an this plzzzhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBM89valaBI
... the other Black experience
ACTING BLACK, BEING HOOD
The term "HOOD" has become almost, NO, not almost, but completely synonymous with being BLACK. And "PROPER" has become completely synonymous with being WHITE. Any black person who speaks properly is accused of talking like a "WHITE BOY/GIRL" by his/her black peers. and any white person who is actually born and raised in the hood, is often chastised when in another area for being a "WHIGGER" (a white nigger) or as someone trying to be "BLACK" or "HOOD."
Why are the two classes of HOOD and PROPER so seperated. People on both ends of the stick retaliate against eachother. "Man, why you trynna be hood" and "Why you trynna be proper" It seems like its a lose-lose situation if you act hood its a problem, when you at proper its a problem. But I think this goes deeper than just that when you try to act proper, people associate you with trying to act "White" and when you try to act hood people associate you with trying to be "black".
Its like this unwritten rule, that its NEVER okay for a white person to be "HOOD" and for a black person to be "PROPER". Even when the person is truly just being themselves based on how they were raised, their enviornment an influnces, if they are not of the appropiate race for their class, they are consider "tyring to be something they're not".
Many black people see someone who speaks properly, having goals and ambitions (that are NOT entertainment and sport) and being intelligent as trying to be boujee, or feels as if that someone feels that they are higher than the others in the hood. Its almost as if we see ourselves only in the bottom of the class system and if anyone attempts to better themselves outside of using the "hood approved occupations" of "music, sports, or drug dealing", they are somehow trying to be white.
When people in the hood make the comments about someone "trying to be white" or "trying to be proper" the emphasis should be placed on the word "trying"
They always use the word "trying" which insinuates that the person is "attempting" but will not ever be able to "accomplish" being proper/white. Because proper is synonymous with white, and a black person can NEVER change their race to being a white person, the same idea is applied to the term proper. The hood mentality is that a black person can NEVER be proper/white. Its consider un-natural. Something that you may "TRY" to do, "ATTEMPT" to do, "IMITATE" but something you will never achieve, or something that you shouldn't even try or attempt to achieve.
We have to stop looking at ourselves at the bottom of the totem pole as if we were born to be inferior. We have to stop looking at SUCCESS and being WHITE as the same thing. And as a whole we need to stop looking at doing criminal activities, using slang, being poor as being BLACK.
This is a problem because if we view ourselves this way, I'm sure others view us this way.
Anyone who is black and has been chastised for trying to be proper, i would like to hear your feedback. Anyone who is white and has been chastised for trying to be hood, please share your stories.
I want to hear everyone's opinnion
Why are the two classes of HOOD and PROPER so seperated. People on both ends of the stick retaliate against eachother. "Man, why you trynna be hood" and "Why you trynna be proper" It seems like its a lose-lose situation if you act hood its a problem, when you at proper its a problem. But I think this goes deeper than just that when you try to act proper, people associate you with trying to act "White" and when you try to act hood people associate you with trying to be "black".
Its like this unwritten rule, that its NEVER okay for a white person to be "HOOD" and for a black person to be "PROPER". Even when the person is truly just being themselves based on how they were raised, their enviornment an influnces, if they are not of the appropiate race for their class, they are consider "tyring to be something they're not".
Many black people see someone who speaks properly, having goals and ambitions (that are NOT entertainment and sport) and being intelligent as trying to be boujee, or feels as if that someone feels that they are higher than the others in the hood. Its almost as if we see ourselves only in the bottom of the class system and if anyone attempts to better themselves outside of using the "hood approved occupations" of "music, sports, or drug dealing", they are somehow trying to be white.
When people in the hood make the comments about someone "trying to be white" or "trying to be proper" the emphasis should be placed on the word "trying"
They always use the word "trying" which insinuates that the person is "attempting" but will not ever be able to "accomplish" being proper/white. Because proper is synonymous with white, and a black person can NEVER change their race to being a white person, the same idea is applied to the term proper. The hood mentality is that a black person can NEVER be proper/white. Its consider un-natural. Something that you may "TRY" to do, "ATTEMPT" to do, "IMITATE" but something you will never achieve, or something that you shouldn't even try or attempt to achieve.
We have to stop looking at ourselves at the bottom of the totem pole as if we were born to be inferior. We have to stop looking at SUCCESS and being WHITE as the same thing. And as a whole we need to stop looking at doing criminal activities, using slang, being poor as being BLACK.
This is a problem because if we view ourselves this way, I'm sure others view us this way.
Anyone who is black and has been chastised for trying to be proper, i would like to hear your feedback. Anyone who is white and has been chastised for trying to be hood, please share your stories.
I want to hear everyone's opinnion
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Xombie Panik on -
when this thinking you describe isn't popular anymore in our communities, we will have finally made a jump forward that we should have made at least 20 years ago. it's a big enough novelty/comedy element to it though that society promotes this thinking, nobody's trying to STOP it...just the opposite. go buy any recent comedy movie with even 2 black main characters. people wanna milk the "hood" and "uncle tom" archetypes for all thier worth, and prolong it indefinitely.
just think how much money it generates in entertainment.
I just say try to do the opposite in your own life, don't promote it yourself...and bring it up when the situation arises when you can. just plant the seed for thought on this in your friends & family...try and practice what you preach. cross your fingers, and maybe America will get bored of this game one day, when the kids think it's too "old".
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Permalink Reply by Ghettopunkrocker on -
I'm noticing a shift in a way. I mean, to me this whole "check out my swag" trend looks like it has some 80's New Wave fashion aesthetic. Even the whole fro-hawk, band tee thing and "skinny jeans" are coming into vogue. But with this, I see a difference in fashions but not really personalities.
I remember being like 12 years old and doing a report on FM radio and I mentioned D.C. Area rap and R&B stations like WPGC, WKYS and one of the stations called Z104. Z104 (now a gospel station) played a good amount of electronica at the time and I didn't realize I was the only kid in class that listened. Well, I found out the hard way by having pretty much the whole class laughing there asses off and one dude said "he lissen to dat white stuff!" After that, I got home and said "Fuck it, I'm just doing home school until I can take college classes than have to deal with those little bastards!" Now 14 years later, I hear a ton of electronica, raver sounds in rap music. Go figure.
Okay, there's something that unnerves me and makes me cringe about this posting, Dean. I noticed you included music along with sports and drug dealing as a hood approved occupation. What exactly makes "music" a hood approved occupation? That's kind of insulting.
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Permalink Reply by Ghettopunkrocker on
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Y'know, I've hung around both extremes. The "bougie" assholes and the "I'm gon' keep it hood" guys. Honestly, both sides have good and bad, but both annoy the hell out of me after prolonged exposure. You have the "bougie" folks, who annoy the crap out of me because of the lack of substance and the "I'm gon' keep it hood" folks always gave me shit because they thought I was the "bougie" dude because I enunciated my words.
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Permalink Reply by t3amBrian on -
You did the right thing by homeschooling yourself.
James Harris (President of the NAACP Jersey Chapter) came to one of my organizations conferences dealing with urban education. We were discussing how to improve education in urban schools and give black kids a future. Everyone on the panel was talking charter schools, school choice, tutoring etc. His response... (I paraphrase) "We need to test our kids in Music, and Sports...") because black kids are too dumb to have an educaiton and talent i guess. It's not that the teachers union is fucking up there education.
Music hood approved... yes, I can see that. When the arguments for Blacks and Education are made i get to here the 3 main "redeeming" qualities in black people Sports, Music, and Hustling. It's all rhetoric of course but when you have a civil rights system set-up to appeal to the special interest of a corrupt teachers union that doesn't care about urban youth then some of our leaders have to find some kind of saving grace in our people that gives us value because we're "too dumb" to learn.
Ghettopunkrocker said:I'm noticing a shift in a way. I mean, to me this whole "check out my swag" trend looks like it has some 80's New Wave fashion aesthetic. Even the whole fro-hawk, band tee thing and "skinny jeans" are coming into vogue. But with this, I see a difference in fashions but not really personalities.
I remember being like 12 years old and doing a report on FM radio and I mentioned D.C. Area rap and R&B stations like WPGC, WKYS and one of the stations called Z104. Z104 (now a gospel station) played a good amount of electronica at the time and I didn't realize I was the only kid in class that listened. Well, I found out the hard way by having pretty much the whole class laughing there asses off and one dude said "he lissen to dat white stuff!" After that, I got home and said "Fuck it, I'm just doing home school until I can take college classes than have to deal with those little bastards!" Now 14 years later, I hear a ton of electronica, raver sounds in rap music. Go figure.
Okay, there's something that unnerves me and makes me cringe about this posting, Dean. I noticed you included music along with sports and drug dealing as a hood approved occupation. What exactly makes "music" a hood approved occupation? That's kind of insulting.
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Permalink Reply by Ghettopunkrocker on
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Okay, that fucking hits a nerve. My passion is art! I eat, breathe and shit music. The rappers you see all have the same story, it was either the drug game or rap. Okay, with that being said. DO YOU THINK THEY HAD A MUSICAL BONE IN THEIR BODY?! NO! THEY DID IT TO GET OUT OF THE HOOD! NOT BECAUSE THEY LIKE MUSIC! Theese cookie cutter, corporate bougie asswipes have it so you feel like a failure unless you're a doctor or lawyer. So, it's like unless you're a lawyer that gets paid to defend corporations who's practices are of questionable but try to figure out if their innocent or some malpractice happy doctor is a success? WHAT THE FUCK?!
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Permalink Reply by Travarus Littlejohn on -
My Friends say it too my all the time. I cant help I talk proper,I dont mind it either. This girl called me boujee and i was like "what, how?"
and she had no reason. Just saying because you are. Im not a jock alll I do is my schol work and listen and obey. Im friendly to everyne even the ones who dont like me, for no reason. Im mean to no one.
Stop looking at success as being white as the same thing is right. So right.
Thanks for this blog.
-Travarus
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Permalink Reply by Dean Chuck Vandel on
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By that, I meant that the hood seems to be more excepting of someone pursuing a music career, usually rap, rather then occupations outside of tha arena. But forgive me if I offended anyone.music is an art, and for some a business, however i do in no way associate pursuing a music career with being "hood"
Ghettopunkrocker said:I'm noticing a shift in a way. I mean, to me this whole "check out my swag" trend looks like it has some 80's New Wave fashion aesthetic. Even the whole fro-hawk, band tee thing and "skinny jeans" are coming into vogue. But with this, I see a difference in fashions but not really personalities.
I remember being like 12 years old and doing a report on FM radio and I mentioned D.C. Area rap and R&B stations like WPGC, WKYS and one of the stations called Z104. Z104 (now a gospel station) played a good amount of electronica at the time and I didn't realize I was the only kid in class that listened. Well, I found out the hard way by having pretty much the whole class laughing there asses off and one dude said "he lissen to dat white stuff!" After that, I got home and said "Fuck it, I'm just doing home school until I can take college classes than have to deal with those little bastards!" Now 14 years later, I hear a ton of electronica, raver sounds in rap music. Go figure.
Okay, there's something that unnerves me and makes me cringe about this posting, Dean. I noticed you included music along with sports and drug dealing as a hood approved occupation. What exactly makes "music" a hood approved occupation? That's kind of insulting.
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Permalink Reply by Ghettopunkrocker on
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You're a good writer, just choose your words wisely.
Dean Chuck Vandel said:By that, I meant that the hood seems to be more excepting of someone pursuing a music career, usually rap, rather then occupations outside of tha arena. But forgive me if I offended anyone.music is an art, and for some a business, however i do in no way associate pursuing a music career with being "hood" Ghettopunkrocker said:I'm noticing a shift in a way. I mean, to me this whole "check out my swag" trend looks like it has some 80's New Wave fashion aesthetic. Even the whole fro-hawk, band tee thing and "skinny jeans" are coming into vogue. But with this, I see a difference in fashions but not really personalities.
I remember being like 12 years old and doing a report on FM radio and I mentioned D.C. Area rap and R&B stations like WPGC, WKYS and one of the stations called Z104. Z104 (now a gospel station) played a good amount of electronica at the time and I didn't realize I was the only kid in class that listened. Well, I found out the hard way by having pretty much the whole class laughing there asses off and one dude said "he lissen to dat white stuff!" After that, I got home and said "Fuck it, I'm just doing home school until I can take college classes than have to deal with those little bastards!" Now 14 years later, I hear a ton of electronica, raver sounds in rap music. Go figure.
Okay, there's something that unnerves me and makes me cringe about this posting, Dean. I noticed you included music along with sports and drug dealing as a hood approved occupation. What exactly makes "music" a hood approved occupation? That's kind of insulting.
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Permalink Reply by Ghettopunkrocker on
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Wow, how the NAACP has fallen. In that case, James Harris isn't worthy of smelling the crusty shit off of a rabid warthog's asshole.
t3amBrian said:You did the right thing by homeschooling yourself. James Harris (President of the NAACP Jersey Chapter) came to one of my organizations conferences dealing with urban education. We were discussing how to improve education in urban schools and give black kids a future. Everyone on the panel was talking charter schools, school choice, tutoring etc. His response... (I paraphrase) "We need to test our kids in Music, and Sports...") because black kids are too dumb to have an educaiton and talent i guess. It's not that the teachers union is fucking up there education.
Music hood approved... yes, I can see that. When the arguments for Blacks and Education are made i get to here the 3 main "redeeming" qualities in black people Sports, Music, and Hustling. It's all rhetoric of course but when you have a civil rights system set-up to appeal to the special interest of a corrupt teachers union that doesn't care about urban youth then some of our leaders have to find some kind of saving grace in our people that gives us value because we're "too dumb" to learn.
Ghettopunkrocker said:I'm noticing a shift in a way. I mean, to me this whole "check out my swag" trend looks like it has some 80's New Wave fashion aesthetic. Even the whole fro-hawk, band tee thing and "skinny jeans" are coming into vogue. But with this, I see a difference in fashions but not really personalities.
I remember being like 12 years old and doing a report on FM radio and I mentioned D.C. Area rap and R&B stations like WPGC, WKYS and one of the stations called Z104. Z104 (now a gospel station) played a good amount of electronica at the time and I didn't realize I was the only kid in class that listened. Well, I found out the hard way by having pretty much the whole class laughing there asses off and one dude said "he lissen to dat white stuff!" After that, I got home and said "Fuck it, I'm just doing home school until I can take college classes than have to deal with those little bastards!" Now 14 years later, I hear a ton of electronica, raver sounds in rap music. Go figure.
Okay, there's something that unnerves me and makes me cringe about this posting, Dean. I noticed you included music along with sports and drug dealing as a hood approved occupation. What exactly makes "music" a hood approved occupation? That's kind of insulting.
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Permalink Reply by t3amBrian on
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The NAACP has some good people's, but yeah James Harris... totally out of touch. If I see him again I'll let him know how you feel :).
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Permalink Reply by Ghettopunkrocker on
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The odd thing is, my parents know Kwesi Mfume.
t3amBrian said:The NAACP has some good people's, but yeah James Harris... totally out of touch. If I see him again I'll let him know how you feel :).
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Permalink Reply by Rage_Proletaire on -
Ghettopunkrocker said:Y'know, I've hung around both extremes. The "bougie" assholes and the "I'm gon' keep it hood" guys. Honestly, both sides have good and bad, but both annoy the hell out of me after prolonged exposure. You have the "bougie" folks, who annoy the crap out of me because of the lack of substance and the "I'm gon' keep it hood" folks always gave me shit because they thought I was the "bougie" dude because I enunciated my words.
Yeah ...
The common thread I noticed between both "camps" (and many more!) while growing up was that some people lack imagination, period. They require an external influence (one that can easily gain popularity) to expand their worldview... until then, they'll gawk and squawk when someone or something comes along for which they have no shorthand definition (i.e., "bougie", "hood", or whatever it may be) at the ready. Some aspire to be mere caricatures -- that's their prerogative.
There are people who can't fathom different modes of living beyond the cultural incest of their own neighborhood (barring the television). And they may or may not have any intention of finding out how small their own world is. That's their problem, though; calling somebody "hood" or "bougie" is a convenient way to excuse oneself for being myopic (or unwilling to learn more than one's native tongue, in a social sense)...
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