Saturday, July 05, 2008

If you can make it, please read the entire thing.

I NEED FEEBACK

Sometimes I feel like a child, unable to regulate or articulate my emotions . This is because I feel so passionately about certain subjects and often am overtaken with anger or zeal while in the midst of explaing myself. Often this includes matters such as race and religion and sexual orientation or politics which is why I tend to become closed mouth (and some would agree that this is a good idea).

I recently came across a video on Youtube of a black male trying to defend a comment he made in a previous video. I assume the comment went something like "there were nothing but unattractive black women at the club I went to last night". Now, without being overly sensitive, I took an unbiased attutide as I prepared to listen to his explaination. But in the end, the only feeling I was left with was disappointment and hurt. It wasnt so much what the fellow was saying, because I try not to let the opinions of others affect my mood and general chipper frame of mind. But what got to me was the praise he recieved in the posted comments below his blatent offensive rant. It lead me to believe that this was the way of thinking of losts of black men. Usually, when I find someone offensive I write them off as closed minded and the offensive comment not worth tending to. I said to my that maybe he just came across some ugly girls, but the longer his rant went on the more odious and generalized his comments became. So, in this case, I owe it to myself to speak up.
(Just so you know, I will post the video after the end of this post so that you can be the judge).

The guy (who we will call Srgt Willie) made several points throughout his 10 min post. I will list them as follows.

1) "Black women are insecure." He goes on to say that black women wouldnt be so offended by his "unattractive" comment if they had secure self attitudes. But in our defense, I must ask "Why do we have to be secure?" It may seem like a stupid question, but lots of women, from all races, are'nt confident, which is OK. But not all women (unlike black women) are faced with the extreme pressures of the ideal beauty. And according to this ideal beauty--black women are its exact opposite. Is there no wonder why we may be a tad insecure? I feel that all throughout the media we see one image constantly being reinforced. Its sickening. We even see this in Hip Hop or Rap videos, which mostly speaks to the African American experience. In these videos the love interests (most of the time) are either mixed or Latino women. Im not trying to sound preachy but merely point out that it gets overwhelming sometimes. Why do we have be so strong and overcome societal pressures to the point where our feelings can't be hurt when someone makes an abhorrent statment against us. Its unfair and we shouldnt critisized by not always being rocks.

2) "There is ugly in every race, but what I realize about black women is that-they arent even trying." He proceeds to claim that because these said "unattracted" women KNOW that they are ugly, they dont even make an effort to look beautiful. According to him, these girls exit the house with no makeup (because they MUST have on makeup!); they wear clothes that are too tight; they have bad skin and their hair is a mess. Now, dont get me wrong, I do understand that he is speaking about the women he ran across in a particular club, but as his rant ran on, he seemed to be making the point that this is a major problem among black women. I have seen people of all races in public as he decribed (women AND men). But for some reason it is more triffling for black women to do this. So, I have to ask: Why is it so bad when we do it as well? Is it worse when an "ugly" girl doesnt do anything to fix herself up? That sounds like youre saying that shes adding insult to injury which forces me to ask "Whats the injury?" I dont know if Im coming across clearly or not, but, since when does clothes and makeup make a person attractive? Ive seen many peopke who didnt dress attractive but were lookers. Not to sound like a bitch, but to make a point I have to say, YOU CANT CHANGE UGLY. So instead of going off on how wrong their clothes are and their lack of makeup this guy should deal with some obvious deeply rooted issue he has with black women.

(QUICK INTERJECTION)

When I got to this point of the video i was about ready to turn it off, but instead I decided to go to his profile on Youtube. He had about 60 videos and by the their titles I could tell right off the bat what I was dealing with. Now, I try not to accuse black men of bashing black women because we all have our own experiences and there are reasons for why say what we do. But in his case it was apprent that he was dissatified with black women in general. This is the impression that I got. His videos ranged from his therory as to why about black women wearing weaves to how he couldnt see himself settling down with one. At this point I decided not to take him seriously but I still wanted to make this entry for all those out there who dont have a grugde but hold his beliefs that he expressed in his video post.

3) "I hate the comment 'She's pretty for a black girl' but I must agree." Oh, this is that age old saying. The one that makes me so sad to hear and to be honest, Im so tired of wrting. My fingers hurt and I just dont have the energy. However, I will post his video. I want your feedback and if I get enough responses I'd like to do a follow up post.

til then, enjoy the awesome video!

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