Who knows what it means to be black?

What bothers me terribly about white people is how they claim to be experts at everything. But what bothers me most about this belief is the fact that they claim to be experts on the black race and the function of the African American experience. Basically, they know what goes in the mind of African American people, how they think, how they speak, what they eat, how they interact with each other and so on so forth. For some reason, they believe they know what it is to be a black person. Now I have to stop and laugh at this ideal, but not for its humor, but for its ignorance. Tell me how in the hell can a people so absored in themselves, greed and power are able to analyze and determine a basic idea of what it means to be black.

The reason I decided to touch on this subject today is because of what my girl told me. She told me that while in class, they were analyzing a poem by a black woman named Harriet. In the poem, to make a point, she used the words 'we' and 'us' interchangeably. The professor, who is a white man, says that black people do that all the time. It is apart of their common language. This really disturbed my girl and annoyed the heck out of me. Why is it that when white people hear black people speak improperly (regardless of the reason), they believe this is the common language and all blacks speak in this manner? Just because I hear a white person speak improper or say 'like' before and after everything (like, can we like hang out and like, watch a movie like...) doesn't mean that they all speak in this manner.

Its amazing that one race that has never been black, will never be black, hasn't faced the same struggles as blacks and who will never deal with the same racism that blacks experience are all of a sudden experts on the matter. White people, are you all really that great where you know all, see all and have experienced all. If so, then I understand why you rule the world.

But anywho, I guess my main issue is that no body, not even black people, can fully understand what it means to be black from every perspective. Yes, most of us do face some of the same issues, but being black for everyone that is black can be different. There is no general meaning of being a black person or African American. There are people from too many different backgrounds who've had many different experiences. To say what it means to be black is giving a generalization, and most knowledge seeking adults understand that generalizations are bull!

Just like this black guy told me today... "Niggas and their chicken." So I asked, "What does that mean?" And he replies, "All niggas love chicken." So I replyed, "Don't you like chicken?" And he replies, "I'm a nigga so of course I do." And I replied, "Well I'm not a nigga, but I like chicken." This conversation just goes to show you how ignorance is colorless. It comes in every form and fashion and in ever race. By him implying that all niggas love chicken what he was trying to state was all black people love chicken. This itself is a generalization. My ex hates chicken! So like I said, there is no defination of what it means to be black. Not white people or black people can define what it means to be black. There is no one answer.

The typical ingorant person would say that blacks love chicken and watermelon, love hot sauce, speak improperly or with slang or ebonics, commits crimes, steals, lies and rapes women, carries guns or at least knows how to shot them, are lazy and overly materialistic, have bad credit and the list goes on. Me personally, only fit into one of these categories... I like chicken and thats as far as it goes for me.

So people, stop trying to define blackness. Stop telling black people that speak properly that they aren't black enough. There is no definition and no one has the authority to define what it is to be black. It's getting really old and I'm really sick of the generalizations. It's not flattering to the African American race and it's not flattering to the races giving those generalizations. Secondly, black folks, we need to stop allowing people to place these labels upon ourselves, but more importantly, we must stop placing these labels upon ourselves.

Don't Keep it To Yourself

I realized more and more that as I continued to post opinionated blogs on my myspace page, I became less popular with the general public. Not with the males of course, but with some of the people that I held dearly. People found me offensive and overly outspoken. I guess thats what happens to those who speak their mind. So I came up with the idea to have a blog where I could be semi-anonymous, and still speak what I wish without losing friends, fans, or whatever in the process. This is a place that I can absolutely say whatever I want and not have to worry about the consequences too much. I would love to post some of my previous posts from my myspace blog, because some are pretty interesting, but that would defeat my chances or remaining semi-anonymous. So for that reason, I cannot post a picture of myself and I cannot post my myspace page either. Maybe one day figure out some way to link them, but for now, this will be a more personal blog. The only people who read it who know me will probably be those who I invite personally.

I think its also important for me to let people know exactly what this blog is about. Well, its about me. It's pretty much about anything I'm thinking of at that moment. Sometimes one will see that militant, tough side of me who speaks for the greater good of the people and sometimes you'll see the softer side of me and I'll speak of relationships and such. Basically, I'll just do me. Whatevers in my head that I feel people should know, I'll let it be known. Please in advance, excuse any language or gramatical/spelling errors because I probably will only go over the blog once. I want it to be as raw and full of passion as possible. I want people to know the true me and what goes inside of the head of an educated, strong, blah blah, midwestern African American woman... or something like that. And don't worry, I'm not always ultra serious. I can be fun too, or at least I'm told ;-)

And with that being said, I open myself up to you all