Flavor of Love/I Love New York, they are the highest rated prime time shows 2 years runnning (next to Monday Night Football and American Idol)…Flav is out here getting Suberbowl numbers…I think he’s getting paid too….the question is, can you put a pricetag on coonery???
@ Nae: I think I just bust my appendix laughing so hard at these…
Sounds like Keyshia Cole’s Momma definitely needs to make it to the next round.
@Tigger: Was blackplanet really that bad? I never joined (in the 90’s my internet couldn’t pull up a page if it wanted to) but it seemed like a Black people’s myspace…I’m guessing it turned into something else??? I definitely agree with OJ Simpson and Marion Barry (on a sidenote, do you think there was any reasoning behind re-electing him after being found with crack and prostitutes?)
@ TCS: I don’t know why people would vote for him. Then again, I wasn’t privy to what was going on in the DC area and who the other candidates were. It’s kind of like selecting an impeached president for another term of office.
Some more to add:
Nelly’s “Tip Drill” (take your pick for song or video)
Fast food (It still amazes me how obese many of the folks in the South are. Get out and get active guys.)
Title Loans
Exactly…. Flavor or Love/ I Love New York are the highest rated because people enjoy watch us make fools of ourselves…. You think VH1 don’t know what they’re doing? They are setting us back and banking at the same time….
I guess the question is, how much would someone have to pay you to set back YOUR own people?
…MORE…
McRib Sandwich
Coco Be-Ware
Superhead
Bishop in ‘JUICE’ & O-Dog in ‘Menace II Society’ (they tied)
Seinfeld and Friends (for NEVER having Black people on them!)
Seinfeld AGAIN (two words: Michael Richards)
Bizzy Bone
…and secretly, The Dave Chappelle Show (do you agree…I mean he said the N-word an awful lot and although I thought his show had radical intentions, I never knew whether Whites were laughing WITH me or AT me…)
@ Mix: A couple thou at least (KIDDING!)
I feel like a traitor for saying Chappelle Show…does anybody feel me?
Judge Mathis (Not Him, but the people that come in his court room)….
Cops…..
I’m kind of half and half on the Chappelle Show. Some of the skits, like the reparations one, generated a lot of discussion around the office. Some of it is thought provoking in a way and some of it’s kind of juvenile. Actually Seinfeld did have a black character. Remember it was Kramer’s attorney. LOL.
I have another one to add but it probably falls up under the realm of BET. Cita’s World. Talk about a huge setback.
The fascination with crime figures as heroes.
@ Tig: LOL I thought Cita’s World was just an animated video countdown…can you remind me what that show was about? OK, about Dave…
…When the Dave Chappelle Show first began, I boycotted the show on the same grounds as my USA Network boycott, I don’t think that just anybody can handle recreational use of the N-word and I think it might influence folks from other cultural backgrounds to think that it’s ok to use the word as a term of endearment or to be funny (DJ KHALED AND FAT JOE!!!). After a while, there simply was no avoiding Chappelle’s Show (remember the following it had in it’s prime? reminds me of when south park had it’s swing…) and I found it funny…but I didn’t, and don’t, think people watched to be educated on social issues, I think they watched to be entertained. Keeping that in mind, I felt like many of the pertanent race issues presented on the show, while given a forum in which to be displayed, were presented in such a funny manner that the gist of the issue was drowned out by the laughter. Maybe he was just too funny. I think that’s why he had his little “psychological episode”…because when everybody thinks you’re joking it’s hard to get your point across. I mean imagine trying to say that you felt slighted by your network and people laughing before you start to speak…that goes to show you that people didn’t watch the show with an eye of discernment…they just wanted to laugh.
This whole convo reminds me of when Micheal Richards went BONKERS at the Laugh Factory. Does anyone else remember when he tried to apologize on Conan but the crowd kept laughing? Jerry Seinfeld tried to tell them that Micheal was serious, but they couldn’t seem to help themselves…and they kept laughing. Needless to say, his apology wasn’t taken seriously and it goes to show you….don’t ask for a nickel if you need a quarter…if you want sympathy, go to a sympathetic show, it’s impossible to package social consciousness and wrap it in comedic undertones. Agreed???
(1) people may hate me for saying this, but i’m gonna have to go with…integration
the problem with “separate but equal” wasn’t the separate part, but when it became about that it swayed an important national debate away from actually investigating and remedying the causes of racial disparities.
(2) high fructose corn syrup, msg, and dieting. we gotta eat real food, not products with addictive substances (msg) and artificial sweeteners, and be active if we’re gonna be healthy.
(3) boost mobile phones. if i hear that damn chirp one more time!!!
@ nite*vision: INTEGRATION?!?!?!?!
Can I mention Ward Connerly again! I think that guy is one of the worst human beings in this country.
and I definitely feel ya on Flavor of Love, that set back black women so far. Whenever I see it I always think about those small town white people that have never met a black woman in their life and the vision that starts to form in their minds.
@Mark: Ok, so I understand that Flavor of Love is DEFINITELY a set back for Black people and Black women in particular…but what makes Black women go on the show in the first place?!?!? I think to ask for the show to be put on the list without questioning the actual contestants is like pulling a weed up over and over instead of killing the root. Obviously there is a larger CULTURAL problem here. I think that as ignorant as Flavor of Love is….some Black women SERIOUSLY act like that…shoot, I know I have Aunts and cousins who do…
…so when you think about it like that, maybe it is an accurate representation of Black women…feel me?
// TCS
@TCS: The key word is some Black women act like that. My mom has never acted like that as long as I’ve been alive. Hell, if you were to ask her about the show…..let’s just say that that you would not hear one redeeming factor about the participants in the show. I’ve never known women, from either side of the family, to act like that.
I don’t think it’s a cultural problem. I think it’s a lack of proper parenting. I also think Flavor of Love sets all women back period.
The sad part is shortly after this show there was some guy who use to go to a club in Atlanta and his spiel was Flavor Flav. This basically gave the guy, in his mind, license to act like a twat and basically treat some women like shit.
Saying the n word a word rasits made to insult them and blacks turn around and make it a black only word. gangs, they terrerize their own people as the kkk did and they think its cool to be gangster. And women are brainwashed to act the way a man wants.
Wow….
@Cowboy fan
I think you are on to some interesting points but i am not understanding a couple of them. Could you please explain to me how women are “brainwashed” to act like men and further more how should a woman act? Also do you really think that the movtives the gangs use to attack black people are the same as the kkk did? If so please enlighten me