well, my kids at work are no different. they have their mottoes and their little carpe diem phrases. my personally hated is YOLO. geh, gag me with a spoon and hand me a barf bag. it's the most ridiculous acronym ever. there is this one student who always uses the phrase "because i'm black" when he gets in trouble or doesn't get something he asks for. like i had pizza and he asked me for some. of course i said "no" and his reply was "oh, ur not gonna give me any cuz i'm black? oh, dat's cold."
for real? boy, i should have bopped him on the head for it the first time i heard him say it. i mean, i just thought he had blurted something out, because i mean seriously, all of my kids are blurters in some fashion. but no. he kept using it over and over and over again. and the other day, i had had enough of it! so i told him to cut it out and that it was totally not cool to say. i namely said this because i was annoyed at the time. but in retrospect, the phrase being annoying is the least important.
BECAUSE I'M BLACK
that is not a phrase you can just toss around lightly. this is not something you can joke about. it doesn't matter which country per se, but definitely not in the US. this phrase implies that based on the color of another person's skin i am judging them and my verdict is that they are lacking in some such way. as such, they are worth less of my attention, my respect, and my courtesy than another individual that has the same - but more importantly - a lighter epidermis. historical evidence proves this. all the way back during the height of the roman empire: there were many slaves. they were everything from different ethnicities to different religious. then there was the east india trading company and the creation of their empire in the quest for fragrant teas and fine silks. oh, and do not get me started on the US. home of the free? for a long time that applied only to english europeans. then it slowly became acceptable to be irish, italian, german, chinese, vietnamese, japanese, black, (not necessarily in that order) and the newest group in the running are spanish-speaking individuals. i cannot rightly call them latinoes, because that term refers to only latin america, which excludes those native south american people groups that have merged with the majority. but that is neither here no there. yet.
using it implies that, yes you are subhuman to me and i can treat you like crap if i want to. and by your using it, you give me tacit permision to continue treating you that way. not only that, you inadvertently admit the reason for such treatment, but you can't do anything about it: that's just the way things roll. FALSE! if you do find yourself in such a situation - God forbid that that ever happens - you are in a very serious situation, because that other person will do something horrible, be it either verbally or physically. the fact that there is still a precedence of other individuals calling people using stereotypical names - "mexican", "nigger", "chink", and yes, "white girl" it needs to stop. i'm not exactly in the black culture loop even though i am black, i have heard it's acceptable to use the term "nigger/nigga" in everyday language. what on earth makes you think that's ok? that term is from a period when a person's value was less than a farm animal's solely because of skin. and that whole population went through horrendous treatment. and for them to try to use it in a positive aspect? who are you kidding. that word will never be acceptable because it has YEARS - with that number still growing - of a bad rap behind it. even jokingly, don't use it. when you do so, you mock the nightmare that is american history and the future.
this phrase does the same thing. it completely ignores the fact that 1) it's actually a very potentially dangerous situation, 2) you are allowing said maltreatment, and 3) you think it's funny.
that mindset is so very wrong. my fear is that said student will continue to use this as an excuse. and when they do find themselves in such a situation, they will not be able to realize it for what it is, thus raising the level of potential danger. however, i can't say all of this to them. i have to abbreviate it to: that's something you cannot say because it's offensive. it's quite probable because i lack the weight behind my words. maybe if i was a foot taller and was built like basketball player or maybe had a model figure, then i'd have the clout. but i don't, so i have to do what i can. but this student needs to realize what they're doing. because that phrase isn't funny.
*DISCLAIMER: as i'm not ethnically black, i have an outsider-looking-in kind of view. but i cannot call this over reacting or just being crazy. and i do admit that growing up, i did have a white-centered view of black/african americans. this occurred due to the fact that my world was very small and there were not alot of ethnically black families where i lived. so i grew up thinking that many black people were bad and were scary. except for people like dr. ben carson, oprah, whoopie, halle berry, and beyonce. and there is still some residual thought there, although it's lessened quite a bit, due to work and college experiences. yet it's odd: i find myself intimidated by that culture, because although i am black, i am not a representative of that culture. but i shall stop there. that's a topic for another entry.
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