i hate when black people talk about the way other black people talk. you always hear somebody make fun of somebody who sounds “too white,” and that’s crazy to me.
what is sounding white, anyway!? i never got it. if you grew up in the suburbs, most of which tend to have substantially less black people than areas closer to the city, and you went to a private school, most of which are more expensive and not very diverse, then the chances are, you will grow up to be a product of your environment. so how can anybody be stupid enough to say something like “you aren’t black enough?” what is black?
i thought about all of this after reading this article on bill cosby’s daughter, evin. peep the excerpt:
“My own people used to say to me, ‘You speak like a white woman.’ What does that even mean, anyway? Everyone has their way of speaking and living their life. No one should be judging and assuming that because I’m black, I have to speak in that hip-hop way. That’s something I prefer not to do.”
oh boy! the hip hop way!? i don’t know about all that, evin. but i while she may have offended a bunch of black people with that statement, i know what she’s trying to say. and i co-sign. somebody once told me, jokingly, that i wasn’t really black. and i said, “i’m nigerian. i’m the blackest you can get. when you get there, let me know.” got’em. lifestyle defines everything. take a sociology class and your mind realizes all this stuff.
don’t take it from me, though. just let my man remington wallace burnett break it down for you. LOL. this is a must watch!
wiz khalifa - star power. best trunk music. ever.
the native soul - an evolution. it's $ulaiman of blind i. rapping!
christian rich - the decay mixtape [think electrorock meets hip hop and dates it for a bit.]
the paxtons - members only. chi-town/dc-bred dudes. nice rhymes, crazy beats.
evidence - the layover mixtape. this joint is CRAZY.
crucial mix by PFOP's lo. love songs and such!
if coldplay and jay-z made a album, it'd sound like this.
GLC - i ain't even yet: the mixtape. kanye's G.O.O.D. music artist's latest offering.
dandiggity's eclecticuts vol. 2. assortment of eclectic cuts. obviously.
dj klever - flashback. CRUCIAL mix of 80's jams that you've probably never heard before.
g*two - one man army. newest talent out the DMV. he's nice.
CLASSIC post man!!! im from the south originally (New Orleans) where almost everyone seems to talk like that. If you sound educated then it’s “oh you sound white” or if you do something REALLY ridiculous like reading a book (GASP!) then it’s “what, you trying to be white or something nigga??”……………….
At the end of the day we are all products of our environment. People who are dumb enough to say ignorant statements such as this should all be placed in a cave and banished forever. Black, white, asian, hispanic, indian, or whatever you are, it shouldnt matter. if youre ignorant, then youre ignorant. Once this is done, i guarantee you traffic will be a lot less and gas will be much cheaper.
My hat’s off to Modi for the great article. Maybe someone’s eyes and mind will open up.
great great great great post Modi!
I especially love
“i’m nigerian. i’m the blackest you can get. when you get there, let me know.”
BECAUSE I think that all the fucking time when people say Im not really black.
Black is a general term. Often times when people say Black they mean every person of African descent anywhere in the world! Every culture is different. The languauge varies depending on what region you are from. Every black person is different.
i second people taking a sociology class on RACE!
I think it was incredibly STUPID for bill cosby’s daughter, evin, to say “speak in a hip hop way” because it contradicts the point she is trying to make. She’s gerealizing a group of people. IF she is arguing against the generalization that all black people talk the same then why generalize a whole hip hop community. HIP HOP is inclusive of all kinds of people; Hip Hop sometimes doesnt even include the act of speaking (ie dance, art, etc..)
I major in Anthropology and Sociology & Africana Studies soooooooo
again…..
nice post
i love remington wallace burnett.
“ima dude playin a dude disguised as another dude”
it’s funny you made this post though
i was up on the late night, watchin HBO, and this movie that came out in 1999 called “Black & White” came on
had Wu-Tang in it, Mike Tyson, dude that played Bullethead on “Steve Harvey Show”, dude that fucked Stifler’s moms in “American Pie”, and more people. it was about how white kids follow the hip-hop culture and imitate it, how black people are selling out by having white spouses, gay people pretending to not be gay, but being OBVIOUSLY gay (had a fuckin gay dude and a lesbian married LMAO)…shit was wild. the correlation between that movie and this post? insecurity and lack of knowledge of self. all of this is typed to be said…great post, Modi. great post. The Willie Lynch Chip still exists.
Peace & Hip-Hop
Lyriciss
continuing from twitter to here: how do you about non-black people talking “black”? I agree that it’s ridiculous to say black people are talking “white” when they speak with proper grammar & syntax or whatever, and just as ridiculous to label speaking “hip-hop” as derogatory, but what happens when you see a non-black speaking “hip-hop”? I figure nearly everybody looks at him with some skepticism as if he’s acting or forcing it, but then doesn’t that kinda mean you think only black people speak “hip-hop”? Isn’t that just as bad?
WOw, your blog hustle is outrageous, i’m coming home this weekend so we can get this situation settled, I agree with Chioma on the excellence of your response: “i’m nigerian. i’m the blackest you can get. when you get there, let me know.” Greatest shit ever.
look at you trying to get deep on us. great post modi
I was always criticized by my “black” friends because I “talked white”.. and i HATED IT! I would try to speak more “black” but to them i just sounnded “whiter” …now when i go back to philly to hang out with high school friends and friends that i graduated from 8th grade with they just call me white girl lol…
oh and Being Black Great point! what is it? the most highly debated topic i think, by far!
Oh and just being white? like what is that? you know?
I mean it is history’s fault for putting “us” in categories and making us think that there is a such thing, like we actually have our mines except the notion that we are “black” and “white”…
It’s an unending discussion that both sides spur on unconsciously.
heres something to look at as well
http://blogs.theroot.com/blogs/thehardline/archive/2008/08/10/the-poor-elite.aspx
I have always hated when people say that you speak proper or that you talk white. What does talking white mean? I mean, granted, there is a time and place for that. “Talking proper”, if you will, can take you places that you’ve never been. Talking street will get you nowhere pretty fast. As a matter of fact, I have a co worker who I want to punch in the face right now because of how he speaks over the phone and how he addresses people. I want to correct him, but deep down in my heart, I know that I won’t get through to him. And believe it or not, he is in his early or mid 30’s, which is really sad because it’s all he knows.
lol. Talking white means you no longer speak English like the slave that secretly taught himself English while no one was looking.
All jokes aside, it’s an effective tool to be able to turn it on and off. Reality of the situation is everyone is not educated and not everyone understands intellectual jargon. Basic English works too. I agree there is a time and a place for everything. You are a product of your environment and everyone does not have the privilege of going to a private school or living in the suburbs. Schools in urban areas suck and quality education is a privilege, and being educated is not necessarily accessible to everyone. When a black person says that to another black person I think it has more to do with them projecting their feelings about themselves onto someone else. Jealousy is wack but it happens.
And lets not limit it to black people. I’ve heard white people say that another white person was pretending to be black.
I co-sign that statement by Kayla 100%. I grew up in the hood and went to terrible schools and only knew the ebonics version of english so therefore it is all i spoke. when i left the city (New Orleans) and went up to Virginia to the military, after 8 years of actually listening to people who had a more extensive vocabulary than than just saying “hum bra” and “whas appening lil daddy” after everything, i eventually GREW UP and became literate in ENGLISH.
Ignorance is simply when someone does not know something and clearly has no intention of learning it. What we have here is an IGNORANCE EPIDEMIC and it has no color line. All people of all races share in the ignorance, so the issue isnt whether it’s happening or not, but what are we going to do to change it? THIS is the REAL issue on our hands.
Good job, Modi. This topic has plagued me since I’ve been old enough to speak. I live in the hood and for most of my life went to private school in the hood. (Yes, there are private schools in the hood.) But, I have never in my life been categorized as hood. When I was younger, my peers used to tell me I spoke “white” all the time. I was always more mature than the rest because I would hit them back with statements and questions like: “Define what you just said. What is speaking white? Don’t be mad at me because I can speak properly and am going to be very successful one day.” I would get very angry before I even realized what I was so upset about. And every time the response would be laughter (because clearly, the person achieved his or her goal in getting me upset) or the person would just be dumbfounded and not know what to say.
I was most angry at the fact that people expected me to want to be like them. I’m one of a kind and I don’t aspire to be like anyone else. I aspire to be the best person I can be. I’ve always been independent and strong in that way. I realize that for a majority of people, that’s not how it is. People want the comfort of being like everyone around them and knowing that they are accepted by everyone around them. What they fail to realize is that by being like everyone else, you’ll never get ahead.
I know that ignorance plays a significant part in this scenario but I actually think it’s more than that. People are scared to step outside of the box and be different. If you grow up in the hood or in the suburbs, people expect you to act like you did. But, for those of us that are the exception to the rule, we can be the most versatile people out there. We know about our own culture and many others as well. We are not afraid to learn and enjoy things outside of our own culture and can find ways to identify with other cultures. This always makes for interesting conversation and is a great tool to have when you network! Knowledge is power! (LOL at the cliche.)
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wish people wouldn’t let fear and ignorance hold them back from learning new things. Everyone stereotypes. It’s our minds’ natural defense mechanism. But, stereotyping me as “white” or as an “oreo” because I speak a certain way is taking a step in the wrong direction. It proves you know nothing about me at all except that I can speak properly.
And shame on Evin. As an educated black woman who has a greater chance of affecting change, she should be more conscious about how she phrases things. All different types of people love hip-hop. We shouldn’t be expected to sound all the same. Like father, like daughter I guess.
Sorry for the long-winded response. Like I said, this issue has come up for me a lot. Funnily enough, my own family members call me “white.” I don’t condone it but to them it’s a positive thing and they do it jokingly. They see the amount of successful white people in the world and think it’s a good thing that I can speak “their language.” To them, it means that I can make “their money” too. My family’s crazy but you see where they’re going with this…
BRAVO!!! Standing ovation!!! (not really but for all intents and purposes, that was a very good response and i agreed with every word)
Modi now you need to write a post asking for recommendations on how to fix this problem, or if it can even be fixed………and dont ignore this either……….or ill slap you with on of ricky’s chancletas!!
whites make fun of Black folks for speaking their broken English. did you know that in England - the origin of the English language - they still speak broken English? so will can find an english person saying learndt, instead of learned.
perhaps that why whites frequently add a ‘t’ on the end of anyword that ends with a d - such as the word and. how many times have you heard a white person say andt?
Bingo!
Got’em.
@youknowbetter:
never. lol i have never heard that. in my life. i’m nearly 22 years old. that’s like more than halfway to 40.