I have TOTAL hood cred!

I have FOUR hoodies!

We call them missteps, and among friends, we get that's what it is. We can have a conversation, like when i learned that "subhuman" is a word fraught with racist connotations, and be embarrassed and resolve to not use it because it's hurtful. And you can get that it was a misstep and not an asshole move, and know that I'm embarrassed and feel shame.

Putting it all down in a book without the back and forth, though, is such a different animal. There's no opportunity for someone to know that I made an error in a phrase and would feel ashamed for having done so if it was pointed out. There's no opportunity for me to say, "I didn't think of it like that, and I'm sorry I was just a jerkface, thanks for bringing it to my attention."

That's sort of what frightens me. Chuck's defiance is against an outside oppressor, and my oppressor is internal. It's self-doubt. The result is the same, in that there's an inspiration to overcome. He's talking about racism, clearly. But the things he's saying and the way he's saying it resonate no matter what kind of oppressor one is trying to beat down.

When I say that, I worry that I'm appropriating his point, because, you know, I am. But also, I can think two things at the same time. This is what Chuck means, and this is what Chuck means to me. I'm either too subtle or anvil about it. I can't find the medium place that lets me make the point in a way that I'm not worried that I've hurt someone.

It's like hearing someone say, "I'm not going to sit on the back of the bus!" when referring to missing a door-buster sale or getting a high number at the deli. Yes. That's just what Rosa Parks meant you to think, asshat.

Yes, but if your essay contains anything like what you just stated, Allyson, then I think anyone misconstruing your sincerity and intentions is going to be LOOKING to misconstrue it. And there ain't nothing you can do about that.

Anyway, fucking hair lady has no shame at all. She's doubling down.

Also: art is subjective. Music is art. So what Chuck D's intentions may or may not have been, when he sent it out into the world, the listeners are going to synthesize their experiences into/onto it.

And that's what art is all about, right? The author writes a book. The author's intention may be transparent, they may be oblique, but the way the myriad of readers interpret the book can be vastly different. (Otherwise, we would have no English departments, right?!)

Oh of course! On explication, I want to first know, "what did the creator of this piece intend to tell me?" Second, "What does this mean to me?"

I think hair lady is fucking desperate to people to think she has hood cred. Hood cred, street cred is like being "cool." You can't fake it.

I have no hood cred, jokes aside. How could I have? But I listened, and I learned from my kids, and and I learned when to code-switch (hell, I code-switch all the time; that's why I can talk to anyone; I have a good ear, I listen, I ask and I love language.) But I didn't bullshit, and I never tried to be anything I wasn't, and people respond to that. They know when you fake or try too hard, and that gave me my own cred, which is the only type I want.

Some folks start with, "How can this piece piss me off?"

There is nothing anyone can do about those folks, but they are mostly distracted by any news article posted on Yahoo and busying themselves by writing Barack HUSSEIN OBAMACARE SOCIALISM!@#$@!#! one million times, each day. I do not think they purchase books.

Oh of course! On explication, I want to first know, "what did the creator of this piece intend to tell me?" Second, "What does this mean to me?"

And those are the interesting questions that you want your readers to ask. But remember, m'dear, lots of people go straight to #2 and never thing about #1.

ETA: Dur. Xpost, basically!

Hood cred! Hood cred! Can you believe it? She's trying to explain to people *why* she's earned the right to tell black people how to live, because she has some undefined HOOD cred. I despair that I have to accept that people are so stupid. And I'm appalled that she's raising a biracial kid with such blatant issues

Ugh. No. Just...no. I can't read it, I've had enough racefail for the week (I went back in time to revisit the whole Slut Walk/N-Word debacle the other day.)