"Can we please stop calling women the b- word" KW
Denmark Vesey said ...
Sista, I don't "call women" bitches. Therefor it is not possible for me to stop.
That's an unfortunate misunderstanding of my meaning. I'll take the blame for failing to express myself well enough. My apologies.
Your interpretation of the expression Baddest Bitch is valid. Yet it is certainly not the only interpretation.
I submit there are a great deal of women who would interpret the expression differently than you have interpreted it. Done properly, and in the correct context many women would appreciate the deeper meaning and supreme compliment of being referred to As The Baddest Bitch On The Planet.
You don't believe me?
Brothers.
I invite you to join me in a little experiment.
The next time you see your woman, whisper in her ear: "Baby, you are the baddest bitch on the planet."
Step back and look at her face. See what I mean? If you meant it, and she felt it, it will show.
A relationship limited to the literal is bound to fail. Human beings are not literal. People need art as much as they need air.
Words can have more than one meaning.
They have only the power we give them. We also have the ability to take the power away from them. Which is what is being done to words like "nigger" and "bitch" when used in an empowering context.
The post is art. Think of it as an anecdote for Plantation Negroism.
Undercover Black Man said...
To back up DV on his main point, I should tell a little story...
When I was on the writing staff of "ER," I spent a night hanging out at the King-Drew Hospital emergency room. I overheard the black woman who was in charge that night speaking on the telephone.
She said, proudly, "I'm one of the baddest ER bitches out there."
I used that line in a script. Thing is, the guest-star who was supposed to say it was white. She read the line... and it sounded wrong. She didn't get the pride in it... the swagger.
Denmark Vesey said ...
Sista, I don't "call women" bitches. Therefor it is not possible for me to stop.That's an unfortunate misunderstanding of my meaning. I'll take the blame for failing to express myself well enough. My apologies.
Your interpretation of the expression Baddest Bitch is valid. Yet it is certainly not the only interpretation.
I submit there are a great deal of women who would interpret the expression differently than you have interpreted it. Done properly, and in the correct context many women would appreciate the deeper meaning and supreme compliment of being referred to As The Baddest Bitch On The Planet.
You don't believe me?
Brothers.
I invite you to join me in a little experiment.
The next time you see your woman, whisper in her ear: "Baby, you are the baddest bitch on the planet."
Step back and look at her face. See what I mean? If you meant it, and she felt it, it will show.
A relationship limited to the literal is bound to fail. Human beings are not literal. People need art as much as they need air.
Words can have more than one meaning.
They have only the power we give them. We also have the ability to take the power away from them. Which is what is being done to words like "nigger" and "bitch" when used in an empowering context.
The post is art. Think of it as an anecdote for Plantation Negroism.
Undercover Black Man said...To back up DV on his main point, I should tell a little story...When I was on the writing staff of "ER," I spent a night hanging out at the King-Drew Hospital emergency room. I overheard the black woman who was in charge that night speaking on the telephone.
She said, proudly, "I'm one of the baddest ER bitches out there."
I used that line in a script. Thing is, the guest-star who was supposed to say it was white. She read the line... and it sounded wrong. She didn't get the pride in it... the swagger.
28 comments:
LOL... he got you on that one cuzin.. I went to the dictionary wit that one too just to make sure. UBM what do you think about this... Who's yo nominee and are you feelin' where DV is coming from?
LOL... he got you on that one cuzin.. I went to the dictionary wit that one too just to make sure. UBM what do you think about this... Who's yo nominee and are you feelin' where DV is coming from?
^ I never really know where DV is coming from, Ill. But fuggit... I'll play.
Baddest bitch out there right now? Rhiannon Giddens of Carolina Chocolate Drops. BAM!
To back up DV on his main point, I should tell a little story...
When I was on the writing staff of "ER," I spent a night hanging out at the King-Drew Hospital emergency room. I overheard the black woman who was in charge that night speaking on the telephone.
She said, proudly, "I'm one of the baddest ER bitches out there."
I used that line in a script. Thing is, the guest-star who was supposed to say it was white. She read the line... and it sounded wrong. She didn't get the pride in it... the swagger.
She bad.. UBM she bad.. Judging from your blog you seem to be a solid brotha.. a cool nigga... do you think your personal quarrels with DV prevent u from having an affinity for the subject matter? I would think you would "get" the man. Ya'll should be best friends.
Ya'll should be plotting something major right now. X and King style.
Still photos of Rhiannon Giddens: here and here. Since you got me started, Ill...
I knew you had it in you UBM!...If anybody got it I'd think I'd be you!.... I did a guest star role on ER when I was about 15
... do you think your personal quarrels with DV prevent u from having an affinity for the subject matter?
Personal? This shit ain't personal. If it was, I wouldn't be hanging around... and DV would've kicked me out a long time ago.
DV.net is Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots with words.
... I did a guest star role on ER when I was about 15
Seriously? What year was that? I was there in 1997.
"DV.net is Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots with words."
I likes that
Yeah your girl is on point. I like the talented artistic weird types. Makes for good motherhood. Gardens and books, music and conversation. My Nigga UBM!
UBM I did a guest star role on a Milky Way commercial when I was 6.
Did you ever write for Milky Way?
That was in like '83.
"UBM I did a guest star role on a Milky Way commercial when I was 6.
Did you ever write for Milky Way?
That was in like '83."
LMBAO!! Yo that had to be DV.. too funny for BYRD.. If that WAS you BRYD... you know comedy... seriously.. MIlky way!!! OMG HIlarious! I was actually 16 and it was in '96. Clooney was talking about Batman and a 2000 dollar bet he made with someone to eat like a pound of cheese. Also a conversation about drug use... Lasalle never smoked a cigaerette Gloria tried cocaine, clooney did it all. Awesome time for a 16 year old. MY grandfather was played by a legend.
"Words may have more than one meaning... but "anecdote" and "antidote" have different meanings." UBM
Aight. Aight.
Antidote, anecdote
all the shit I pop is dope.
" ILLthespy said...
LMBAO!! Yo that had to be DV.. too funny for BYRD"
Ill, I have no idea what you are talking about man.
Milky way? Byrd? 83?
You lost me bra.
Hey DV
Can you honestly look at picture of Michelle Obama, First Lady of the USA, Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams women who broke down doors and made to the top of their game and call these women by that insidious word? Surely even your art knows a code of respect and honor. There are some things you never, ever reduce a woman to. In particular a Black woman who represents the long struggle of Black people in the US. While you might say its for artsake and in the context of art to call Li'l Kim the b-word (& even to this I'd object), the same cannot be true for Michelle Obama. No matter how good you mean it - the word cannot escape its dark meaning. If its an 'anecdote for plantation n-word ideology' - as odd as that sounds, I'm assuming you mean its a personal symbol for Black strength and struggle then that's a contradiction right there. The very words Black emancipation rejects and considers a denial of personhood are the same words you claim are an affirmation? The same words women like Oprah have resisted and fought against are the very words you will choose to decribe them by - where is the sense in that?
As Buju says who feels it knows it. Just as African-Americans felt the pain of being called n-, women feel the insult too. No matter how loving, well-meaning or artistic you may be, you'd never, ever call your Grandma or Momma or Wife or Daughter or Sister by that name - and so the application shld be universal for all women.
peace
Thank you for comment KonWomyn.
I'll take your words to heart.
In the mean time, please share your thoughts on the following interpretation of the matter, young brother Ill Math was kind enough to share with us:
"You should free your mind Konwoman. Firstly by anointing Ms. Winfrey or Ms. Obama as Baddest Bitch, completely changes the meaning. Instant meme change. See Mike and Kon, Black ppl haven't yet learned the beautiful art of reappropriation. That's what this blog is about. It's about taking our power back... If Oprah is a bad bitch, how can "bad bitch" be negative??? If Michelle is a BB isn't that something to aspire to?? If Obama is the Dopest Nigga? A "nigga" is a good thing.That's what a nigga is! Words are images. DV is changing the imagery that comes to mind when u think "nigga". The word WILL BE USED! Either you disarm the user by reappropiation or you make yourself a victim. White kids already rfer to themselves as nigga as an indicator of masculinity. James Brown helped do it with the word Black. Plantation negroes hated that word because they were too focused on the meaning white ppl gave it. (preach young brotha preach) We gave it our own meaning. "Im Black and Im proud. Have you looked up Black in the dictionary???"
" ILLthespy said...
LMBAO!! Yo that had to be DV.. too funny for BYRD"
Ill, I have no idea what you are talking about man.
Milky way? Byrd? 83?
You lost me bra.
Nah I just thought maybe you posted that as anonymous. I figure u do do that from time to time. It was a funny thing to say at that moment. Too funny for Turd but I guess it was. Hilarious Byrdeye.
Ok thanks for hearing me out. Now as far as Ill Math's concerns go:
first off dust of your books on African history and US Black Power Movements and you will realise that James Brown is not the man who made the term Black acceptable. He may have made it through dance and song but Brother JB was soldier in a war that had been begun long before him. A war that began centuries before when Europeans set their greedy eyes on Africa.
There is nothing to aspire to in calling Michelle Obama that term. It's like putting a chain around her neck and selling her off again regardless of what kind of resistance she would give to that name. Its opening the door for the Plantation slavedrivers to come back and conquer yet Michelle and Oprah have said no, time and again! Black women throughout history have said call me Queen regal in all her splendour - why is it so hard for this word to roll of your tongue? Is plantation lingo your default language or sumthin'? Really, please my people if you are emancipated and you really are tuning into what Black women say about themselves in a positive plantation-free light then this should not even be an issue.
As for Obama - no! Again has your vocabulary no bounds? Its like you've not re-educated yourself and become aware of how much you dissown your Black pride when you call the First Black Head of State by those terms. Obama represents change and a time many never thought would come in America and to call him the n- word is to me running back through history and putting on the chains of slavery. You might as well say yes massa the next time your White friends say yo n-!
Nah not B.C
He was the oldest bi racial man Ive ever met. (it's his secret) Actually I'd like to keep my anonymity. It allows me to express myself artistically and not be responsible for everything I say. Sometimes it's not always my true opinion. Sometimes it's just to spark debate or provoke certain ppl. I m myself but caricatured. Don't keep guessing because Im sure you'll probably get it. Good looking out.
Ok Konwoman here we go.
"first off dust of your books on African history and US Black Power Movements and you will realise that James Brown is not the man who made the term Black acceptable."
Firstly my mother was a Panther. James Brown did more for that word than Stokely or Huey could've ever done. Art. That's what changes ppl. Im not taking anything away from the impact these men made on the concious of a ppl.
"He may have made it through dance and song but Brother JB was soldier in a war that had been begun long before him. A war that began centuries before when Europeans set their greedy eyes on Africa."
Maybe it started when the Moors set their greedy sights on Europe. (The Punic Wars) Maybe YOU need to sit those dusty african history books back down and open some New ones. Waah Wahh Wahh victim victim victim!
"It's like putting a chain around her neck and selling her off again regardless of what kind of resistance she would give to that name."
Huh? I feel your passion but this isn't a Toni Morrison Novel. Those days are gone. No one has power over you. That's what we call a slave mentality.
"Its opening the door for the Plantation slavedrivers to come back and conquer yet Michelle and Oprah have said no, time and again!"
Michelle is the First Lady of the United States. Oprah Winfrey IS A BILLIONAIRE. Slavery is over. Believe me. At least chattel slavery is over,
Black women throughout history have said call me Queen regal in all her splendour - why is it so hard for this word to roll of your tongue?
I call women Queen All the time but if a Queen ain't a bad bitch I don't know what is? Queen Elizabeth is a Bad bitch herself.
"Really, please my people if you are emancipated and you really are tuning into what Black women say about themselves in a positive plantation-free light then this should not even be an issue."
Konwoman
I appreciate and understand your idealism. Words.... change over time. They don't arbitrarily change. ppl change them.... you are not a slave you can participate in the positive metamorphosis of words. either you do it or someone else will... I am free... I chose to change them. Ppl will call me nigger or nigga I can't change that... but what I can change is the imagery associated with that word. If I'm lucky I can make the world follow suit.
I want adress your last tidbit but I got too frustrated with the level of naivete' and lack of critical thinking. I think you have the capacity to free yourself but you gotta keep your mind open KW. Maybe re read my previous post and try to be more receptive to the truth contained in it.
address.. didnt mean to come off as condescending, I just get tired of that same ol (as DV says) knee jerk reaction to trigger words.
^Maybe it started when the Moors set their greedy sights on Europe. (The Punic Wars)
Man, please go check history. You done put two events together that are separated by almost 2000 years.
My apologies, DV, for high-jacking the thread for a sec.
http://www.nolanchart.com/article6565.html
The Neda thing again. Appears i'm not the only one calling bullshit on the story. Just as I expected, Neda's backstory is cloudy, her family hasn't come forward and there's no mention of her funeral at all.
Oh, wait. Just found this. Someone finally thought of the family/funeral loose ends.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/24/neda-soltan-iran-family-forced-out
Her family was kicked out, and the police never returned her body. Big surprise. Ha, these people are good. They even wrote the doctor out of the story.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1195250/Family-YouTube-martyr-Neda-Agha-Soltani-forced-flee-home-Iranian-officials.html
Surprise of surprises, they've apparently been kicked out of Tehran, never to be heard from again. (Ha, remember that episode of the Simpsons, where Homer was doing voice work for "Poochy". And when they wanted to write him out of the show, his character turns to the camera, mouth not moving, and a strange voice says, "I have to go back to my home planet now." and they literally pull his frame out of the show. Heh, just makes me think of that.)
So anybody even vaguely related to the Neda story disappears. Even a bystanding doctor, merely for trying to give her assistance. Really, who writes this shit? Ha, the CIA should call the unemployed writers from Guiding Light for better ideas on how to write someone out of the script.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
And as long as this song is not released as a Karaoke CD and allowed to be played at White sports bars and grills - DV and others will be cool with this "lyrical brilliance".
Those anti-Obama types don't need any more assistance in calling Black folks that vile name.
Hey Ill
The term Black has a more vast history than the political or musical. I'm not lessening what JB did but what I'm saying he's its not his copyright. The word Black has global meaning that has evolved differently whereever Black peoples are scattered across this planet so when I talk about it, I include that long history. I'm not pinning it down to a specific period by referring to history books but I'm also talking about the value it also bears.
Now concerning the Moors in Europe - classic defence to say I'm claiming about slavery and victimhood.
The difference between the Moors coming to Europe and Europeans in Africa is that the Europeans constructed an idoeology of difference that their conquest was based on. Books like Heart of Darkness by James Conrad, anthropological works based on Dariwinism and paintings of people like Burkgmeir are what created this notion of difference and the theory that somehow Black is inferior to White.
Add that to capitalist dreams of imperial conquest and you have slavery, colonialism etc. I'm not suffering any kinda post-slavery disorder just stating where my rationale comes from - and besides I wouldn't take up that position as someone who isn't of descendant of slaves or an African-American.
Michelle and Oprah - Don't take me literally, I was speaking in a symbolic sense.
To pretend that slavery ended with the abolition and assume I'm lifting things from a Toni Morrisson novel is again a misunderstanding. Maybe you jst take things too literally but I'm sure you know how the system works to know why sometimes it feels like people are still enslaved. Dead Prez for example talk abt hiphop as the slaveship but do you say holdup not true, where's the actual ship or do you get the gist of what they're saying?
Being a male you'll never overstand my position as a woman and how disempowering it feels when that word is esp when its used and abused in reference to women in positions of power that many youn girls aspire too. Maybe if it was such a dope word ask yourself why Oprah refused to have Luda and Fifty on her show. Ask why Prez O in his campaign speech to the Black community talked about the importance of being a good role model and teaching your kids not tune into the commercial world that teaches girls to think less of themselves as sexualised figures.
And as for being idealistic - well what would life be without believing in something. Having a perspective rooted in belief is what makes navigation through this Matrix possible.
I don't have to adopt the views of the masses simply because the majority holds fort on an ideology that is predicated on a false sense of self-worth. It jst doesn't fly with me. If you can choose to change the meaning of a word that to me is still the same sexist word just re-packaged - then I as a woman choose to reject it and say no.
As for naivety and lack of critical thinking - well that's your misunderstanding of me coz I can assure you my critical gaze is crystal clear.
As for being condescending - no offence taken, it takes alot more to be condescending towards me.
peace
Got you
peace
Until Michelle and Obama endorse being called that, then that "meme" bullshit is irrelevant.
Intention does not change perception.
I can understand Ill and DV's point of view, but I also understand KonWomyn's as well. In the end, if the person I'm addressing does not agree with my intention, then I must change my approach. If most black women are going to be offended by the word, then adding a "that's not how I mean it" disclaimer doesn't make it better. Its like saying "I'm smacking you this hard to kill the fly on your cheek".
instead of Obama I meant Oprah, lol
Post a Comment