Hood Life

lately, i've been taken to a relatively foreign part of youtube.  i think it started with skin bleaching in jamaica.  and then that went into videos about black women not being attractive and being the ones who are the most single, and then that went into black hair and so for a week i've been adding these things into my daily rotation of regular youtube videos.  

and you know, i live in atlanta.  and i don't like living here.  half of the reason is because of the weather.  but the other half are some of the people.  the hood people.  i try to ignore, but i'm very affected by my surroundings.  i'm very motivated by them when they're good.  i'm very inspired.  but here, i spend a lot of time noticing and involuntarialy analyzing.  i'd really prefer not to.  

i notice things about the hood community here.  and for the most part, most hood people are black people, and all black people get categorized when it comes to categorizing, but it's not how all black people are.  now, a lot of black people, especially here in the south, sometimes share very similar opinions.  it tends to be the type of black person who only hangs around black people.  only listens to the black radio stations, and only watches all-black casted tv shows and movies.  they consider some things just to be black.  like eating watermelon, grilling, and not swimming or camping.  these people to me get on my nerves.  because they tend to be very, very shallow and small-minded.  i like watermelon, korean people love watermelon.  shoot, everyone i know loves watermelon.  anyways, i went off-track.

sometimes these mind frames are racist themselves.  sometimes against others, and sometimes against themselves.  like when i first got to the south.  no one in my first middle school (we were looking for a house, so we were temporarialy in a different neighborhood in an apartment) no one would be my friend.  they ALL said that i thought i was cute because i looked like a white girl (and i'm not mixed with white), had hair like a white girl and *spoke* like a white girl.  i still overhear these things now.  speaking properly is identified as being white.  having money, is identified as being white. that's not progressive thinking at all.  it's self-degrading and regressive.  

i've spoken to many, many of my black friends and co-workers about these things.  they're black, but not at all hood.  they can't believe how some people in atlanta ever got hired.  another friend, was the manager at a place, and someone else hired a girl.  she came to work with her hair wrapped, kept it like that all day, and when she was getting ready to leave to go to wherever she was going, she then took an hour after work before she left to do her hair.  here in atlanta, i see so many SO MANY black shower caps.  and rollers in the streets, and pajamas in public.  girls have the same walk.  very straight back, tits out, ass out.  i'm telling you, so many hood girls have the same exact walk.  it's very identifiable when you see it.  

and i see people having iphones and samsung galaxies, these are $400-$650 phones.  40 inch weaves, nails, etcetcetc...but i often hear people saying that college is too expensive.  and food is expensive.  i go to the grocery store, and when i see certain people's carts, it's full of instant food, and the most generic food.  stuff that's so so so full of chemicals and terrible, GMO and artifical ingredients.  i went to the hospital, and the majority, the vast majority of people i saw were severely obese black people.  i hear women who are 300 & 400 pounds talk about they're curvy.  i see families, with very young kids, all severely obese. and they say it's genetic.  they say diabetes is genetic.  i see a lot of people copying what they see on tv, and what they hear, but very few doing much to educate themselves about hardly anything.

i even had a friend, a college-educated, bright friend tell me that black people shouldn't be expected to speak proper english because speaking that was is conforming to society.  i have other associate friends who do nothing but write and post and talk all day about 'black life'.  making deals about things that don't make sense.  but i've noticed with people with this mindframe, most are extremely difficult to talk about these things with because many only have one, extremely narrow perspective, the idea that they and people like them are the only right ones, and anything that's said about them that's adverse is racist.  and if you are black with these opinions that counter theirs, then you're a sellout.  an uncle tom.  no matter how backwards and silly, and isolated they sound.  

and then i see people not progressing, but i hear a LOT of conversations about it being because they're black.  i heard the loudest, crudest woman on the train, could barely speak english, complaining about a wage.  then she mentioned to the guy that she was with that she couldn't get a loan because she was black.  i was thinking, no, it's because you're a potential liability.  

i see many things being brought up publicly about black people, because when a large group has a problem, it gets news coverage.  just like the youtube videos about hair, the zimmerman trial.  the zimmerman trial was a backfire.  it became a black thing, when it was about the fla laws.  i hear things about people making a big deal about natural hair, but no one is caring besides the people involved, and these people tend to make it seem like everyone else is the one who's making a big deal about it.

certain groups of black people make big deals about silly things, and want to be heard because it's become the norm to have a sense of entitlement about these things.  like the majority of people being in prison being black.  well, i think they're there because they fucked up.  some, many, many times.   i think many are there because them and many of their community-mates have the same idea that black people aren't worthy of money, that education is silly and for white people.  and that thug-life is the only life.

what about the fucked up music?  you can't tell me that the vast majority isn't about fucking, money, hoes, strippers, stacks, chains and cars.  you can't tell me that the majority of videos are full of naked girls acting like hoes.  one of the things i first noticed about atlanta girls.  many of the hood girls walk, talk, dance and dress just like hoes.  and the guys here act like they have never, ever, ever seen a girl.  i've never been harassed the way i have been here by men.  i've never had girls want to fight me so often.  i've never seen as many shitty attitudes.   i've never lived or been to a place where (black) people are the way they are here.  it happens other places, but this city is seen as a kind of 'black' mecca.  and the reputation of being 'black' hollywood.  this is not black hollywood.  lol...not by far.  

i'm over the excuse of racism.  i think that some black people are the cause of most racism.  i think they cause it for themselves.  i'm not saying that it doesn't exist, but what i am saying is that it becomes such a deal in the communities and it spreads, like mental pollution, that it becomes reborn, over and over again.  

and being diverse doesn't mean that you're less of anything.  it means that you're still you, and learning from anything that's good.  looking to make progress, looking to move forward as humankind.  (some) black people are being left behind, not because they're black, but of the shackle that they put on themselves.  

no room for (sour) cream

lately, there's been a lot of energy on high-force mainly because of the conclusion and verdict of a certain high-profile court case.  i'm not going to mention it, because it's gotten so old to hear it's name, i don't want to.  but you can add up the date of this post with anything that was happening, and know that it's all been a bit annoying.  

but besides that, it's really the discussions that people have been having and their need to be heard.  i understand the need to be heard, i do i do i do....really i do.  i obviously have the need to be heard, i have two blogs, a yt channel, a website, a fb page and a twitter account.  but when i've been reading comments about the world (i'll just call it the world) and having conversations with some individuals, not only about the world but about things in general, and when people have been wanting to have conversations about the world with me, i've noticed that talking to some individuals is a waste of time.  some are so stuck in their own feelings and mentalities, that getting an idea in or having a constructive conversation is pretty much impossible.  i put 'pretty much' in there just for technicality's sake.  like, for the sake of the possibility that one of these conversations could go somewhere. 

but so far, none that i can remember have.  and sometimes i go into things thinking, 'don't do it, don't start because you KNOW that this isn't going to go anywhere.'  but i get involved in some way, usually because the other person keeps plucking like a chicken, away at away, until you get confused, or have hope that the convo could go well, or something like that, and then next thing you know, you're like 30 min in, pseudo-arguing with a wall.  and then you say to yourself, 'crap!  how did i get here??!'

you're not only frustrated about getting involved in that conversation at that time with that person.  but you carry the past frustrations of the other conversations that were similar to it, and add more frustration to them because you're so mad at yourself for getting tangled up again.

so i say, be strong!  and remember some people are stuck in a place of nonsense.  don't try to help, don't try to convince.  keep YOUR peace, because often times, these people are troublemakers, fire-starters, and just argumentative to begin with and they just want to bitch and be heard, even though they never seem to mentally grow or try to be open-minded and progressive.

these are the people who hold others back.  back into their world of bickering, 'i'm right, your wrong', how you feel isn't relative, how i feel is the only way and 'blahblah-undeucated, i'm narrow-minded as hell' bullshit paradise.  when you see these, just put up the imaginary sign of caution.  wrap them in virtual caution tape, and surround them with made up orange cones and save your words for someone with sense.   

Left Behind

I was speaking to an acquaintance friend the other day, and we were talking about why certain people aren't getting ahead, groups of people, communities of people, not getting ahead.  His opinion was that it was the environment of the people that were working against them, that it was society working against them. My opinion was, and is, that sometimes things are harder for certain people.  But,it's often the choices of people, through generations, and throughout communities, that often holds them back.

The choices can be about who they hang around, and what they do with their time.  Whether time is going towards being intelligent and gaining intelligence, or whether it's going to something that's totally detrimental to growth.  But the choices also can be about segregating yourself to those who like you only, and anything else is categorized in some sort of way.  Usually in a negative way.  And then I see people, many, per day, complaining about their situations, calling it racial discrimination, or society being against them.  But I see them not being educated, not working on educating themselves, spending incredible amounts of money on incredibly superficial things that they can hardly afford.  I see this a lot here in Atlanta.  I notice similar things happening in other regions of the world.  Societies at constant war and civil unrest, but societies that are heavily segregated, and oppressive to certain members of that society.

The friend that I was talking to, said that (not me, lol, literally, he said this before he expanded) people often sit on the outside and make judgments about the conditions of people without contributing to their well-being, or helping them in some way.  but i've seen the help that's offered, and i've seen what's done with help, not always, but a lot of the time.  it usually collapses, or gets abused, or it isn't enough.  my belief about this is that it's because the help needs to start in the mind(s) of the 'needy'.  there has to be a decision to be more, and an effort to try.  not an automatic, 'it's hard, because of who i am. and it's always going to be that way.'  those people, who are so stubborn are going to be left behind.  i've already seen it begin in my city, and i've noticed it in other areas of the world.  and it creates strife and heavy friction around them because it's not fitting in with progression.  it's not about needing to be the same, but just being progressive.  if you're slow, and trying, it's good.  if you're slow and saying it's everyone around you that's making you slow, and then giving no effort, it's not good.  it gets annoying, and you start getting in the way.