Saturday, October 20, 2007

Fear Stupiditiy!

From an early age, I developed passion words. I read fluently at age four, and upon entering kindergarten, I was reading at a second grade level. Shortly after learning to read, my parents, through our church, introduced me to public speaking. That gave me a desire to read more, because if people were going to listen to me, I wanted to make sure I had something interesting to say. I read the encyclopedia ("Funky Wagnalls"), cereal boxes (which irritated me because no one could explain the use of riboflavin, or agree on which vowels had short or long sounds), the newspaper, and every book that came through the house. I read Great Expectations at eight, began devouring Shakespeare at eleven, and had a full fledged seven-book-a-week habit at twelve.

At ten, I began composing my own works - poems, songs, short stories - for my own private entertainment. I shared my work for the first time in sixth grade. When my teacher pulled me on the side and asked who helped me to write my assignment, I knew I was on to something. I can converse with the urbane, the uncultured, and everyone in-between. I am life's student. I am a writer. I am a mother who passes these same values on to her children. I am the parent of a future Johns Hopkins alum. I am a black woman. I am a product of the public school system. I am not an island. There are many like me.

Therefore, white people who just don't get it, THIS is why "speaks so well" pisses us off. (Thanks ACT.) This is why "he's so articulate" makes us liken you to the worst of bigots. Because we KNOW what you mean. We KNOW what you are expecting. Hell, YOU, most often, have had a hand in creating the system that was meant to crank out this ignorant subculture. And yet, it still didn't work. So, your back-handed slights WILL be checked. YES, every time.

So this has you "afraid" to speak your mind? Good. Be afraid. Be mortified. Let it make you think, "Exactly how long has unchecked stupidity been pouring from my piehole?" Don't let the La Shawn Barbers *cough symbolic house negroes* gas you into believing your actions are acceptable ("Massa ain't mean dat de way you sed"). Did he not know he would be speaking to a national audience? It wasn't "awkward," it was ignorant. (Thanks Mr. Clemens.) Racism is ignorance at it's finest.

So you're damn right, we're sensitive. And we will remain so as long as overt racism is seen as nothing more than a big misunderstanding.

10 comments:

Another Conflict Theorist said...

Ooooooh....

THIS is what I'm talking about! This is the fruit. I'm going to take a little bit of time to let this one (fuggin' BRILLIANT!) sink in and leave some thoughts a little later.

Thank you...

Another Conflict Theorist said...

One possible outlet: www.pgpost.com

I'll be back tonight.

Another Conflict Theorist said...

Peace Sis,

OK. First of all, this post is so dead on that it's not even funny. The consensus among white folks is that they're locked into an environment so extreme in its political correctness that they're the ones who're being discriminated against. It's no coincidence that they tend to romanticize just about any era that predates the civil rights movement. It's as if they long for the days during which they could just call a spade a "nigger" and be done with it. White folks, believe me when I say that what you see as unnecessarily restrictive we see as progress. Try to get used to it.

Second, you do realize, right, that you're dealing with a brother whose parents had about four or five sets of Funk and Wagnalls, the most recent addition of which was about five years outdated? You brought back some memories on that.

Third, I LOVE what you wrote about you not being an island. Articulate brothers and sisters, plentiful in number though we are, have got to be the most underrepresented group of people in these here United States. Every time a white person feels the need to compliment me on something as simple as being able to coherently string together a couple of words (in the muhfuggin' ENGLISH language!) I feel like saying, 'Look. You know I'm smarter than YOUR ass, right? You know that universities don't just GIVE away English degrees, right? In my darker moments, I have to conclude that my greatest single life's accomplishment is that I haven't choked the shit out of some condescending white person...yet.

Finally, what to do with La Shawn Barber? The conclusion jumper in me would have thought that, with a first name like La Shawn, she would have been relegated to the field and not the house. Do you know that this deluded Negro actually wrote a column in which she argued against the constitutionality of Brown v. Board of Education? Somebody give me an aspirin.

Anyway, I LOVED this post (it's not the first time).

jali said...

I have to wait to get home to see the video.

Outstanding post.

It really does hurt when people seem surprised that I'm intelligent and articulate. WTF?

BLESSD1 said...

Man...Breez, I LOVED this post. My...you're so...ARTICULATE!!! BWU-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!! Just jokes....on the lookout for some swift rabbit punches any time now...

Another Conflict Theorist said...

It's about that time...that's all I'm saying..

Another Conflict Theorist said...

BTW..How do you do the labels that appear at the end of your posts?

Breez said...

Under the blog text box, to the far right of "Post Options," you should see "Labels," followed by a blank box.

Amadeo said...

"He said I can't read good!"

Another Conflict Theorist said...

I've been thinking about hijacking your comments section until you write a new post.