Randomosity: Blurred Lines

*dancing like T.I.* “HEY HEY HEY”. LOL

I love that song. I only named this post that because it’s what I’m listening to. Then again, maybe we’ll be able to pinpoint some blurred lines within this post after all…

Let’s start with the kind of week America has had. ~Phew~ America…well, the WORLD over has shit going on EVERY day. What we see in the news is a mere modicum of the world’s weighty chaos. For shits and giggles, though? We’ll talk US fuckshit.

• The Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman trial got started this week and it’s been a doozy thus far. I missed the opening statements, but I heard all of the boo’s and tomatoes flying at Don West for his poor taste in banter.  “Knock knock. Who’s there? User. User who? User DUMB ass for that knock knock joke!” Don’t get me started on all of the hoopla surrounding the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, Trayvon’s friend and the last to speak to him the night he was killed. Her articulation has been questioned, roasted, lambasted, etc,…by the nation over. Her attitude was put on trial and I could only ask myself during this time, “Why does it matter what kind of attitude she has when the truth is…this is about Zimmerman’s guilt. Not HERS in the court of public opinion?” Why was it super important for a lot of Black folks to renounce her and call her everything but a child of God? To distance yourselves? To show the world…to show “massa” that YOU’RE not like that. You got book learning and is a GOOD speaker…right? A lot of y’all pissed me off, because while you sat there and made memes and jokes and judgments…you also seemed to be pissed at Paula Deen for wanting to dress your grandfathers up in slave butler outfits for a wedding…
• Which brings me to my next random. Paula Deen’s snafu, faux pas, oopsy daisy. She admitted to using the N word and she was quoted as lusting over a good old-fashioned plantation wedding; niggers dressed up in period wear and all. After apologizing and going on Today to tell Matt how racist she isn’t, Paula has suffered through the ostracizing of her brand. Food Network has decided not to renew her contract. Smithfield has taken back all their ham. Walmart, Sears, and a slew of other businesses have marked her shit down to free and asked her not to bring NOTHING else up in there. Even the publisher of her book which is #1 on Amazon, has chosen to drop her like a hot potato greased down with a pound of butter. So, yea Paula is roughing it right now and Jesus be a sedative so she don’t get ill behind the hoopla. (Yes, I have compassion for her…Yes, I think she needs to be sat down and made an example of…the two are not mutually exclusive) …So tell me why you mofos can go in on Paula in one breath and then disparage Rachel in another. You don’t make it easy to keep White folks from wondering why they can’t call us what we call ourselves. Now, I don’t THINK that’s what we should do (let them call us what we call each other) but, what peeved me is for a lot of us to go in on that young woman with NO chill and NO remorse about her looks and speech was outta pocket and short exact change. What the fuck is WRONG with people? Why do people feel the need to state every opinion, hurl every negative thought outward from the tongue and bask in the trials of someone else? Goodness gracious…We’re SO harsh on each other, but we want everyone else to regard us? Think on that.
• Aaron Hernandez…this dude here. Like, he couldn’t have been dumber if he’d just gone ahead and buried the body in his yard…but, HEY…maybe he’s innocent! 
• While folks were wondering if Paula Deen’s pots were going to be newly priced at free and were counting the times Rachel Jeantel called Don West “sir”…The VRA was fucked with and now some of y’all may not make the voter’s booth come next election. I guess the gay community’s big win at Capitol Hill was too much freedom for one week. Basically they said, “Look…either y’all ninjas can vote or the queer can marry…can’t have both.” We see you America O_O
• Kanye’s album sucked. I’d ask for my money back, but I ain’t pay for it. 
• Po’ North West…her parents are Dumb and Dumber for that shit. STOP NAMING THESE KIDS PUNCHLINES! They gotta play on the schoolyards and date and work and shit. Do NOT name your kid “Kryss’Tel’eyes” and wonder why they’re fucked up by adolescence. 

I could keep going, but why? Did you really come here to see me rant? (Of course you did, lol) 

I’mma show some restraint though. The world is something else. Our little first world problems ain’t shit. The difficulty in which we may struggle to vote ain’t got shit on being raped to correct homosexuality or children as guerrilla soldiers trained to kill for little to no reason. So what you ran out of your special almond milk…you better get you some Carnation milk, mix it with some water and pour it over that cereal and enjoy it! Shoooot. lol 

I guess all the lines this week were blurred…and many crossed. At least I can say I was paying attention…

Peace y’all

Nigga What?

Nigger…as defined by Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:

1
usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a black person
2
usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race
3
: a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons

Interesting…now, go to Dictionary.com and skim over all of the info on the page given for the word “Nigger“.

Wow, right?

Now…in spite of what I showed you, I am NOT here to advocate the eradication of  the “N” word. I am ACTUALLY here to defends it’s use amongst the Black community. I understand that it is a word that has been associated with the oppression and discrimination of our people. I get that it’s used to slur us and demean our humanity…I do get it. I even understand the concept of negating it’s negativity by not using it…a sort of “picketing”…a protest. An oral petition, so to speak. I. Get. It. I attended a rare Black Studies class in HS and it turned my thinking around. I went from thinking in a Euro-Centric mindset, to thinking with an Afro-Centric POV, as my teacher put it. To see things from the positive aspect of a Black person living here in America as opposed to eating academically and socially what I was fed and being blind to what was blatantly in front of me. Yes, the word “nigger” was told to be negative and therefore should be used…never.

Yet, I feel that the word is significant enough to warrant a little researching. I believe that if the knowledge was spread amongst the community about the TRUE origin of this supposedly disgraceful word…that we could systematically empower our people to see themselves as the royalty we are.


BULLETIN: It does NOT matter how many of us erase it, it will still be used and referred to. This world is too corrupt for anything to change that. To ignore it is to become deluded into believing that this world will ever erase the lines of racial division long enough to truly respect each other. I had the dream, too…but reality is dictated daily.


My girl, Diva posted several statuses the other day and her purpose was to educate those willing to learn what she was teaching. I respect her immensely for taking the word out of her vocabulary and for reaching out to others to do the same. I overstand her objective, but it inspired me (being my naturally adversarial self) to question WHY we SHOULD remove this word from our vocabularies. It IS in the dictionary…but then so are a lot of words. I’ve been taught that words, nor things (and in some cases…people) aren’t bad or good. It’s the way we use them. It’s what we do with things…it’s how we behave as or treat people. Everything in moderation is a balanced civilization. White is no more a “good” or “perfect” word anymore than black is a bad or hateful word. You can say “white snow” and it infer pureness and then say, “white lie” and infer dishonesty. It is indeed how you use your words. We use “bitch”, “ass”, “cracker”, etc…and it can be a good or bad thing. We KNOW bitch is a female dog, ass is another word for donkey and cracker is a thin baked wafer used to snack on. We also know that bitch is used to degrade women, ass is used to describe someone of ill character and a cracker can be a slur for a White person. Are we removing these words from our vocabulary? Are they being voided completely?


I found a site called Race and History. There the original meaning of the word nigger is broken down to microscopic pieces. Click the link…I encourage you to take time out to read this page and give me some feedback about what you think. I read it and took lots of notes, but check what stood out to me:


The word nigger…is an English word derived from the Kemetic word n-g-r…which translates into “God”. It is very clear how the word looks like it sounds. The British heard the Kemetic (Egyptian) people calling one another this and adapted the word phonetically to describe darker people. I’m sure down the line, as battles for land and a people took place…the word became used in a negative way.


So, let me ask you this. If you educated yourself on what the word derives from…and even it’s derivative “nigga”…would you not agree that you are addressing people as “God”. 


::pause::


This is where I come and reconfigure my OWN analysis of this usage. I don’t refer to another human as “God”…but, I would and could respect the term being used to acknowledge the God IN us…since we’re made in his image and such. This isn’t about the reverence of our brothers and sisters and a placement of veneration. It is about turning a negative connotation into a positive affirmation. Empowering (do you see the word “emperor” in that word?). It’s about instilling the king and queen back into our culture with understanding and education. Validating our past and it’s impact on the now without losing the sense of respect we look to gain amongst one another. People will always disagree on this…hell, Oprah and Jay-Z went head to head about it on her show once. Two different generations…looking for the solution to a people’s pain from a single word.


>>play>>


So, if we’re really addressing the God in one another…and even the most ignorant of ANY race is acknowledging this as well, even without intending to do so…why again should we erase the word? Would it not be a form of denying our heritage and power?


Tell me…what do you think?