Senseless Scribbling of an Idiot #49: That’s Just My Baby Daddies

News flash:  a recent study has discovered that at approximately 1 in 5 American mothers has children by two or more baby daddies.

*enter shockingly dramatic music*  Dun..dun…dun…dun..dun…dun…!!!!

The average American already knew this, especially those of us living in inner cities where most of the population has a standard eighth grade education.  The study’s author from University of Michigan says, “This area of study is very new to us.”  I don’t know who “us” is but they need to get it together.  How come they are always doing studies on things that regular folk have already figured out?  We may not have the fancy advanced degrees but we do not need to spend hours in a lab to discover what is already in our faces.

Don’t we already know that women with multiple baby daddies is likely to be disadvantaged?  D’uh.  They are probably under-employed with lower incomes and less education.  No shit, Sherlock.  That is why they have multiple baby daddies in the first place.  Because they don’t really know any better.  According to the study,

We know that women with higher education are delaying both marriage and childbearing for their careers.  Women with lower expectations for education and career don’t see that they will be in a significantly different place in 10 years.  So there’s no reason to wait to have kids.

In other words, when you know that your life sucks and that you probably will never have a high-paying job or an advanced degree there is nothing else for you to do but have a bunch of kids.  In fact, you probably didn’t even have that eye-opening moment of clarity.  Having multiple children by multiple fathers is second nature to you because everyone else around is doing it.  It never occurred to you to do anything else.

The study adds that this type of family structure can be stressful.  No, really?  Thanks for pointing out how difficult it is to figure even the most minute details:  where do each of the kids live?  Which baby daddy pays for what?  Do all the daddies pay for child support?

In a shocking revelation, study discovered that 59 per cent of black mothers, 35 per cent of Hispanic mothers and 22 per cent of white mothers reported having multiple baby daddies.  In some cases, two different baby daddies comes from divorce.  According to the study, 43 per cent of the mothers were married when the first kid was born, but later got divorced and had another kid by someone else.

The study claims that young women do not know how difficult it is to be a single mother and that it is even more difficult to have multiple children by multiple fathers, and that too many young women are deciding to have kids before marriage.

I hope that they did not waste precious government money trying to figure out this “mystery.”  It’s not a news flash that more young women are increasingly having children while not in a stable relationship.  I won’t use the term marriage for many reasons I won’t get into, but the point is that a lot of women are having kids with fathers that really have no interest in family life.  More and more young women are having multiple children with multiple fathers, and that’s just bizarre to me but not a great shock.  I know many people with children, almost none of them are married.  Most of them never were married.

It’s a thing.  I don’t know what it is, but it’s just something that people do.  Conducting a survey to figure this out seems lame.  How about conduct a survey to figure out how to lessen this problem?  We know why this happens.  Can we figure out how to not make it happen.  The author of this survey made a valid point when she said “women with higher education delay marriage and kids….”  Key words:  women with higher education.  “Women with lower expectations” are the ones who are having a bunch of kids.

Why don’t we help them raise their expectations?  We spend so much time and money trying to figure out the “why fors” when we could just attempt to combat the problem.  More money to more education, especially in lower income, disadvantaged areas and you will see this “phenomenon” start to back trend.

The Afronista Rants #13: Why Are You Shouting?

I mentioned before that I sometimes have serious identity issues when I’m in public areas with other black people.  Because of who I am, how I was raised and my ethnic background, I don’t really consider myself a black person.  Not like a black person because my skin is black (actually, it’s brown) but when I say black, I mean, like black American people.  I don’t consider myself in that fashion for many reasons.  A co-worker of mine said he didn’t see me as a black person either.  He said I was international, and I kind of like that.  If I had to have a label, I guess I’ll go with international.  I damn sure don’t want to be called African-American, or any other hyphenated anything.  I’d like to just be called American, but whatever.  I’m not here to talk about all that.  I’m here to talk about why I wish I sometimes wish I was anything other than brown-skinned when in public with other brown-skinned folks.

So, Friday afternoon, the kid and I decide to take a stroll through the new neighbourhood.  About two blocks away is a quaint little street with mom and pop shops, so we headed over there and found a Middle Eastern cafe-slash-pizza parlour.  We stopped in to order some slices and there we were, enjoying a pizza with halal meat and it was nice and cosy.  There were other patrons in the restaurant and it was all nice–until two black women and two black children came into the restaurant.

Now, this is not a large place.  There are about four tables total in the place.  It looks like a carry-out (I guess it is, actually).  My point is that it’s not some huge ass restaurant with a bustling crew that you have to shout to be heard because there’s so much background noise.

First black woman in EXTREMELY loud voice:  What kinda milkshake ya’ll want?

Small black kid in SCREAMING loud outdoor voice:  OOOH, THEY GOT COOKIES’N'CREAM!!

First black woman still in super loud voice:  They got … uhm… cookies’n'cream, mango, pineapple, peanut butter….
She proceeds to read the entire list of the milkshakes (there are about 15-20 flavours) in this voice that is unnaturally loud, almost deafening, like she is conducting an auction on an airplane tarmac with 747s taking off above her head and some battleships in the background practising gun rounds–oh, and a marching band is out there too.  That’s how loud she’s talking.  The other patrons are staring at her like, “Shut the fuck up!”  The cashier guy is trying to get her attention, but since she’s pretty much screaming, she can’t hear him as he politely says, “Ma’am, you should try the peanut butter, it’s our best flavour.”  The only reason I heard him is because I was standing right next to him getting some napkins.

Both kids:  COOKIES’N'CREAM… COOKIES’N'CREAM.  I want cookies’n'cream.  Mom.  Mom.  Mom.  MOM!!! MOM!!!! I want cookies’n'cream.  MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Both the kids are dancing around the woman, grabbing on her clothes and screaming at the top of their lungs.  The kids are approximately 8 and 5 years old.  Too old to be acting like assholes.  There was a deaf kid already in the restaurant with his father.  (I know he’s deaf because he makes deaf people sounds and they were speaking to each other in sign language.)  Perhaps the kid had partial hearing, or what, but he was staring at the two boys like they were lunatics.  They were making so much noise that even the damn deaf kid wanted them to shut the hell up.

Second black lady, also in ridiculously loud voice:  I HEARD YOU.  YA’LL BE QUIET.  BE QUIET.  LEMME LOOK AT THE LIST.

Her voice was louder than the first woman and the two kid’s combined.

Second black lady:  Do y’all have cookies’n'cream?

Forget about the fact that when the first woman started reading the menu, she said cookies’n'cream because it’s the first flavour on the menu.  I’m sorry, she must not have been shouting loud enough to be heard.

First black lady:  Y’all finna share dees, cuz I ain’t finna buy no two milkshakes.  [still shouting]

Kids:  NO, WE DON’T WANT TO SHARE.  No, mom!  Mom.  Mom.  Mom!!!  MOM!!  MOM!  MOM!! MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erique is staring at me like… oh my God and I’m trying to eat without standing up and screaming, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” cuz you know I will and then be just as ghetto as they were.  *sighs*

They order their milkshakes and then for a few minutes while they are waiting for the milkshakes to be done, they are kind of quiet and the restaurant is somewhat normal.  Then the milkshakes are finished and the man calls their numer.  First black lady gets up to get the milkshakes.  The kids are about a foot and a half from her and she SHOUTS… I can’t even describe how loud her voice was.  I wish I could voice record for you because she was even louder than when she first came into the restaurant and it was so loud that it was almost hilarious, if it wasn’t so goddamn disturbing.  She actually startled me.  The pizza was hot and I was trying to get it in my mouth without spilling hot ass cheese all over my face and then she starts shouting.

First black lady:  HERE Y’ALL GO!!! GET THESE HERE MILKSHAKES CUZ I AIN’T FINNA MAKE NO DINNER!!!

I thought they were going to leave once they got their milkshakes, but they didn’t.  They sat down and proceeded to have a loud, super hysterical conversation.  Then to make it even more ghetto.

Second black lady:  EXCUSE ME!  EXCUSE ME!!!

I couldn’t figure out who she was talking to.  She was screaming at the cashier guy who had gone away from the counter to restock the little soda refrigerators.

The man turns around.  “Yes, ma’am, how can I help you?’

Second black lady:  Y’ALL AIN’T GOT NO AIR CONDITION UP IN HERE.  IT’S HOT!!!!!!!!!!!

There was no air conditioning inside the restaurant.  Like I said, the place is a carry-out.  I don’t think they really intend for people to sit down and have a fine dining experience.  It was hot in the place.  In fact, even though it was scorching hot on Friday afternoon, it was actually cooler outside.  I understand it was hot, but if they didn’t have the air conditioning on that entire day, what makes you think that suddenly they’re going to have some air conditioner?  Just for you.

The man smiles and shakes his head.  I thought he was extremely polite and nice.  He did not get annoyed once at all that carrying on.  I would have been like, “Get the hell out my restaurant,” which of course, would explain why I don’t own anything.

First black lady:  IT’S NO AIR CONDITION IN HERE?  IT’S HOT.  IT’S HOT.  I’M MELTING.  I’M FINNA DIE.

So I’m thinking, well, all you guys ordered was milkshakes, why don’t you leave and go home where you have “air condition” (as opposed to air conditioning) so you can stop damn complaining in that loud ass voice of yours.

Meanwhile, the oldest kid had jumped up onto the window ledging and was perched over my table where Erique and I are eating.  He is staring down at us while we eat.  I swear, any second he was going to ask for a slice of pizza.  Look, you guys know how I feel about unruly children.  I do not hesitate to discipline children I find to be out of control.  I’ll never put my hands on another person’s child but I will tell them about themselves.  If you don’t like that, control your kids.

So he is there dangling over our food, just staring at the plate.  Since none of the kids appears to be abused or malnourished in anyway, I’m going to assume that they do eat and he is not staring at us because he’s been starved for the past three days.  No, he was staring at us because he is an ill-mannered little brat.  I kept waiting for the two women to call him back over there and when they didn’t, I said, “Can I help you with something?”

Do you mind?  More staring.

Excuse me, we are trying to enjoy our dinner.  More staring.

He just stared at me then back at the pizza, and Erique was like, “Can you please go away?”  The kid is nearly sitting at the table with us just staring.   At this point, I had this sudden wish that it was legal to beat other people’s children.  When he made no move, I said, “Go back over to your trashy mother and stare at her, because nobody wants you over here.”  He looked shocked that I said that and then he got up and ran off.

Usually, I brace myself for a confrontation because kids usually tell their parents what I said to them and then some ghetto mammy comes over and tries to “tell me about myself” and then I have to remind her that she and her family are a cancer on the ballsack of America.  But the kid didn’t say anything, but he didn’t stare at us anymore.

I know a lot of parents are like, “Oh my God… oh my God, if she had said that to my child….”  Everybody gets all upset, but then if you have rude, unruly children, why do you defend their behaviour and then get upset if someone tries to correct it?  If you taught your children properly, somebody like me wouldn’t have to speak to them at all.  But I guess I’m just crazy.

Anyway, really, this could have been any race of people.  It’s not to say that all black people are despicable in public, but there is an awful large percentage of black people who, when in groups, talk unnecessarily loud like they’re inside a wind tunnel next to some jet engines and a set of full-on club speakers blaring booty bass.  It’s annoying and excessive, and when I see that I want to sink into the floorboards so that people don’t associate us together.

I was in Wal-Mart one time and there were three black women in the line in front of me, carrying on a ridiculously loud conversation even though they were standing right next to each other.  They start to make their purchases and the cashier asks me if I’m with them.  Hell, no, I’m not.

We don’t all know each other and we don’t all stand around screaming and laughing like lunatics.

The Afronista Rants #8: Black Folk Don’t Tip!

When I was in my early twenties, I worked in an upscale hotel that had a pretty nice restaurant.  I was officially the room service operator, but I ended up doing double duty as a hostess in the restaurant, as well as a server.  One day I served a group of well-dressed black men.  By overhearing (ear-hustling) their conversation, I would assume they were doctors, or something medicinal.  Of course, it is only an assumption, but they seemed to be quite well-versed.  They seemed to be much more than just some random guys talking about cancer and pharmaceuticals.  Anyway, they ordered a pretty lavish lunch.  They had several drinks from the bar, appetisers, salads, soups, main courses, and two of the guys had dessert.  In the end, their bill came up to approximately $250.  One man paid for the entire meal on his MasterCard.

The tip he left:  $0.

Perhaps my service left much to be desired.  I don’t know.  We were not particularly busy so I was able to give them as much attention as they needed.  I brought their food promptly; I ran back to the kitchen a several times for steak sauce, hot sauce, ranch dressing, whatever, and it didn’t take me two years to do it.  I figured that I would get the standard 10%, no more, no less than what is deserved.  I was SERIOUSLY annoyed that I got absolutely nothing.

When I went into the back, I told my co-workers, “Those cheap ass bastards didn’t even leave a tip!”  Billy, my white co-worker laughed and said, “No offense, but black people don’t tip.”

Uhm, I beg your pardon?  I’m too broke to eat out much, but when I do, I tip and my parents are restaurant freaks and they always tip.  What do you mean black people don’t tip?

Steve, the Asian guy said, “Yeah, they never leave a tip.  That’s why I hate serving them.  You bust your ass for nothing.” 

Determined to prove them wrong, I decided that every time a black person tipped me, I was going to rub it in their faces.  So I really started paying attention, and I also upped my game to make sure that it wasn’t my fault that I didn’t get a tip.  I slapped some Vaseline on my teeth and smiled till my face cracked.  If I had to run from the kitchen to the floor with their food balanced on my head to ensure they got the hottest food possible, I would do it.  Anything they could possibly desire, I would make sure that my customers got it. 

Hah.  He was right, hardly any of my black customers tipped me.  The ones who did “tip” me merely rounded up their bills to even number.  A $9.96 bill meant that I got four cents tip.  Whoopee!  By contrast, my white customers always tipped.  Some were quite cheap, yes.  A few times I got precisely ONE DOLLAR.  One old white lady gave me two quarters with a big smile like she was doing me a favour.  Gee, thanks.  But for the most part, I got something.  I noticed that Asians tipped quite well.  We used to fight over who would serve the Asians that came into the restaurant.  We were all broke college kids, okay?  We had to do what we had to do.

Anyway, fast forward to my mid-20s.  I can now afford to eat out more, better quality of restaurants too.  I had just moved to Baltimore.  A group of us, mostly black, went out to the club and decided to hit up an all-night diner afterwards.  The diner had a strict “no check splitting” policy.  There was about 10 of us.  We kept the waiter busy with our annoying demands, mine included.  “Can I get more hot sauce?”  “Is it possible that you could put the gravy on the side?”  “My fries are cold.” “Can I get more ketchup?”  I don’t like my food to touch so I always ask for separate plates for everything.  I am sure we got a heavy dosage of “special sauce” that night because it was really quite over the top.

When the bill came, it was in the 200s.  First, we got into a fight trying to figure out who ordered what.  I took control of the check and went around the table:  Candace had pasta; Mike had chicken; Tonya had the burger… After figuring out who had what, I simply divided the tax by 10 instead of trying to calculate five percent by everybody’s order.  Too annoying.  Because our party was larger than six, the gratuity was already added.  That’s where the fight broke out.

Candace had a pasta dish that was $10.99.  When I told her $15.00, she shrieked, “Why do I have to pay $4 extra?”  Uhm, cuz you have to tip him.  “I don’t want to.”  Too bad.  It’s on the bill.  Then they started crying about being forced to tip someone who had basically been our slave for the past two hours.  None of my black friends wanted to tip the waiter (who was also black).  I thought it was exceptionally rude, and if the restaurant had been able to split the bill, I would have paid for my food, tipped him privately and walked off. 

Instead, we sat there for another 30 minutes, screaming at each other about why they had to tip and why they didn’t want to tip.  To make it easier, I just divided the automatic gratuity by 10.  It came out so that we were going to tip the guy about $2 each.  Everybody ordered dinner, except one person who had dessert.  And even that one person didn’t even mind adding on $2 to her $6 dessert. 

We did eventually come to some sort of conclusion, but some of us left the table looking at each other with that eye, you know… the side eye.  I decided, “this is a group of people I will not eat out with again.”  I don’t like it when people don’t tip.  A lesson I was taught as a kid, “If you can’t afford to tip you can’t afford to do whatever it is that requires tipping.”  I was taught to tip ALL service people:  waiters/waitresses, bell hops, taxi drivers, beauticians, barbers, your tattoo artist, and the chick that waxes your bikini line, everyone that is doing you a service. 

I came across an article just now, <a href=”http://www.thegrio.com/2010/01/does-race-play-a-role-in-the-way-we-tip.php”&gt; Does Race Play a Role in the Way We Tip?</a>  According to this study, I suppose it does.  There are a lot of reasons cited why black people don’t tip:  not having enough money, not knowing the proper custom, etc.  There was also some evidence in a bit of racism when black people enter a restaurant; nobody wants to serve them because they are notorious for not tipping.  The person who did the study, whom I understood to be black, stated that she has never been treated poorly when in the company of her white friends and associates, but if it’s an all black group, then the service becomes terrible.  Presumably, because they are black and were automatically discounted to be shitty tippers.  Since they probably won’t tip, let’s just treat them like crap.  Who cares?

We do know that on the whole blacks make less, have less disposable income.  That doesn’t mean that they should never eat out to a restaurant; it just means they should hold off eating out until they can afford EVERYTHING, because tipping is apart of the American culture, and it’s not something you do when you get exceptional service.  In case you didn’t know, 10% is the minimum you should tip.  If your server gives you basic service, the basic tip is 10%.  You give them more if they are exceptional.  If they suck so bad that you don’t want to give them a tip, you should report them because they deserve being disciplined. 

It’s not right that we have a stigma of not tipping, but hate to say it, if you don’t tip and the whole population is generally seen as a group of people that don’t tip, the only way to get rid of that, is to change the culture of our race.  START TIPPING.  Once again, if you can’t afford to tip, then you can’t afford whatever it is that requires tipping. 

And let’s not be cheap like the whites.  Yes, they tip, but $1 for a $90 meal is a slap in the face and I’d rather not get a tip at all if that’s the case.  When I went out of town recently, the girl I went with told me that she didn’t know how important tipping was until a few years ago.  A teacher of hers had to let her know that it was important if you wanted to continue to receive exceptional service from someone.  The teacher gave her some money so she could tip the service person.  However, when we were out of town, I noticed that her tips were quite miserly.  I’m not saying we need to break the bank.  I’m also not saying we need to reward bad behaviour on the part of service personnel, but these people are doing you a service.  If they do a good job, and not just a good job, but an excellent job, they deserve to be rewarded. 

Candace from the diner disaster earlier said, “Why should I tip them?  I didn’t force them to be a waiter.”

No, you didn’t, but you did force the guy to run back into the kitchen THREE times because you needed more ketchup, mayonnaise, and ranch dressing.  Then she complained that her food was cold because she wouldn’t eat it because she didn’t have enough ketchup.  “That’s his job,” Candace said rudely.  There’s almost nothing you can say to that; it’s that blatant stubborn idiotic streak I find in some black people that I just can’t go up against. 

That night in the diner, I paid $25 for everything, even though I only got a $6 egg sandwich and a $6 dessert.  Not only was I exceptionally fussy, but the table was rude to the waiter (and he wasn’t rude back to us) and he deserved it.  I felt like I had to make up for their bad behaviour.  When I went out of town, I put into my budget how much money I would need for tips:  the cab driver, all the restaurants I would be eating in, the bellhop who carries my luggage to the room, even the maid (which most people always forget or ignore), a little something for the concierge guys who give me the dibs on all the local happenings.  I tip based on how much I spend, how fussy I am and the quality of the service.  I expect basic and good service, but when I get exceptional service (like the patisserie who made me my own dessert in Vegas), you will get an exceptional tip.  I gave that woman $10 tip even though the dessert was only $5.  I was SOOO pleased that she offered to make me anything I wanted, then it took me about 8 minutes just to figure out what I did want, and she brought it back very quickly.  That was the best $15 ice cream sundae hot chocolate fudge caramel pecan brownie thingie I ever had in my life.  Worth every penny. 

I think the biggest reason black people don’t tip is that they didn’t know they needed to do so.  In the article, one woman mentions that nobody ever told her, just like my friend.  Secondly, some of us just don’t have the funds for it.  So here’s the remedy.  Teach your children why we tip, how to tip, when to tip, and if you can’t afford to tip, then you can’t afford whatever it is that requires tipping. 

The Afronista Rants #4: Why Hip Hop Is Dead To Me

Several weekends ago, a girlfriend of mine celebrated her 25th birthday by getting all us girls up on a road a weekend trip to New York City.  There we glammed around like we had money in limousines, staying in four star hotels, sitting in VIP sections, and having dinner at $100 a plate steakhouses.  It was a very fabulous weekend, and I’m glad my girlfriend celebrated her birthday in style. 

I definitely loved sleeping my life away in a hotel where they leave little mints on your pillow top mattress.  Of course, I liked being handed into a stretch limo so I could be carried to my night on the town.  Naturally, my $75 lamb chop dinner topped off with profiteroles in chocolate sauce was top notch.  Here’s what I could have done without:  the night at the hip hop club.

Since it was her birthday, it’s her choice.  I also did not want to complain because nobody likes to have crybabies tagging along when you’re trying to have fun.  But look, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:  hip hop is so dead to me.  Why is that, you ask?  I could easily turn this into a 50 page research paper, but who has the time for that, and you wouldn’t read it anyway.  I’ll try to sum up the best I can.

I’m not a huge fan of hip hop/rap/R&B music for a lot of reasons.  Hip hop and rap music can be acceptable for a night at the club, but it’s not really music that I would listen to hanging around the house, or cruising down the highway.  Most of it makes absolutely no sense to me and I don’t have an emotional connection to it.  Since I didn’t grow up in the hood looking for a purse to snatch, I have trouble understanding and feeling what the artist wants to me feel.  I don’t know any round-the-way girls.  I didn’t know people who did drugs until I was like 19 and then I was so surprised that I wouldn’t believe it, even though it had been going on under my nose since I was 12.

And even for the rappers who aren’t rapping thug life, I still can’t understand it.  Bling, bling, shaking my ass for a dollar, getting trashed and all those themes are only amusing for about 15 minutes and afterwards, I’m left with a sordid taste in my mouth, similar to what you feel like after a round of cheap liquor. 

I like a lot of old school R&B music and I get that from my parents.  My parents were into Sade, Whitney (before her intervention), Aretha Franklin and stuff like that.  My dad also liked funk, but I never got into that.  He was open-minded and listened to anything on the radio that “had a decent beat.”  My mom likes Prince, Gerald Levert, Luther and stuff like that.

Nowadays, the R&B singers don’t sing very well in my opinion.  I am a singer myself, and no, obviously, I’m not good enough to make it anywhere, and maybe that’s how I can pick’em out.  It takes one to know one.  Keyshia Cole, Mario, and whoever else, they don’t really sing very well.  They have very limited musical ability other than the fact that they can carry a note, however, their songs are trite and meaningless.  There’s no emotional depth to their music.  When I listen to their songs, I don’t get that feeling like, “Yeah, I know how you feel.”  Even if it’s an emotion I’ve never felt before, sometimes an artist can really convey his feelings and somehow I can become connected. 

There’s a song by Evanescence that’s really powerful to me.  I’m not precisely sure what it is she’s singing about, but I think it might be some childhood abuse.  I’ve never been abused, so obviously I don’t know how that feels but the lyrics were so deep that for a moment I felt like I was the one who had been abused and I felt the same rage she did.  That’s important to me in music:  lyrics and depth.  Another good example of this is Lauryn Hill’s Zion (Joy of My World).  I don’t have a kid, but the song is really beautiful and emotional.  I actually gave some thought to her situation:  have a kid and possibly mess up my career or have a kid and embrace the moment.  In addition to the talent of the artist, you have to consider the total picture.  You can’t just be another pretty face or a hot set of balls.

Singers like Beyonce and Rihanna, etc, what are they?  Are they pop stars?  Are they R&B stars?  I don’t know where they fit, and it doesn’t even matter anyway because, although Beyonce can carry a note, she is dry and lifeless to me.  There are about two or three songs from her where I feel like she was singing from the heart, but those songs were the “shake your ass” type of songs, and not really R&B.  What am I supposed to get out of our music? 

Going back to hip hop and rap, they’ll never redeem themselves in my eyes.  Every year, the music just gets worse and worse.  The whole scene is perpetuated by sex, drugs, crime and violence, and it was painfully evident that night in New York City.

We went to this club called Imperial, which advertised itself as a high-quality club.  The club was not a total dive.  It wasn’t some hole in the wall dump where I had to shank somebody just for image sake.  At any rate, we spent quite a few hundreds on a VIP section, revealing ourselves to be ladies of some means.  We were all dressed to the nines, and none of us were slutty in nature.  There wasn’t ass and titties falling out all over the place. 

When we arrived they checked our names; yes, we’re on the VIP list and then I was subjected to a very invasive pat-down security check.  I feel like the bouncer should have cooked me breakfast after all that fluffing and rubbing and lifting.  Oh, but ALL clubs are worried about safety.  Yeah, I’m sure they are and there’s no denying it.  But who primarily goes to hip hop clubs?  Minorities.  Who’s responsible for the abominably high crime rate in some urban areas?  Minorities.  It’s the sad truth. Yeah, white people shoot up schools and kill their wives in bizarre murder/suicide rituals, but black people bank each other in clubs, on the way to clubs, at the Denny’s after the clubs and on the corner while you’re waiting for a cab from the club. 

It’s no wonder there’s such a propensity for violence when all night long you’ve been listening to Lil Jon’s Up in the Club and Crime Mob’s Knuck If You Buck, two songs which pretty much glorify beating the shit out of someone or shooting them in the face.  So it is really no wonder the bouncer has to strip search us to make sure these girls won’t be tusslin’ (from Knuck If You Buck). 

After being fondled by the very obviously gay female bouncer, we go into the club.  At first it was quite nice and I was prepared to forget about that scene at the door.  As the hours wore on, the club got more crowded.  Then the sluts showed up.  Why is it that no one is sexy anymore?  Why are all the women whores?  I’m a fan of mini skirts.  I like high heels.  I wear shirts that make my boobs look bigger.  But all at once?  I feel like a street walker.  It can only be one, just so there’s something left to the imagination.

All the “getting drunk in the club” songs came on, because that’s apparently the new thing.  Blame it on the alcohol.  Whatever.  Along with She Got a Donkey, it was like carte blanch to be the biggest whore possible.  I do happen to like the song (when I’m in the club) and I will dance to it, but I won’t let you grind on me, and I won’t take my pants off so you can see my donkey either.  Which is precisely what a large number of women proceeded to do.  There was a cage, like a go-go dancer cage, and women were lined up to get up there and shake their ass over everybody.  Most of the girls who went up there were barely dressed in the first place, but there were a few who obviously felt they were overdressed, so they left the cage, took some clothes off and went back up there without bras, panties, pants, whateves.

It was so scummy that I was almost embarrassed.  I’ve been to strip clubs before; I know what to expect.  If I go to a strip club I can’t be upset that I see little brown holes.  But if I go to a regular club can I at least hope that everybody will have their clothes on?  Or is that too much to ask?

Nowadays, when I go to hip hop clubs I don’t dance with guys anymore because it’s hard to set boundaries in a place like that.  I just want to dance, have a good time, smile and flirt and don’t call me tomorrow.  However, if you don’t let a guy stick his hand up your skirt, you might as well put a sign on your forehead that says, “STUCK UP HOE.”  I don’t want to dry-fuck you on the dance floor.  But that’s what they expect and if you try to tell them it’s too much, they get mad.  Most just wander off and find some other less self-respecting harlot, but sometimes they have a few choice words to say.  That night a guy told me I was a “stanky bitchy anyway” because I wouldn’t let him rub his sausage on my ass cheeks. 

But once again, the hip hop scene is mired in this style because that’s what you see in the videos.  If the rappers aren’t rapping about the Trap, they’re talking about licking coochie till their lips get gooey (from Get Loose).  Anybody not in line with this method of thinking is an alien. 

This is not precisely to say that white clubs don’t have their fair share of problems.  You go into some of these rave joints and there’s candy kids rolling off X and underage chicks giving handjobs in the men’s bathroom.  Every culture has its problem, but as I am a lover of so many different music styles, I’ve been in an embarrassingly large amount of clubs from one end of the country to the other.  I will say that in every hip hop club I’ve been in, I’ve been groped, fondled and damn near molested by the bouncers and patrons.  I’ve seen fights.  I’ve even been thrown out of a club because I was mistaken for another girl.  I was calmly sitting in a corner wishing for death because my friends were having a great time and I wasn’t when a bouncer came up to me and jacked me up out of my seat.  He pretty much carried me to the door and asked me to leave because he “saw me get into it with another girl by the bathroom.”  I didn’t even try to argue.  I just stood outside for about an hour waiting on my friends.

Whateves.

I have been in white clubs that were raided by the police, but I’ve never been harassed or mistreated.  When I go to goth clubs, my favourite types of clubs, none of them have ever had any fights, shoot outs or any other acts of violence.  I’ve never even heard of any goth clubs being involved in stuff like that.  And people think we’re the weirdoes.  We don’t stab each other.

One time I commented in my blog my great distaste for hip hop clubs and someone snidely responded, “Why do you even go if you hate it so much?”  Well, it’s not like any of you are interested in partying ‘round my way since you “didn’t grow up on that type of music.”  I’m sorry that BET has you so brainwashed that you’re only capable of digesting the third grade rhymes of the current rap star and the pedantic rhythms of whatever R&B/pop star is out. 

You are so easily distracted by fat cellulite asses, rhinestone bling and lice-infested dreads that you have no idea of the intelligence that is being sucked out of our race one heinous video at a time. 

And before you start going on and on about that so-called intelligent underground rap, I’ll tell you that I don’t want a politico-history lesson in my music.  I don’t want to hear about the Mother Land.  Yes, there are so many issues to deal with it, but I don’t want to listen to rap music talking about the struggles of the hood and the tragic life of a young black man or a sister selling dope and overcrowded inner city schools. 

I want to be entertained, amused, loved.  I want to feel some emotion.  I want to have a good time.  I want to smile and laugh.  When I’m in the club, I want to party, not get wasted and end up face down/ass up in somebody’s bathroom.  I don’t want to army crawl out the club to avoid the spray of bullets.  I don’t want to end up in a body bag because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Why can’t our musicians understand that?  It’s because you haven’t told them how you felt.  They keep putting out this garbage because you keep buying it.  Their songs are in heavy rotation because you request the shit on the radio.  It won’t go away if you keep endorsing it, which is why I gave up on the industry a long time ago.  None of them can get a dollar out of me, since I feel like I’m throwing good money after bad.  I don’t buy any of their CDs (or anybody else’s for that matter) but I don’t endorse them as a whole.  I don’t attend concerts, or watch their videos on TV, or buy any products they endorse.  I’m only one person and I know I’m not making an impact, but it’s just my way of saying, “You’re dead to me.” 

The Afronista Rants #3: I Know Which Fork To Use!

As a teenager I went through intensive etiquette training.  I studied deportment and manners.  I was schooled in elegance and posture.  I learned how to properly fold my napkin across my lap at supper.  I learned how to sit with feet crossed delicately at the ankles.  I learned how to speak.  I learned how to walk—glide, rather.  I even learned things like order of precedence (a fancy way of setting the table according to one’s rank).  I can throw large dinner parties.  I can wrap gifts.  I know how to write thank-you notes.  I even know how to smile and nod when someone says something I disagree with.  I also learned other useless things like flower pressing and paper folding—these old school activities of young ladies of dignity and quality. 

 

The training was intricate but very useful.  Someone once remarked that I am now qualified for embassy work, but I like to brag that I could properly entertain the Queen of England with all the necessary protocol.  I’m grateful to have jumped through such hoops in addition to my basic education.  It’s made me a more well-rounded person.  Of course, the Army undid a lot of that training because I still swear like a sailor and pass gas without a thought.  At any rate, what I’m trying to tell you is that I know which fork to use when dining in an upscale restaurant.  I’m not a backwards corn-fed hillbilly scooping my peas off my knife with my elbows on the table. 

 

This weekend, my friends and I took ourselves out for a lavish outing in New York.  We glammed around in limousines, dropped $400 on a VIP section and shopped like there were no bills to pay.  It was all for my friend’s 25th birthday extravaganza.  For her luxe dinner, we ate at Smith & Wollensky’s Grill.  It’s a rather nice restaurant serving top quality steaks and chops, perhaps on the same scale or better as Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.  Just so you know it ain’t TGIFriday’s.

 

We arrived to the restaurant in a limousine, not necessarily out of showboating purposes, but of necessity because there were eight of us and we couldn’t fit in a cab and who would take the subway dressed to the nines in cocktail dresses and high heels? 

 

While waiting for our table to be set, we lounged at the bar and I noticed that we were getting some very obvious stares from other patrons.  My friend Ceciley really killed it in her bright red cocktail dress and stiletto pumps.  She’s a makeup artist so her makeup was exquisite.  She is a confident black woman in charge of herself and it is very obvious that she could really care less about what others think of her.  These two white women were really in her face.  I think they were impressed but didn’t want to admit it.  They were foreign, but I couldn’t hear them entirely so I’m not sure where they were from.

 

They had other looks for the rest of the party.  Derisive, condescending looks were thrown at certain women in the group, probably because of the way they were dressed.  I’m not here to bash anybody’s mode of attire because I feel that people are going to wear what they want to wear, but it was disappointing to be looked at like we just came up from the fields for our evening rations.

 

I noticed almost immediately that we were the only black people—check that, people of colour in the entire restaurant.  There were two Asian women, but they were the white American type of Asian, not Chung Lee Asian.  I would imagine their names were something like Victoria Lee and Nancy Kwan.  That’s usually how it works.  There weren’t any black people, no Hispanics, no dark-skinned Eastern Europeans, damn sure no Middle Eastern folk. 

 

Not only was the crowd white, but they were like Grand Ole Party, old money, silver spoon in the mouth, daddy sails in the Saint Bart’s regatta every year, while mommy goes to the spa in Switzerland type of white.  I bet all their forefathers came over on the Mayflower and the rest of their ancestors fought with William the Conqueror in 1066.  That’s how white they were.

 

A group of yuppies at the table next to us kept staring.  Alan Greenspan (hahah) sat behind us and I think he needed an exorcist because his head turned a full 360 every five minutes so he could gawk at this group of black women out for a night of cabernet sauvignon and lamb chops. 

 

I’ve written before that I’m always embarrassed to be seen in a large group of black people because I’m always painfully aware of how I’m perceived.  Despite years of etiquette schooling, who could tell in such a large group.  Why do I care that these toffee-nosed bigots think poorly of me?  Why do I even stress?

 

Maybe because it makes me depressed to think that after all these years, here we are in the grand year of 2009, and people still can’t get over the fact that some black people really have earned their place in society.  We could afford our meal.  We would not have sat down to dine if we had any thought that we would not be able to settle the $700 bill that showed up five minutes after our desserts.  Most of us knew the difference between a ribeye and filet mignon.  Ceciley, our wine connoisseur, knew that red wine went best with steaks.  Most of us are sophisticated.  Damn it, I know which fork to use.  I know where to put my bread knife.  I know how to hold a Bordeaux glass. 

 

I felt like the waiter thought it was somehow beneath him to wait on black women.  His manner was, of course, professional, but he was very curt as if he had something better to do, like pick the lint from his belly button. 

 

I think it’s important how we present ourselves to society.  I’m always very conscious of presentation.  I believe that we should be who we want to be, but we must be prepared for the consequences.  If you want to look backwards and urban, by all means, please do so, but you will never fit in white society.  Some of us say to ourselves that we shouldn’t have to “fit in,” and perhaps you might be right, but unfortunately, the world is the way the world is.  If it’s going to change, we have to perpetuate that change.  Instead of setting ourselves apart, we need to step in and take over.  By this I mean we should assimilate and take on their characteristics and then make it our own. 

 

Many black people dub this “crossing over,” “selling out,” or whatever else other term, but I don’t see it that way at all.  If I want to eat in Smith & Wollenksy’s every night of the week, I could, but I don’t the Talbots and the Mulroneys staring at me like I’m one of the Browns (from Meet the Browns.)  As long as I can pay the bill, I have the right to be there just as anybody else, but what a lot of black people don’t seem to understand is that we don’t represent ourselves as if we could be high class.

 

Even if we were white skinned, we wouldn’t be acceptable because it’s our manner and presentation.  That is the point I’m trying to make.

The Afronista Rants #2: Fine, I’ll Be Your Oreo

So I just finished reading a friend’s blog where she explains why she dislikes being called an Oreo.  If you have never heard this term, allow me to enlighten you.  We all know the cookie, the Oreo, two bits of hard nasty chocolate cookie covering a super sweet pre-formed circle of creme.  They are really nasty and they make your teeth black, but the point is they are white on the inside and black on the outside.

So other black people got this idea to call well-mannered, well-spoken, and well-educated black people oreos, because they, in their opinion, “sound white” and “act white.”  I’m not precisely sure what sounding and acting white means, but I’m going to base all of this on their opinions, whether I agree or not.

My whole life I’ve been referred to as an oreo, and I used to take offense to this.  After reading my friend’s blog, I think I have changed my mind.  You may call me an oreo if you so desire.  I am no longer annoyed.

As long as there is a clear separation between me and you, I am all for it.  I wouldn’t want to be confused with some gold-teeth wearing, saggy-pants, hood chick baby mama who doesn’t know that Africa is a continent and not a country.  I don’t want to be confused with someone who has several children by several different men.  I don’t want anybody to think that I have to stand in line at the food stamp office.  I want to make sure that you understand that I have a high school diploma, a college diploma and a job.

There is a huge difference between you and I.  If this neat label you have created works for you, then by all means apply it.  I’ve always been for segregation–segregation of the minds, of course, not the races.  Because I want to make sure there is a clear demarcation between what I represent and what you stand for.

This weekend, Trysh and I went to the mall in Security–I mean, Se-CURR-ity.  When we went into one of those urban stores, they were playing this song called “Bitch, I’m the Shit.”  I’m the first one to assail you with some profanities, but there is always a time to be professional.  I think blaring this at the top of the speaker volume in a store where small children might walk in is kind of a disgrace.  Because of Trysh, the dudes that worked there immediately flocked to her.  They eventually got around to me because I was looking so shocked and disgusted.

Because I’m goth, I always get the, “You’re not from around here,” bit.  I said, no, I was from Florida but I live in P.G. County.

Because I said, P. G. CounTTTTy and not P.G. CounNNNy, the two guys busted out laughing.  “Oh, you talk so proper.  Yeah, I can tell you’re not from around here.  You sound so white.”  Why is that amusing?  Why is it amusing that I should say words as they were meant to be said?  Why is this abnormal?  Why is it strange that I enjoy reading and the arts?

How do I sound white?  Don’t black people realise how stupid this statement makes them sound?  Of course they don’t.  Half the things that spew from their mouths is moronic but yet they don’t ever change their ways, now do they?  So, because I enunciate properly, I sound white, indicating that to speak like a mildly retarded four year old is to sound black.  So, basically you’re saying that anybody that speaks stupidly is black; therefore, black = stupid.  Because to me, that’s the argument you just made.  Don’t sound intelligent because you’ll sound too white.  Sound like an asshole and you’ll fit right in with the rest of the homies.  Do you even think about the things you say out of your mouth before you say them?

Why can I not simply sound educated?  I am, you know.  My parents didn’t kick out all of this money for me to come home and be like, “Yo, wassup,  moms.  I be like whoa.”

What?

But I’m supposed to be comfortable with, “Bitch, look at my wrist.”  I’m looking at your wrist.  What is it?  Oh, a watch.  Oh, I’m impressed.  You can’t spell watch, but you want me to look at your wrist?  And this is acceptable? I’m weird?

I’m confused.

When the young guys in the store asked me if I was interested in anything, I told them flatly, “Hell, no.”  Wearing jeans isn’t a symbol of being black, but the store did primarily sell jeans.  I don’t wear jeans.  But the rest of the stuff… I associate with hood life.  Gigantic oversized hoodies.  T-shirts that say PIMP.  T-shirts that say I LIKE YOUR MAN.  I don’t want to be seen in anything like that.  I want people to think I’m well-mannered, because I am and I went through a great deal of trouble to become that way.

So if I’m an oreo because I said counTTTy and not CounNNNy, I think I can accept this.  There were two girls that worked in the store.  A scrawny little thing in skinny jeans and half a shirt.  She was attractive so her manner of dress was not offensive.  It was the words spewing from her mouth.  I could hardly understand what she was saying.  She was trying to ask me if I wanted to try anything on, but all her words were a jumble, who could understand?

The other girl was a porky in skinny jeans and a half shirt.  Sad to say, she looked a mess.  After much discussion, it was discovered that these were not teenagers but young 20-somethings.  None of them were in college.  One boy didn’t even really work there.  He was just loafing.  I know that college is not for everybody.  But I hope that you have greater aspirations than working in a clothing store.  After you turn about 22, that’s no longer acceptable, unless you’re putting yourself through college, and even then, there are greater jobs to be had.

But I’m amusing because I said counTTTy.  I make more money than your parents make combined.

So, please, go ahead, and make sure you make a clear separation between you and I.  There is a huge difference.  I’ve always told my friends that I am always fearful that someone will lump me in the same group as that.  But now that we have clear-cut labels, it will be easier to discern the difference between you and I.

I can be your oreo as long as you understand.

The Afronista Rants #1: Move Your Goddamn Cart

As my readers and intimate friends well know, I suffer greatly from an identity crisis.  Half the time I do not know what I am or what I am supposed to be.  Are we to be as we are born?  Or has some mistake been made?  No, I should never question God and I do not now, but perhaps somewhere along the line in my raising up I got things twisted.  Why else would men have operations to be women, and vice versa?

Of course, it isn’t my sexuality that I question.

I am here, a simple square peg trying to fit into a round hole and failing miserably.  I don’t identify with my black sisters and brothers.  Most of the time I’m left bewildered.  They understand me even less.  Despite the confusion I feel at having been born black, I have no desire to become white.  I do not think any one race is better than the other.  Becoming white will not solve the distress I feel at being black.  The white race is cursed with its own fair share of problems, and I daresay that I would still suffer some crisis, even if I were white.

Perhaps I should have been Chinese.

At any rate, I have a strong objection towards black people in general, and it’s a funny thing especially when I am black and very obviously black.  I’m not light skinned and thus, I could not pass well.  Am I a racist?  Can you be racist against your own kind?  I don’t know the answers to these questions.  I just know that I have serious issues.  I get worried when there are large groups of black teenagers near me.  I don’t go into neighbourhoods that are largely black.  I don’t patronise black businesses.  I would never consider a black doctor.  I’m concerned if someone links me to a group of black people.

I worry about looking too ethnic… too black.  Not in skin colour, mind you, but I wouldn’t come out wearing Mother Africa colours.  I don’t like to be called African-American.  I wouldn’t wear cornrows because I think it looks too prison like and prison is where a lot of black people hang out.  I want to loc my  hair but then I’m concerned that I might look too “Fight the Power.”  It’s like I want everybody to know I’m not one of them.

See how stupid I am?

Some days I have a good reason, and some days I’m just stupid on principle.

Today, I went to Safeway to pick up a few things for supper.  I always rear park my car because it’s easier, and I go inside, get my little items and when I come out I find that a black family is loading their groceries in the soccer mom van next to mine.  Nothing wrong with that except for the fact that they had their cart propped up against my car.

Now, I don’t drive a Mercedes or BMW, or even a Honda.  I drive up a beat-up five year old Hyundai that hasn’t been washed in three or four years.  It’s been banged up.  The side fender is hanging off.  There’s bird shit all over it.  I’m not one for the outward appearance of the car; as long as the engine is running properly I could give a shit less what the car looks like.  I was just never into that sort of thing, but don’t you think it’s appallingly rude to have your cart on someone else’s car?

As I approached my vehicle, one woman was shouting down her cell phone in that typical fashion of most black people.  Why do you have to scream into the phone?  Is your other party deaf?  Are all black people talking to deaf people on the other end?  The woman and I lock eyes.  I look at my car.  I look back at her.

She does nothing.

I have an exceptionally rude mouth and I can say some of the most horrid things imaginable, but I didn’t do that.  Well, I was rude but I didn’t make a comment about her wide spreading ass.  I simply said, “Could you get your cart off my car?”  It’s not just the fact that the cart is on the car, it’s also that I can’t pull off because the cart is IN FRONT OF the car.

The woman’s gargantuan mother was in a store-provided Hoveround and she was looking at me like I’m the one doing something wrong.  I was headed towards my driver door and the woman still made no move to get the cart off the goddamn car.  So I said a little louder, “Do you think you could stop screaming into your phone a moment and move your goddamn cart?  K, thanks.”

Yeah, I’m sure there’s way of doing things and if I were a weaker willed woman I might have been polite and ingratiating, saying please and thank you.  But why should I?  Her cart is on my car?

There is another fat woman inside the car and now all three fat black women are staring at me as if I’m the rude one.  When she still makes no move to the cart, I went back around, moved the cart off my car and pushed it into the street.  While she was screaming, I got in my car and drove off.

Yeah, I know, this could have been anybody.  These people could have been Portuguese.  They could have been Australian aborigines.  I’m sure.  Whatever.  They weren’t.  They were black, and I’m always have altercations with black people.  Maybe I bring it on myself because I have such a huge chip on my shoulder.  It’s possible.  Maybe my sour disposition attracts negative things.  Who even knows?

Every time I try a little bit, something happens to shove me right back down.

I don’t want to be white.  I’ll settle for plaid or stripey, something interesting.  Then I would not have to fit into anybody’s neat ideals of what a [insert any race here] person should be.  I can be anything I want and nobody would know the difference because they’d never met a plaid person before.

Le sigh.

I make life so difficult.

Bitch Fest #5: Because Someone Needed To Say Something

Even though Shannon asked me not to do this, I felt that there was no way in good conscious that I could let this slide.  Truthfully, this is not about Shannon.  This is about me and how I feel about the subject.  

This is not going to be for everybody.  This isn’t for the family members that lived too far away.  This isn’t for those who participated in the work baby shower and might not have been able to afford another one.  This isn’t for those who thought it was just for the family only.  This isn’t even for the scary ass bitches who didn’t want to get their head wet because it was raining.  This is not for anybody who thinks they have a plausible excuse.  I’ll accept whatever lame excuse you have.  I’m not even talking to you.  

This isn’t because I want to stir up trouble, or because I love drama.  This isn’t because I want to instigate a riot.   This isn’t because I know everybody’s going to read this and it’s going to cause a scene.  No, it’s not about that.  If you can’t figure out what it’s about, then you have a problem.

I have always had issues.  Anybody that has ever spent more than five minutes with me has discovered that some days something don’t be quite right with me.  That’s cool.  I’m glad that my real friends are able to look past my weirdness to see who I truly am and why things make me the way I am.  

So as you read this, you’re going to say, “Yeah, that chick has problems,” and that’s okay, because it’s true.  But listen carefully, make sure you read every single sentence and you will understand.

Do you know why I don’t like black people?  Do you have any idea why I wish I had been born as a grasshopper?  Because black people do shit like this.  Black people deliberately do things to other black people to hurt them, to degrade them, to humiliate or embarrass them, to knock them down and run them over.  The more we screw over our own race, the cooler we are to our friends who are just as dumb.  Black people have no sense of dignity.  No pride.  No grace.  No civility.  Black people are ill-mannered, ill-bred, and ill-met.  

No, this is not every black person I have ever met.  I’m not categorising the whole race.  Of course not, that’s too big of a generalisation.  But one sour apple ruins the whole bunch.  One piece of shit in your pie fucks up the whole pie.  You know it as well as I do.  Just take a look around you.  The bastard next to you.  Would you trust his ass?  Of course you wouldn’t because he would steal from his own mother if he thought he could get ahead.

And that’s just what black people do to each other.  Especially black bitches.

To all the skanky, class-less, saggy-tittie, crater-faced, pimple-backed, scarred up bald-headed ass, cum-sock bitches who could not come to Shannon’s baby shower because they have some sort of petty grudge against her, I hope you rot in the lowest hell.  

You think you are somebody.  You think because you hang in a flock of birds that you are somebody.  Please, wake the fuck up.  You get out of bed in the morning, put on your clothes to come to work to spend time with other low-class degenerates and suddenly your life is better?  Are you really serious?  Does it really make you feel good as a person to take a lame ass break room argument to the next level, to give someone the cold shoulder because you feel that they have wronged you in some measly way?  Is your life so useless that something so small has that much of an impact on you?

What really is the issue?  Is the issue that you think she did something to you?  Did she cross you in some way?  Did she commit a cardinal sin against you?  Insult your mother?  Steal your man?  Fuck with your money?  No, because that would be too easy.  Instead, since you don’t have anything else going for your sorry ass pathetic excuse for a life, to create some excitement, you took something that was so lame, so meaningless, so insignificant and ran with it because it was something to do.  You called up all the other harlots and all the ghetto cum-stained niggas that sniff around you to form a lynch party.  “Oh, we don’t fuck with her because she starts stuff.”

How about you if you never opened your foul mouth in the first place, nothing would have ever been started.  How about if you actually had some class about you, this would have been no thing.  How about if you even had the slightest shred of decency, you would have sucked it up and moved on.  But after much thought on this subject, whatever the argument was about, it’s completely irrelevant.

The real truth, you cum-mouth bitches, is that you are a bunch of haters.  Haters that Shannon has found real love.  Haters that Shannon is very happy while you are all miserable inside.  Oh, please.  Don’t screw up your face and say, “I ain’t miserable.  Fuck her.”  Yeah, you are.  

You’re miserable because you’ve been with your man for years and he still isn’t going to marry your ass.  Why would he because you’ve been giving it to him for free all this time?  You think that mother fucker is about to pay for it?  And please don’t say because you don’t want to have a baby; we already know your scarred STD infested uterus is incapable of mothering a child, and thank God, like we really need a another version of a trashy, garbage-bagged feces face running around.  One is more than enough.

You are miserable because you haven’t had a man in years.  Yeah, you’ve been fucking, because that is all you are good for.  Your pussy runs deep and they know it, and that’s why they like you.  But really, no man wants a ghetto loud-mouth trollop who can do nothing special except put her knees behind her ears.

You are miserable because without the tarnished limelight of the harpies around you, you would fade into the background and no one would look twice at you.  You’re the worst kind because you’re a mindless sheep, blindly following along to your own ignorance.  You don’t even have your own mind.  You do whatever it is they tell you and go along with it like a nice lap dog, a trained house nigger.  When was the last time you had an original thought?

You’re miserable because your life sucks.  You’re so wretched that I can’t even think of something worthwhile to insult you with.  You should save the environment by killing yourself.  Nobody really likes you anyway.  They all just hang around you and follow your every word because they are scared of you and don’t want to fall under the traps you lay.  Nobody wants to really involve themselves with you, but do it anyway because they don’t want the drama of an altercation.  I pity you that you do not have honest friends, just people who are tired of hearing your flapping lips.

And you’re miserable because you’re so lonely that you’ve deluded yourself into thinking that these pox-ridden camp followers will fill the void deep within you.  The sad part is that whatever sweetness you once had about you has been poisoned and now rots inside you like an untreated breakout of herpes.  Leave that house of cards before it falls on you and crushes you.  You’re not strong enough to hold up the weight of their bullshit.  Those scavengers feed off the good in others trying to fulfil the black desperation deep within them.  You will never truly be one of them, and if you’re trying to, I pity you.

By now, you are flipping out.  Who the fuck does she think she is talking to?  She ain’t talking to me, is she?  Fuck her.  I’m gonna fuck her up.  

That is all you ever say because that is all you are.  Your whole life is about talking about other people, fighting other people, and all the drama involved.  Do you really hear the words that are rolling around in your empty head?  

You are 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 years old.  All the way up.  You are not 17.  You are not 15.  You are not in eighth grade.  You are not in high school.  You are a grown woman.  Why don’t you start acting like one.  Why is your whole life about who you’re going to fuck up?  Why is your whole life centred in the break room where you and the other seagulls sit and talk about other women like dogs?  Why is that your whole life?  What are your goals in life?  Where do you see yourself in the next five years?  Still in that break room, texting each other about what so-and-so said about you?  Why is that important?  

If your face got hot while you read this, I’m talking to you.  If you picked up your phone and called your other hoe and asked her, “Did you read this?  Who is she talking to?” I’m talking to you.  If you tried to come up with an excuse as to why you didn’t come, I’m talking to you.  If you got mad in any sort of way, I’m talking to you.

Your small mind is turning over like a hamster trapped in a wheel trying to figure out who precisely am I talking about.  Let’s see, who hasn’t had a man in years?  Okay, that must be so-and-so.  Uhm, well, so-and-so has been with her boyfriend a long time, so that’s her….

It’s not just whatever happened in that break room the other day.  In the grand scheme of things that’s not even important.  It’s a whole host of things that have been happening since we all started working together so many years ago.  It’s about who we are as black people and what we do to each other because we think it’s funny.  I’m upset that Shannon was put in that situation with none of her friends to back her up, but I think it’s more of a straw that broke the camel’s back.  

For years, you harlots have been doing this.  When the hell are you ever going to grow up?  When will your life ever have meaning, value, substance?  When are you ever going to stop shitting on other people to make your own life seem worthwhile?  When are you ever going to mature into a real woman?

Wanting to fight someone does not show maturity.  Wanting to get up in my face doesn’t make anybody idolise you.  For a minute, it’s funny.  Oh my God, did you see that, she was up in her face!  And you love the attention because in every other aspect of your sorry, wasteful existence, you are neglected and unimportant.  And when you turn your back everyone says I am so tired of her mouth.  

I feel nothing but shame and disgust for most of you that did this to Shannon.  Having a baby is a significant life change.  Getting married is monumental.  If I thought I’d be any good at it, I’d do it myself.  I am jealous of Shannon because Charles really loves her and her family is so supportive and happy for her.  I can admit that and not feel any less of a woman.  Shannon and I have had our differences in the past when we didn’t really know each other too well, but whatever meaningless disputes we had have fallen by the wayside.  We got to know each other; we understand each other and I now regard her as a sincere and real friend.  We are far from each other now, but we’ve been keeping in touch and that is how you know a friend is a real friend.  If you keep in touch even if the thing that held you together is gone.

I guess you all perceived that whatever it is that happened was so important that you had to ignore her during a special moment in her life.  But that is okay.  What really happened is the separation of women and girls.  It’s not because you didn’t come to the baby shower.  Oh no, I won’t bring it to the base level.  Your actions define you.  Everything you have done up until this point in your whole desolate, black hole of a life has done nothing but define you as the lowest form of trash.

You.  Are.  Nothing.

Most of you scraggly cum-bags don’t even know the real meaning of friendship.  Do you think all you birds that hang together are real friends?  Do you really trust that bitch?  Do you really?  Would you leave that hoe alone with your man?  Would you let that bitch watch your child?  Would you call that harlot if you were in real and serious danger and needed help?  Would that bitch get out of bed and come get you in the middle of a cold ass night if you were stranded?  If you can’t answer yes to any of those questions, maybe you should really re-think what your friendship is based upon.  The only thing you all have in common is that you all mistrust each other.  Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.  You figure if you hang together, you’ll be less inclined to talk about each other.  I know for a fact that you all will eat each other.  You’ve done it before and you’ll do it again.  You’re doing it now.

You are a black woman.  As black women we know we’ve got it the hardest out of anybody on this whole damn planet.  We’re marginalised.  We’re mistreated.  We’re paid less.  Straight out the womb we’re already in last place.  We make it worse on ourselves by cutting each other.  What does that solve?  We’re not really getting to the top by stepping on each other; we’re actually just building a bigger hole for ourselves.  When one gets knocked down we all get knocked down.

Any bitch can get riled up ready to fight.  Anybody can do that.  You don’t have to have one thought in your head, but it takes a real woman, a real woman with intelligence and grace and dignity to stand up and say enough is enough.  

I am saddened that the black race has fallen this far where even the slightest insult turns into an excuse to commit grievous sins against one another.  I am disgusted that this is what young Baby Hardy has to look forward to when he comes into the world, a race of uncivilised bastards and bitches who cannot be trusted to do anything except the wrong thing.

All of you, look in the mirror.  Take a good fucking look at yourself.  Ask yourself what the real problem.  Don’t lie to yourself.  You know the truth as well as I do.

If you had a problem with any of this, then you must know that I was talking to you.  I don’t care that you are offended.  I don’t care if you’re mad.  I don’t care if you sit in the break room and call me every dirty name in the book.  I don’t care if you want to come and kick my ass.  If I can’t count on anything in life, I know I can count on your reaction because you are simple-minded and are good for only one thing.  If you have something to say, say it.  If you think you can counter anything I’ve said with any real and viable and logical excuse, bring it.

If you want to argue over what really happened, don’t bother.  I’m not interested.  If you try to say to me, “Well, you weren’t there, she did this, she did that,” save it.  It’s not important, because truthfully, that incident may have brought this on, but this has been years in the making.  Nothing Shannon could have possibly done that day is enough to justify the level of your behaviour.  Nothing.  If it’s that serious to you, maybe you should reconsider the value of your life.

If you want to get on myspace and cuss me out or whatever, do it.  Just make sure you dot every “I” and cross every “T,”  because I will lay your ass out if you bring anything that’s less than perfect.  Don’t write me back with some run-on gibberish full of typos and spelling errors.  Don’t “bitch” this and “bitch” that.  I’ve been called a bitch before many times.  I’ve been one all my life and will probably be one until I die.  Get some new adjectives.  Stop buying cheap weaves from the dollar box at the Chinese store; go by a thesaurus instead.  Meet me on my level for a change, because I am tired of stooping down to pick up your bullshit.  

You don’t need to say anything to Shannon, or try to bring her down in anyway.  This is my writing.  These are my thoughts.  This is how I feel.  Don’t think because you can’t get on my level that you will go to the next person in order to make yourself feel big.  Stand up and be a woman and admit to your wrongdoings.  

If you have some rational thing to say to me, by all means then say it.  If you don’t, keep your flapping mouth shut for once in your life.  

You were all dead wrong and you all know it.  If the shoe were on the other foot, you would be cussing and fussing that someone did that to you.  Nothing about you is cool.  So you have the best hairstyles, the newest weave, the most boys following after your ass.  That just shows that you have your priorities in the wrong place.  That just shows how little you think of yourself.

I wish that things could have been different.  I wish I didn’t have to go this route, but I did.  For so long, nobody ever says anything because they are so worried about what other people will think.  They don’t want to lose their friends.  In case you didn’t get the memo, these people are not real friends.  

And that is all I have to say on the subject.

One Less Nigger

There are just over 301 million people living in the United States.  About 1 million of those people have AIDS or HIV.  About half of those 1 million people are black.  A recent CDC report tells us that 1 out of 2 Americans living with HIV or AIDS is black. 

Half a million, or 500,000 doesn’t really seem like a lot.  You think to yourself, oh, that’s just like 500,000 people.  What are the chances of me knowing someone with AIDS?  How could I possibly catch HIV if it seems like so little people have it?

Don’t be a dummy.  Black people represent about 13 percent of the total population.  There’s really not that many of us.  You may think there are because wherever you live there are black people everywhere, but when you really think about it, we are not everywhere.  Do you know any of us living in the far reaches of Montana?  Wyoming?  The rural parts of Idaho?  What about the wealthy parts of Massachusetts or Connecticut?  Yeah, sure there’s probably one or two of us, but for the most part we live in urban cities, poor neighbourhoods, we live in the south, in heavily concentrated areas because most of us are too scared to step out of what we’ve always known.

But this is not an article about branching out.  This is an article on the killer among us.  According to these statistics, we are killing ourselves.  One out of every two Americans with AIDS or HIV is black. 

One out of every two Americans with AIDS or HIV is black.

Among black women aged 25-34 AIDS is the leading cause of death. Above heart attacks, diabetes, car accidents, drug overdose, murder, or anything else you can think of.  AIDS is killing black women.

Among black men aged 35-44, AIDS is the SECOND leading cause of death, second only to heart disease. So if you’re a young black male and you manage to not get shot dead in the streets by the time you’re 24, you can look forward to dying of AIDS.  FYI:  Homicide is the leading cause of death for black men aged 15-24. 

For all of you who think AIDS is some weird disease that only “other people” get:

In Washington, D.C., five (5) percent of the population is living with HIV or AIDS.  EIGHTY (80) percent of those cases are BLACK. The epidemic is so bad that researchers are comparing the black American problem with the chaos in Africa.  Last I checked, the United States is one of the more educated and wealthy countries in the world.  Almost all of us go to school; almost all of us are literate.  We have access to some of the best healthcare in the world, yet black people are catching AIDS and HIV at an alarming rate.  What is the problem?

Black people act like they are too cute to ask questions.  Black people act like there’s something wrong if you are well-informed or well-educated.  Many black people run from the chance to better themselves.  Black people do one of two things:  clown other black people who are trying to do something with themselves, or treat those black people like it is something out of the ordinary.  “Oh, you went to college!  Wow.”  When really it should be a common normal thing.  Black families should treat the one kid doesn’t  achieve as the weirdo instead of treating the one kid who did go like a superhero.  When white people who go to college, it’s like whatever.  When black people go to college, it’s like, “Oh my God…. I can’t believe it!”  We treat ourselves like a black person achieving the highest standard is an impossibility rather than the norm.

But black people are going to do what they want to do.

If you want to hump, then hump, but maybe you should ask him/her where they been and what they’ve been doing.  Maybe you might want to not share needles if you’re a drug user.  Matter of fact, why don’t you go to rehab so you can just cut the risk altogether?  Maybe you might want to spend a couple dollars on some condoms before you spend a fortune on drug cocktails and protease inhibitors, cause you know many of us do not have health insurance (because we don’t have good jobs that provide it).  Oh, the state will make sure you’re taken care of, but it won’t be the best care you could’ve gotten, and you can be sure the state doesn’t give a damn whether you live or die. 

If you die, that is just one less nigger to worry about, because they really don’t give a damn.  If you think they give a shit about you, keep in mind this information was always known to the CDC, but it was the Black AIDS Institute that is providing us with statistics more relevant to the black population of the United States.

If you think that AIDS or HIV is someone else’s problem, you’re a dummy.  As I mentioned before 80 percent of the AIDS and HIV cases in Washington, D.C. are infected black people. That’s the area we live in.  Washington is a little less than 50 miles from Baltimore, a few miles from P.G. County depending on where you live.  That increases your chances of coming across a black man or woman with AIDS or HIV.

So, for all of you DC kids, PG County weirdoes, or Baltimoreans who hop down to Love or H20 on a Friday night, think about how crowded it is.  Look around for a second when you are in the club one night.  How many people do you think are in the club?  FIVE (5) percent of the population has AIDS or HIV.  Eighty percent of those cases are black people, and who is hanging out in those clubs?  Black people!  And you’re thinking about picking someone up and hanging out for the night.  Good luck with that, and let me know how it turns out for you.

Most people who have AIDS or HIV are too ashamed to admit it.  Do you think your best friend is gonna be like, “Hey, girl, uhm, yeah, it’s so crazy, but I just came from the gyno and she said I had AIDS, but it’s no big deal or whatever.” Yeah, right.  You would be like, “Oh, uhm, yeah I got to go,” and then never answer your friend’s call again. 

My point is you just don’t know.  You have to inform yourself and you have to prepare yourself.  As I was reading this article, a woman in Washington DC said she got HIV from her boyfriend.  They were in a monogamous relationship, and she said she was pretty sure he wasn’t cheating on her, although you can never be too sure these days.  Apparently he had it from jump.  They wore condoms all the time except for one night, and that’s when she got it.  Supposedly he loved her, but never thought to tell her that he was HIV+.  Thanks for the gift, boo!  It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

And you can’t even blame this problem on the white man.  We have to go to school just like white kids.  We learn how to read just like white kids.  We can get jobs and health insurance just like white people.  Hell, because of affirmative action and equal opportunity laws, if you put even the most minimal effort into it, you’re pretty much guaranteed access to a good school and a good job, unlike white kids.  So, in that respect, we have the advantage over them.  And then on top of that, most black people are so internally racist that they wouldn’t even consider dating/marrying/sleeping with a white person.  So, that pretty much means we’re doing it to ourselves.

I have said it before and I have said it again:  the American black population at large is pretty much the stupidest race on the planet.  We have the same opportunities as everyone else but we pretty much fuck ourselves over with ignorance and our own incompetence.  I don’t really care if you’re offended by that, because there’s nothing you could say to me that would make me change my mind.

If we aren’t killing ourselves in the streets, then we’re dying of AIDS.  I think that’s a wonderful way to thank our forefathers who were enslaved and our grandparents who marched in the streets for our rights.  “Thanks for getting me civil liberties, but I was looking forward to an AIDS infested future.” Why did Martin Luther King, Jr. even bother?  He should have just kept his dream to himself if we aren’t going to take advantage of our own rights.

It’s really time to wake the fuck up.  I wonder if we as a people ever look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “What am I worth?” Do we ever say to ourselves, “I want more out of life.” Do we ever get off our asses and do anything about it? 

According to these statistics, I’m gonna have to say no, and that’s what they want.

Just one less nigger to worry about.