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"Cause they make us hate ourself and love they wealth
That's why shorties hollering "where the ballas' at?"
Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack
And a white man get paid off of all of that
But I ain't even goin' act holier than thou
Cause fuck it, I went to Jacob with 25 thou
Before I had a house and I'd do it again
Cause I wanna be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz
I wanna act ballerific like it's all terrific
I got a couple past due bills, I won't get specific
I got a problem with spending before I get it
We all self conscious I'm just the first to admit it" - Kanye West, All Falls Down, College Dropout
That's why shorties hollering "where the ballas' at?"
Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack
And a white man get paid off of all of that
But I ain't even goin' act holier than thou
Cause fuck it, I went to Jacob with 25 thou
Before I had a house and I'd do it again
Cause I wanna be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz
I wanna act ballerific like it's all terrific
I got a couple past due bills, I won't get specific
I got a problem with spending before I get it
We all self conscious I'm just the first to admit it" - Kanye West, All Falls Down, College Dropout
So, I wasn't going to write this at first, because I didn't think the topic worthy of me taking precious time out of my day to speak on but--WTF!
I was actually talking to a friend/fellow blogger about this, because he wanted to write a post about it indirectly. I thought it was a good idea and encouraged his writing prowess and that was that. During that conversation, he mentioned to me that I should be the one to directly address it in my blog--to which I replied : "Hell no! Those videos are so angering that I'm not even trying to put the spotlight on them." And here I am--shinning the spotlight bright and making sure that it's angled to beam in the right direction.
I blame Kanye. The day after I talked to my friend, I was at work, jamming to my Pandora (my lifeline) and the above song came on. I thought to myself: "This reminds me of those ignorant black dating cartoon videos that everyone has been posting on every social site known to man"--and the anger/irritation ensued again.I figured this had to be a sign from some divine otherworldly being (or from my inner writing junkie) telling me to speak on it.
::Getting the spotlight positioned in a way that's conducive to typing::
Sometime last week, I logged on to facebook to do whatever you do on facebook, and in my news feed, I see that numerous people have shared the link to said video. Immediately, I thought: "This must be some amazingly true stuff if all of these people are posting it." I clicked on it waiting to be amazed and enlightened and all I saw were two crap-shoot animated college students talking about how black women are confused about life and how bad it is for the black male to have to deal with them.
ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!
DID SOMEONE REALLY TAKE THE TIME OUT OF THEIR DAY TO CREATE THIS DREADFUL NONSENSE?!?!
I'm not even going to get into the dynamics of how the black woman was wronged or how some men aren't worth the ovum they came from--but I do want to address the issue of apparent self-hate.
Why would you create something like that? In turn, why would you so avidly support this creation? We as black people endure so much hate from the outside world (whether they hate deliberately or inadvertently) that not one of us should have to endure it BY OUR ON HANDS!!
Too often, both men and women, are all to quick to point out the negatives in each other. So many times I've heard: "There are no good black men--they're either dead, in jail, or gay" ; "Black women are only about the money, or they have 6 different kids by 7 different men, on welfare, or stuck up" ; "Black people can't ever get their stuff together--they're always late, spending money frivolously, they're all thugs, uneducated, etc."
Sound familiar?
Why is it that we feel the need to always point out the negative? By pointing out the negative in someone else, does it validate you? Do you feel like you can't be that bad because So-And-So is much worse? Does it explain why you chose to date outside of your race (which I'm totally fine with for the right reasons but stay with me), or why you chose not to fraternize with people of the same descent?
Newsflash: When you speak poorly about one black person, you speak poorly about all--yourself included. (And this goes for any race/gender/religion etc.) That one person, or group of persons, represents you--whether you would like to admit it or not. I understand that 400 plus years of physical bondage, 60 plus years of political bondage and the countless years of fear-induced subservience has severely bruised and done damage (there is not a word strong enough to describe that injustice) to your psyche--but it is time to break out the band-aids, peroxide and surgical kits because we've got some healing to do--and fast.
We are so far gone that we don't even realize that by making and promoting videos such as these that we are solidifying our place as the ugly step-child of society. We're so busy being crabs in a barrel--trying to climb out of the bucket to be accepted by colonialist standards, that we don't realize that if we simply reached down to help our brother or sister, we could all be on top and creating our own standard.
I'm sure you know the saying: "If you have nothing nice to say, then don't say it at all." Well... if you're not going to be part of the solution then, SHUT THE HELL UP!
It's said that when you name a child, you're supposed to name them something that you want them to eventually exemplify--you want them to grow into that wonderful word you chose as their name. So what do you think a child that is called: lazy, ignorant, money-hungry or conniving will grow into? The staple of the community? Nah.... It's past time that we started focusing on the positive--my beautifully, intelligent, resilient, awe-inspiring people. What will your name be?
Peace.
