Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series about the Democratic Party's results of Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020).
Part II of this series provides selected comments from the discussion thread for the Daily Kos (political) article about why Black folks overwhelming voted for Former Vice President Biden on Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020). That article by Denise Oliver Velez is entitled "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/03/black-folks-overwhelmingly-voted-for.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I provides information about the voting day in the United States that is known as "Super Tuesday" and includes an excerpt to an article about the Super Tuesday results for the Democratic Party on March 3, 202o.
Part I of this pancocojams series also showcases an excerpt of an article published in Daily Kos's political forum about Super Tuesday's United States Presidential Primaries (March 3, 2020) & Black folks overwhelmingly voting for United State's Former Vice-President Joe Biden. That is written by Denise Oliver Velez and is entitled "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say".
The Addendum to Part I provides an explanation about the African American Vernacular English term "being disinvited to the BBQ" that is included in that article.
The author of this article is African American. The selected comments that are featured in this pancocojams compilation are from African Americans and non-African Americans -all of whom are members of that political forum. [For the record, I'm a frequent visitor of that forum, but I'm not a member.]
This post documents the opinions that are shared in these article excerpts and selected comments. I'm also particularly interested in the use of African American Vernacular sayings & terms in that article and some of those comments.
For those interested in United States politics and/or African American culture, I strongly recommend reading the entire article and its discussion thread.
****
The content of this post is presented for political and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Denise Oliver Velez, the author of the Daily Kos article that is showcased in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS ARTICLE'S DISCUSSION THREAD
(These selected comments are given in relative chronological order except for replies. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only. These numbers aren't a part of the original discussion thread.)
From https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/4/1924191/--God-don-t-like-ugly-is-what-my-grandma-used-to-say#comment_76509167 "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say" by Denise Oliver Velez (2020/03/04) 07:25
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
1. Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR [reply to] nannyboz
Mar 04, 2020 at 07:36:20 AM
"I kept saying the pollsters didn’t know what they were talking about — something was off. I was right :)"
**
2. nannyboz [reply to] Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR
Mar 04, 2020 at 07:42:33 AM
"Yes you were and thankfully so!"
**
3. Cmae [reply to] Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR
Mar 04, 2020 at 07:54:09 AM
"And so very glad they were wrong!"
**
4. CocoaLove [reply to] Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR
Mar 04, 2020 at 07:58:28 AM
"I said the same thing. Even yesterday someone here said Bernie was leading with Black voters nationwide. I said show me the polls because that was not, is not, part of my experience. Thank you, sis, for this post! I can’t thank you enough!!!!"
**
5. Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR [reply to] CocoaLove
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:00:03 AM
"Yeah Sis— I saw some of that — have to admit I snickered — cause I knew what was coming"
**
6. Kysen
Mar 04, 2020 at 07:48:56 AM
"Thanks, Dee...as a PROUD Carolina boy, it has eaten right to my soul to hear the absolute GARBAGE spewed by so many. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I was by turnout...but the OBVIOUS glaring no-holds barred enthusiastic full-throated support that the black voters of SC gave to Biden. I knew...KNEW...to the nth of my being that the denizens of SC would prove to be the harbingers of the way forward for the Democratic party because they ARE the FOUNDATION of the party.
And the numbers? MY GOD the numbers that turned out. So proud of my home state.
Feel like I got gifted a political Red Ryder BB gun.
Just happy to see all the nasty (the ugly) get the light shone bright on ‘em.
/hugs"
**
7. Kysen
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:00:17 AM
..."Today I’m kinda feelin’ like I’m gettin’ to take the first (of hopefully many) sigh of relief in 3 ½ years.
Thank you, again, for this diary. As is SO very often the case...you said it all WAY better than I could have!
Keep fightin’ the good fight..."
**
8. CocoaLove
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:04:14 AM
"Mama always said God don’t like ugly. As you, I kept quiet (well, mostly) on this site. Pointificators tore into a diary about James Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden. They ripped apart the congressman and scorned the Black voters. There were too many examples here and around Twitter. I wanted to cuss out a bunch of folks over here.
Welp, it’s a new day. The Black voters have spoken. People are taking notice. Like I keep saying, #VoteLikeBlackWomen."
**
9. Smoothnmellow [reply to] Kysen
Mar 04, 2020 at 09:13:40 AM
"And can we give a shoutout to Virginia’s turnout???? OMG! It went from 700k and there abouts, to like 1.2M in 4 years????? When I heard that, I was like the GOP and that man in the WH are the ones who are shook this morning. Not a peep out of them.
It’s coming y’all. And now they know it, riding and dying with that fool."
**
10. Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR [reply to] CocoaLove
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:10:18 AM
"Chile... some of the ugly here made me get up and walk away from the puter"
**
11. Mathy Kathy [reply to] Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR
Mar 04, 2020 at 11:48:48 AM
"My mom said you have to suffer for beauty."
**
12. Mathy Kathy [reply to] Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR
Mar 04, 2020 at 11:50:45 AM
"Oh, yeah, we had another saying at work.
‘They are getting wrapped around the axle.’
Those comments are just strange yelps from people wrapped around the axle who don't trust the process."
**
13. Ellid
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:04:28 AM
"I could not believe that Bernie skipped that Selma commemoration. His whole !$#@!$@$!@$!@$#!#@$ career is based on him being a 60’s radical, and he goes to San Jose intead? Stupid, stupid, supid.
Also? Joe Biden willingly, joyfully, and happily was Barack Obama’s loyal wingman and friend for eight full years. That says a hell of a lot more than fleeing to a lily white state just as the cities burned in the wake of Dr. King’s death."
**
14. surfbird007 [reply to] Ellid
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:43:56 AM
"The Sanders campaign was the only one that contacted me trying to earn my primary vote (though I certainly would’ve heard from Harris for turnout since I had donated to her campaign), and I did my civic duty to try to educate the caller that Sanders JUST. DOESN’T. GET IT. on matters of racial injustice and white supremacy. I gave many examples. They gave back “Sanders is polling the best with Millennial people of color.”
Sigh... You can’t teach people who are unwilling to learn.
I asked if they recorded the feedback and shared it with the campaign, and the caller said they did not. The only goal was persuasion. OOF!"
**
15. fcvaguy [reply to] Ellid
Mar 04, 2020 at 10:41:15 AM
[quoting a previous commenter] " 'I could not believe that Bernie skipped that Selma commemoration.'[end of quote]
Yes, and the droning word salad comments in defense of his absence from some really prominent Kossacks."
**
16. Ellid [reply to] fcvaguy
Mar 04, 2020 at 11:39:46 AM
"The one that really frosted my flakes was the claim that the Selma commemoration was “just a photo op.”
**
17. beaky [reply to] Ellid
Mar 04, 2020 at 11:56:51 AM
"Or the one that said he had already been there once."
**
18. stellaluna
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:20:00 AM
"Black twitter has taught me so much. And as much despair as I’ve had looking at the results up until SC, I’ve held onto the promise from black women that the primary hadn’t actually started. My faith was rewarded last night. As a white woman twentyish years younger than Bernie I cast my first vote before he ever bothered. I worked for progressive causes when everyone else fawned over Reagan. The dismissiveness by Sanders and his surrogates to people, mainly women, with a lifetime of progressive action (when it wasn’t trendy) has been the worst thing about him. I am so grateful that black voters are helping turn around what was looking like a huge defeat in November. Hopefully one day, people will realize Democratic voters don’t dislike progressive policy, we dislike Sanders. And we dislike his disdain for anyone who understands that progressive policy is hard work. And, as I ally myself with black voters and attempt to understand political action through their lens, we dislike his erasure of any black voice that doesn’t support him. Thank you for this diary. It’s a good read this morning."
**
19. Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR [reply to] stellaluna
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:28:14 AM
"Many thanks for being open enough to consider and listen."
**
20. stellaluna [reply to] Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR
Mar 04, 2020 at 08:35:49 AM
"I live and grew up in the South. It takes living in a red area as a progressive to have a better idea of what people are actually willing to vote for. But it takes listening to black people who’ve grown up right beside you to understand why that happens. I appreciate the education you’ve given me over my years at this site (And on Twitter)"
**
21. jai2 [reply to Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR]
Mar 04, 2020 at 09:07:31 AM
"I’m confused by all the congratulations?? Do folks honestly believe that Biden’s policies and plans will do more to help black folks than Warren’s? I certainly do not so IMO black folks didn’t win last night."
**
22. ExpatGirl [reply to] jai2
Mar 04, 2020 at 09:40:16 AM
"I think you missed the point of the diary. Warren’s policies hit people’s pocket books. Because of that, white people (you know, the people who elected Trump) can pretty much be counted on to do the wrong thing if Warren is the nominee.
[quote from Daily Kos article] 'They believe if you make white people choose between their money and their morality—between candidates like Sanders or Elizabeth Warren (who somehow finished fifth in South Carolina, behind Pete Buttigieg) and candidates like Biden and Michael Bloomberg—they will choose their money every time and twice on Election Day.'" [end of quote]
**
23. pigpaste [reply to] ExpatGirl
Mar 04, 2020 at 09:59:04 AM
"So we should vote for Biden because his moral stances, not his tax policy, will be better than Trump’s? Is the implication that economic inequity will not change under Biden intentional? Does tax policy not have a moral aspect?"
**
24. ExpatGirl [reply to] pigpaste
Mar 04, 2020 at 10:02:30 AM
"Why are you trying to shoehorn your personal top issues into a diary about why black voters are choosing Biden? People are telling you why Biden is doing so well. You can choose to listen or no. Doesn’t change what people are telling you."
**
25. pigpaste [reply to] ExpatGirl
Mar 04, 2020 at 10:05:20 AM
"I’m trying to do nothing of the kind. I’m trying to understand the diarist’s statement you quoted above, and its implications."
**
26. ExpatGirl [reply to] pigpaste
Mar 04, 2020 at 10:19:47 AM
"The implication is that black voters understand white people a whole lot better than most white people do."
**
27. IdleMindness [reply to] ExpatGirl
Mar 04, 2020 at 12:00:07 PM
[quote from another commenter] “ 'The implication is that black voters understand white people a whole lot better than most white people do.'”[end of quote]
That statement is fantastically arrogant, and insulting. It is a race based prejudice as it groups all white people into the same category.
When certain white people say things regarding knowing what black people will do or not do, we call that, insulting, prejudicial, and even racist.
When someone makes the same accusation against white people, it is equally insulting and prejudicial. It is the same type of attack, and deserves push back, not acceptance."
**
28. mohistory2 [reply to] IdleMindness
Mar 04, 2020 at 12:03:15 PM
"See black American history, 1619 through 2020. Almost any random chapter or two will suffice."
**
29. ExpatGirl [reply to] IdleMindness
Mar 04, 2020 at 12:13:19 PM
"I am sorry you find it so difficult to accept the reality that white people elected Trump and they could very well do it again."
**
30. Ellid [reply to] ExpatGirl
Mar 04, 2020 at 12:32:55 PM
"It’s rather like the curious phenomenon that female writers are much better at constructing male characters than male writers are at constructing female...because we have to know how men think simply to survive in our own homes, while men can go their entire lives without giving a damn about women’s concerns."
**
31. ExpatGirl [reply to] Ellid
Mar 04, 2020 at 12:36:12 PM
"Perfectly said."
**
32. ann04[ reply to] ExpatGirl
Mar 04, 2020 at 10:17:07 AM
"Exactly! They don’t get it. Black people never get to fully vote their own interest because the majority white electorate does not value black interests, therefore the black vote has been a compromise vote in every US election, with the exception of maybe 2012. (even in 2008 a lot of black folks waited to see what white people would do in Iowa before coalescing around President Obama)
Instead of saying since I didn’t get exactly what I want I’m going to take my toys home, or the reason that black people supported Biden is because they didn’t know any better, perhaps just consider that Biden is the compromise that black voters were willing to make and get to work."
**
33. mohistory2
Mar 04, 2020 at 10:42:53 AM
"As noted in the diary...
Lack of black support by Warren is based on TWO factors. Their lack of connection with her. BUT… Also their lack of faith in white voters to actually vote progressive, versus simply telling folks they’re progressive!
The significance of that last sentence cannot be overstated!"
**
32. stagemom [reply to] Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR
Mar 04, 2020 at 11:21:04 AM
"and A BIG AND is the role of the coronavirus bumbling of the trumpistas...everyone was on edge that week...we all watched saturday tv to see what would happen b c we hadn’t filled in our ballot. biden’s speech resonated too..."
**
33. Denise Oliver Velez AUTHOR [reply to] stagemom
Mar 04, 2020 at 11:40:36 AM
"Agree"
**
34. Tamar [reply to] stagemom
Mar 04, 2020 at 02:34:38 PM
"Good point. I may not love Biden, but I bet he’d put competent people in place to handle this pandemic. That’s a huge plus, from my point of view."
**
35. Dfh1 [reply to] DoctorCorey [This comment isn't included in this compilation.]
Mar 04, 2020 at 11:53:32 AM
"This diary is trying to explain something to you that you seem to have difficulty comprehending.
The diary says that black voters know white people better than they know themselves, and that knowledge, not fear but hard earned knowledge, is what drove yesterday’s vote."
**
36. paz3 [reply to] GoodNewsRoundup (comment not included in this compilation)
Mar 04, 2020 at 01:35:54 PM
"Whites calling any non-white group ‘low-information’ is racist!
And maybe it’s a hidden projection. My hope (and prayer) now is that white Democrats will increasingly fade this notion that black voters are low information, and don’t have much influence on voting in the Dem Party. That’s a stupid and unfounded idea.
Any oppressed group of humans tends to be high information, for the sake of survival, if nothing else. And, even if black folks in the US were not oppressed, where does the idea that any group is ‘low information’ gain any credibility if it is being pushed by people who are not members of that group?
I call BS on the entire notion!"
[....]
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/03/commemorating-1965-selma-to-montgomery.html for a pancocojams post about the Selma commemoration that is mentioned in several comments in this compilation. Here's an excerpt of that post from an online article: "The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks--and three events--that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma."...
****
This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label Black culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black culture. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Black Folks Overwhelmingly Voted For Biden On Super Tuesday March 3, 2020 (Part I, Information About Super Tuesday And An Excerpt Of A Daily Kos Article by Denise Oliver Velez)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series about the Democratic Party's results of Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020).
Part I provides information about the voting day in the United States that is known as "Super Tuesday" and includes an excerpt to an article about the Super Tuesday results for the Democratic Party on March 3, 202o.
Part I of this pancocojams series also showcases an excerpt of an article published in Daily Kos's political forum about Super Tuesday's United States Presidential Primaries (March 3, 2020) & Black folks overwhelmingly voting for United State's Former Vice-President Joe Biden. That is written by Denise Oliver Velez and is entitled "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say".
The Addendum to Part I provides an explanation about the African American Vernacular English term "being disinvited to the BBQ" that is included in that article.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/03/black-folks-overwhelmingly-voted-for_4.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II provides selected comments from the discussion thread for the Daily Kos (political) article about why Black folks overwhelming voted for Former Vice President Biden on Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020). That article by Denise Oliver Velez is entitled "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say".
The author of this article is African American. The selected comments that are featured in this pancocojams compilation are from African Americans and non-African Americans -all of whom are members of that political forum. [For the record, I'm a frequent visitor of that forum, but I'm not a member.]
This post documents the opinions that are shared in these article excerpts and selected comments. I'm also particularly interested in the use of African American Vernacular sayings & terms in that article and some of those comments.
For those interested in United States politics and/or African American culture, I strongly recommend reading the entire article and its discussion thread.
****
The content of this post is presented for political and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Denise Oliver Velez, the author of the Daily Kos article that is showcased in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT UNITED STATES' "SUPER TUESDAY" VOTING
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Tuesday
"Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating conventions can be won on Super Tuesday, more than on any other day. The results on Super Tuesday are therefore a strong indicator of the likely eventual nominee of each political party.
The particular states holding primaries on Super Tuesday have varied from year to year because each state selects its election day separately.
Tuesday is the traditional day for elections in the United States. The phrase Super Tuesday[1] has been used to refer to presidential primary elections since at least 1976.[2] It is an unofficial term used by journalists and political pundits."...
****
ARTICLE ABOUT SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS (DEMOCRATS) MARCH 3, 2020
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/super-tuesday-joe-biden-2020-election-democratic-primary_n_5e5f3103c5b6732f50ea11eb
By Igor Bobic, 03/04/2020
"WASHINGTON ― Former Vice President Joe Biden barely campaigned in Super Tuesday states. He was outspent by tens of millions of dollars and had little to no staff on the ground to reach voters with his message about “restoring the soul of America.”
It didn’t matter. Biden romped to victory across the country on Tuesday, a stunning result for a campaign that looked terminal just a few weeks ago after disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Buoyed by his blowout victory in South Carolina over the weekend and a slew of Democratic Party endorsements that followed, Biden carried the Southern states of Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Alabama. He won in Massachusetts, the home state of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, where he didn’t campaign at all. And he won in Minnesota, a state carried by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016, where he also made no appearances.
It’s an incredibly rapid change of fortune that few saw coming last week"...
-snip-
Biden also won the Democratic Primary in Maine.
****
SHOWCASE ARTICLE EXCERPT
From https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/4/1924191/--God-don-t-like-ugly-is-what-my-grandma-used-to-say#comment_76509167 "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say" by Denise Oliver Velez (2020/03/04) 07:25
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
"Before I talk about the ugly, I want to offer my congratulations to Joe Biden and his team for a crushing series of Super Tuesday victories. I have to admit I'm not surprised.
I actually want the bulk of my congrats to go to the black voters of South Carolina. They illustrated what has been completely wrong with the opinions of pundits prognosticators and pollsters. I’ll add in my thanks to the many other black folks—in state after state who did what they knew had to be done.
[tweet] Errin Haines
✔
@emarvelous
In a span of 72 hours, black voters are clearing the field and clarifying this race in a way that the first two contests simply did not and could not.
8,209
8:28 PM - Mar 3, 2020
[...]
Some people on Twitter, including people who weirdly think of themselves as part of Bernie Sanders’s coalition, chalked up Biden’s win to “low information voters” in South Carolina. The argument would be offensive if it weren’t also so dumb. Older black voters in South Carolina have a lifetime of education and experience dealing with the most persistent threat to their safety and rights in this country: white people.
My read of the South Carolina vote is that black people know exactly what they’re doing, and why. Joe Biden is the indictment older black folks have issued against white America. His support is buttressed by chunks of the black community who have determined that most white people are selfish and cannot be trusted to do the right thing. They believe if you make white people choose between their money and their morality—between candidates like Sanders or Elizabeth Warren (who somehow finished fifth in South Carolina, behind Pete Buttigieg) and candidates like Biden and Michael Bloomberg—they will choose their money every time and twice on Election Day.
The New York Times interviewed a 39-year-old African American voter in South Carolina. I found his analysis instructive. He told the Times: “Black voters know white voters better than white voters know themselves.… So yeah, we’ll back Biden, because we know who white America will vote for in the general election in a way they may not tell a pollster or the media.”
I say “God don’t like ugly” because we hear what you say, we see what you do, and we don’t need to filter that information through the brain cells of TV pundits.
Alot of what we hear is very, very, ugly. We hear the surrogates.
[tweet]
Eugene Scott
✔
@Eugene_Scott
Michael Moore says that people of color, women and young people are going to decide the next election in the same breath that he says South Carolina isn’t representative of the United States.
[...]
I remember warning people here that holding events at HBCUs and in Black churches, filled with white supporters was not a good look for Warren and Sanders. A huge rally in front of black housing projects, with almost all white attendees was not a good look for Sanders.
Dissing, and booing John Lewis—we filed that away, with anger.
Endless attacking of Obama—major ugly.
Those nasty attacks on the Congressional Black Caucus, from your candidates’ surrogates and supporters get passed on to mom and auntie who don’t do twitter. Labeling the hard decades long fight to get the vote and get some of our folks elected, to then be dubbed “Establishment” and dismissed as “corporate whores”—y’all so-called “progressives” have built up a deep well of dislike.
[...]
We watch TV too. We see the “acceptable” black people selected to be pundits to interpret our behavior to white folks. We often laugh about the crap they sell you. Almost all of them spent their time helping torpedo Kamala Harris. Duly noted, even if we weren’t voting for her.
Van Jones does not speak for black people. Nina Turner does not speak for black people. Joy Reid does not speak for black people. Cornel West does not speak for black people. Shaun King got disinvited to the BBQ a few years ago.*
As hard as this may be for you to accept, Jim Clyburn does not have some magical hoodoo power and control over black peoples votes that sent us like zombies to vote for Biden.
See Virginia. See North Carolina. See Tennessee. See Alabama.
I am listening to the TV while I type. “Shocking” they are saying. “What a turnaround” for Biden. “The Biden comeback.”
What frigging turnaround, what comeback? The contest hadn’t even been started yet. The first real primary was SC."...
-snip-
Read the Addendum below for the meaning of being invited or disinvited to the BBQ means in African American Vernacular English.
****
ADDENDUM- Explanation for being invited to the cookout [BBQ] or being disinvited to the cookout [BBQ]
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/invitations-to-the-cookout-have-now-been-rescinded_b_59e644e4e4b0e60c4aa365ad Invitations To The Cookout Have Now Been Rescinded
Our criteria for entry have just become more strict.
Isis Miller, 10/17/2017
"The cookout is a long-standing tradition in the African American community dating back to God knows when. It’s a non-holiday specific, (although they do often coincide with such holidays as Labor Day and MLK Day), where Black families and friends gather for barbecue, spades games with trash-talking drunk uncles, aunty rivalries over who made the best dish, Luther Vandross blasting on the radio, and carefree Blackness at its peak. It’s the safety of belonging. It’s where you can let your guard down and simply be without having to swat at the incessant stings of microaggressions. It’s the place where no code switching is necessary because it’s just you and your tribe. It is being home in your skin with your kin.
But on occasion you will find that there is a white person at these gatherings. It is assumed that said white person is “down,” the precursor to what we now call being “woke.” They have earned their invitation usually by having grown up with the family, dated someone in the family, or simply having been around long enough to have been properly vetted. They know the etiquette and the rules. They don’t say the n-word, even when its part of the song. They don’t show up with some strange casserole. They bring a liquor of some sort (Hennessy being the obvious choice). And they certainly don’t invite other white people. And if anything were to go down they know it would be their duty to speak to the police, using their privilege for the good of those who lack it. They are simply happy to be there and we are happy to include them on the fun and maybe even send them home with a plate. These recipients of the illustrious cookout invite were the original allies.
These cookouts have, in popular culture, become synonymous with our lives, our social justice movements, our sacred spaces, our places of respect. So when a white person puts aside prejudice, stands up against racism, and uses their whiteness for good, someone on Twitter will announce that they are “invited to the cookout.” They can sit with us. They can join the spades game (as long as they don’t renege). They can electric slide their way into the inner circle of Blackness, status pending. "...
-snip-
That article whose sub-title is "Our criteria for entry have just become more strict" continues with information about a White owned t-shirt company named SwirlBae which is marketing an "invited to the cookout" t-shirt and hats. The ad for that shirt says that people should "celebrate the allies, partners, homies and swirly-plus ones in your life with a gift from the newest line of inclusive tees and hoodies from SwirlBae". That article continues saying:
"The theoretical (and very much literal) cookouts we’ve been hosting for generations, our sacred sites of unadulterated, live-out-loud Blackness are being threatened by the forces of gentrification. We are about to become a minority at our own events. Because just like every slogan, trend, movement and hashtag we create, it is then coopted, commodified, and watered down until it is unrecognizable or unredeemable. Because it is never enough for white people to simply be happy as a spectator. They must own, take up space, profit from Black culture, Black creativity, Black genius. And even when they serve up poor and borderline insulting imitations of us, they are given the credit."...
Denise Oliver Velez's Daily Kos article indicated that "Shaun King got disinvited to the BBQ a few years ago." Shaun King is a Black activist/journalist). Writing that a Black person is disinvited to the BBQ (cookout) means that whoever is writing that believes that person has done something or has taken some position or positions that is (in their opinion) against the best interests of other Black people.
For more information on this subject, click https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/invited-to-the-cookout for the 2019 "Know Your Meme": Invited to the Cookout" article.
****
This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series about the Democratic Party's results of Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020).
Part I provides information about the voting day in the United States that is known as "Super Tuesday" and includes an excerpt to an article about the Super Tuesday results for the Democratic Party on March 3, 202o.
Part I of this pancocojams series also showcases an excerpt of an article published in Daily Kos's political forum about Super Tuesday's United States Presidential Primaries (March 3, 2020) & Black folks overwhelmingly voting for United State's Former Vice-President Joe Biden. That is written by Denise Oliver Velez and is entitled "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say".
The Addendum to Part I provides an explanation about the African American Vernacular English term "being disinvited to the BBQ" that is included in that article.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/03/black-folks-overwhelmingly-voted-for_4.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II provides selected comments from the discussion thread for the Daily Kos (political) article about why Black folks overwhelming voted for Former Vice President Biden on Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020). That article by Denise Oliver Velez is entitled "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say".
The author of this article is African American. The selected comments that are featured in this pancocojams compilation are from African Americans and non-African Americans -all of whom are members of that political forum. [For the record, I'm a frequent visitor of that forum, but I'm not a member.]
This post documents the opinions that are shared in these article excerpts and selected comments. I'm also particularly interested in the use of African American Vernacular sayings & terms in that article and some of those comments.
For those interested in United States politics and/or African American culture, I strongly recommend reading the entire article and its discussion thread.
****
The content of this post is presented for political and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Denise Oliver Velez, the author of the Daily Kos article that is showcased in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT UNITED STATES' "SUPER TUESDAY" VOTING
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Tuesday
"Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating conventions can be won on Super Tuesday, more than on any other day. The results on Super Tuesday are therefore a strong indicator of the likely eventual nominee of each political party.
The particular states holding primaries on Super Tuesday have varied from year to year because each state selects its election day separately.
Tuesday is the traditional day for elections in the United States. The phrase Super Tuesday[1] has been used to refer to presidential primary elections since at least 1976.[2] It is an unofficial term used by journalists and political pundits."...
****
ARTICLE ABOUT SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS (DEMOCRATS) MARCH 3, 2020
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/super-tuesday-joe-biden-2020-election-democratic-primary_n_5e5f3103c5b6732f50ea11eb
By Igor Bobic, 03/04/2020
"WASHINGTON ― Former Vice President Joe Biden barely campaigned in Super Tuesday states. He was outspent by tens of millions of dollars and had little to no staff on the ground to reach voters with his message about “restoring the soul of America.”
It didn’t matter. Biden romped to victory across the country on Tuesday, a stunning result for a campaign that looked terminal just a few weeks ago after disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Buoyed by his blowout victory in South Carolina over the weekend and a slew of Democratic Party endorsements that followed, Biden carried the Southern states of Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Alabama. He won in Massachusetts, the home state of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, where he didn’t campaign at all. And he won in Minnesota, a state carried by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016, where he also made no appearances.
It’s an incredibly rapid change of fortune that few saw coming last week"...
-snip-
Biden also won the Democratic Primary in Maine.
****
SHOWCASE ARTICLE EXCERPT
From https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/4/1924191/--God-don-t-like-ugly-is-what-my-grandma-used-to-say#comment_76509167 "'God don't like ugly' is what my grandma used to say" by Denise Oliver Velez (2020/03/04) 07:25
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
"Before I talk about the ugly, I want to offer my congratulations to Joe Biden and his team for a crushing series of Super Tuesday victories. I have to admit I'm not surprised.
I actually want the bulk of my congrats to go to the black voters of South Carolina. They illustrated what has been completely wrong with the opinions of pundits prognosticators and pollsters. I’ll add in my thanks to the many other black folks—in state after state who did what they knew had to be done.
[tweet] Errin Haines
✔
@emarvelous
In a span of 72 hours, black voters are clearing the field and clarifying this race in a way that the first two contests simply did not and could not.
8,209
8:28 PM - Mar 3, 2020
[...]
Some people on Twitter, including people who weirdly think of themselves as part of Bernie Sanders’s coalition, chalked up Biden’s win to “low information voters” in South Carolina. The argument would be offensive if it weren’t also so dumb. Older black voters in South Carolina have a lifetime of education and experience dealing with the most persistent threat to their safety and rights in this country: white people.
My read of the South Carolina vote is that black people know exactly what they’re doing, and why. Joe Biden is the indictment older black folks have issued against white America. His support is buttressed by chunks of the black community who have determined that most white people are selfish and cannot be trusted to do the right thing. They believe if you make white people choose between their money and their morality—between candidates like Sanders or Elizabeth Warren (who somehow finished fifth in South Carolina, behind Pete Buttigieg) and candidates like Biden and Michael Bloomberg—they will choose their money every time and twice on Election Day.
The New York Times interviewed a 39-year-old African American voter in South Carolina. I found his analysis instructive. He told the Times: “Black voters know white voters better than white voters know themselves.… So yeah, we’ll back Biden, because we know who white America will vote for in the general election in a way they may not tell a pollster or the media.”
I say “God don’t like ugly” because we hear what you say, we see what you do, and we don’t need to filter that information through the brain cells of TV pundits.
Alot of what we hear is very, very, ugly. We hear the surrogates.
[tweet]
Eugene Scott
✔
@Eugene_Scott
Michael Moore says that people of color, women and young people are going to decide the next election in the same breath that he says South Carolina isn’t representative of the United States.
[...]
I remember warning people here that holding events at HBCUs and in Black churches, filled with white supporters was not a good look for Warren and Sanders. A huge rally in front of black housing projects, with almost all white attendees was not a good look for Sanders.
Dissing, and booing John Lewis—we filed that away, with anger.
Endless attacking of Obama—major ugly.
Those nasty attacks on the Congressional Black Caucus, from your candidates’ surrogates and supporters get passed on to mom and auntie who don’t do twitter. Labeling the hard decades long fight to get the vote and get some of our folks elected, to then be dubbed “Establishment” and dismissed as “corporate whores”—y’all so-called “progressives” have built up a deep well of dislike.
[...]
We watch TV too. We see the “acceptable” black people selected to be pundits to interpret our behavior to white folks. We often laugh about the crap they sell you. Almost all of them spent their time helping torpedo Kamala Harris. Duly noted, even if we weren’t voting for her.
Van Jones does not speak for black people. Nina Turner does not speak for black people. Joy Reid does not speak for black people. Cornel West does not speak for black people. Shaun King got disinvited to the BBQ a few years ago.*
As hard as this may be for you to accept, Jim Clyburn does not have some magical hoodoo power and control over black peoples votes that sent us like zombies to vote for Biden.
See Virginia. See North Carolina. See Tennessee. See Alabama.
I am listening to the TV while I type. “Shocking” they are saying. “What a turnaround” for Biden. “The Biden comeback.”
What frigging turnaround, what comeback? The contest hadn’t even been started yet. The first real primary was SC."...
-snip-
Read the Addendum below for the meaning of being invited or disinvited to the BBQ means in African American Vernacular English.
****
ADDENDUM- Explanation for being invited to the cookout [BBQ] or being disinvited to the cookout [BBQ]
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/invitations-to-the-cookout-have-now-been-rescinded_b_59e644e4e4b0e60c4aa365ad Invitations To The Cookout Have Now Been Rescinded
Our criteria for entry have just become more strict.
Isis Miller, 10/17/2017
"The cookout is a long-standing tradition in the African American community dating back to God knows when. It’s a non-holiday specific, (although they do often coincide with such holidays as Labor Day and MLK Day), where Black families and friends gather for barbecue, spades games with trash-talking drunk uncles, aunty rivalries over who made the best dish, Luther Vandross blasting on the radio, and carefree Blackness at its peak. It’s the safety of belonging. It’s where you can let your guard down and simply be without having to swat at the incessant stings of microaggressions. It’s the place where no code switching is necessary because it’s just you and your tribe. It is being home in your skin with your kin.
But on occasion you will find that there is a white person at these gatherings. It is assumed that said white person is “down,” the precursor to what we now call being “woke.” They have earned their invitation usually by having grown up with the family, dated someone in the family, or simply having been around long enough to have been properly vetted. They know the etiquette and the rules. They don’t say the n-word, even when its part of the song. They don’t show up with some strange casserole. They bring a liquor of some sort (Hennessy being the obvious choice). And they certainly don’t invite other white people. And if anything were to go down they know it would be their duty to speak to the police, using their privilege for the good of those who lack it. They are simply happy to be there and we are happy to include them on the fun and maybe even send them home with a plate. These recipients of the illustrious cookout invite were the original allies.
These cookouts have, in popular culture, become synonymous with our lives, our social justice movements, our sacred spaces, our places of respect. So when a white person puts aside prejudice, stands up against racism, and uses their whiteness for good, someone on Twitter will announce that they are “invited to the cookout.” They can sit with us. They can join the spades game (as long as they don’t renege). They can electric slide their way into the inner circle of Blackness, status pending. "...
-snip-
That article whose sub-title is "Our criteria for entry have just become more strict" continues with information about a White owned t-shirt company named SwirlBae which is marketing an "invited to the cookout" t-shirt and hats. The ad for that shirt says that people should "celebrate the allies, partners, homies and swirly-plus ones in your life with a gift from the newest line of inclusive tees and hoodies from SwirlBae". That article continues saying:
"The theoretical (and very much literal) cookouts we’ve been hosting for generations, our sacred sites of unadulterated, live-out-loud Blackness are being threatened by the forces of gentrification. We are about to become a minority at our own events. Because just like every slogan, trend, movement and hashtag we create, it is then coopted, commodified, and watered down until it is unrecognizable or unredeemable. Because it is never enough for white people to simply be happy as a spectator. They must own, take up space, profit from Black culture, Black creativity, Black genius. And even when they serve up poor and borderline insulting imitations of us, they are given the credit."...
Denise Oliver Velez's Daily Kos article indicated that "Shaun King got disinvited to the BBQ a few years ago." Shaun King is a Black activist/journalist). Writing that a Black person is disinvited to the BBQ (cookout) means that whoever is writing that believes that person has done something or has taken some position or positions that is (in their opinion) against the best interests of other Black people.
For more information on this subject, click https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/invited-to-the-cookout for the 2019 "Know Your Meme": Invited to the Cookout" article.
****
This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Spoken Word Performance - "Black Girl Blues" by MasterPiece Poet (video with partial lyrics)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases a video of the spoken word "Black Girl Blues" by MasterPiece Poet.
Partial lyrics of this spoken word poem are included in this post along with editorial notes about some of the references in that poem. This post also includes brief information about MasterPiece Poet, as well as selected comments from this video's discussion thread.
The content of this post is presented for cultural and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to MasterPiece Poet for her powerful spoken word "Black Girl Blues". Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to All Def Poetry, the publisher of this post on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT MASTERPIECE POET
From https://www.reverbnation.com/masterpiece83
"Artist Bio
MasterPiece the poetess was born in Dallas, Tx. She also lived in Arizona for seven years while studying Theatre Arts and Business Administration at the University of Arizona. She began performing and acting at the age of 6 and also discovered a love for poetry at 13. Her passion for poetry and performing arts has inspired many people. The debut album Mind of MasterPiece introduces a new genre of music coined by MasterPiece herself: rhythm and poetry. The cd chronicles her story through powerful words, emotions, rhyme, thought provoking lyrics and smooth rhythmic music that has a hint of hip hop, soul, and jazz all mixed into one. Fans recognize her as a dynamic writer with poise, talent, and beauty. She continues to maintain a balance between the arts and business by being an extraordinary poet/performer and business woman. Her hobbies include basketball, dancing, cooking, designing webpages, traveling, and watching movies. Her poet name MasterPiece stems from the idea that all artists strive to achieve and put forth their best work possible. It is a metaphor for a successful artist."...
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: Masterpiece Poet - "Black Girl Blues" | All Def Poetry x Da Poetry Lounge
All Def Poetry Published on Aug 19, 2015
Subscribe for more poetry! http://bit.ly/alldefpoetry
....All Def Poetry is a new channel brought to you by Russell Simmons - a world-renowned champion of the spoken word art form. Fresh, riveting, and featuring some of the best voices in the genre, All Def Poetry brings you the raw power of spoken word! #AllDefPoetry
****
SELECTED LYRICS FROM THIS SPOKEN WORD
[1:22- 1:39 of this video]
Black girl, free yourself.
And when you fly
Tell ’em Fannie Lou Hamer sent you.
Tell ‘em, you are your own queen.
Tell ‘em your brown suga maple syrup can't be bought off shelves.
Tell ’em dark don’t mean dirty,
Nappy don’t mean nasty.
Loud don’t mean ratchet.
Bold don’t mean problematic.
[2:07-2:39 of this video]
We have a purpose here.
You can’t take that away.
You can’t Emmett Till our sons no more.
You can’t 16 Street Baptist Church burn our bodies no more.
You can’t walk up in the church and shoot us in prayer no more.
You can’t kill us in the jail cell and call it suicide no more.
This ain’t open season.
Black girl, you are brick.
You are mortar.
You are designed.
You are ceiling.
More than just measurement.
Raise your head.
This Black girl ain’t got no Blues tonight.
You be you.
In your Blues you beautiful as you wanna be.
Dark eyes, thick thighs, we don’t need to apologize.
-snip-
These words flow together in rhythmic form. I added the spacing for reading clarity only.
I'm sorry for any mistakes in this partial transcription. Any corrections are welcome.
Here's information regarding some of the historical references in this excerpt of "MasterPiece Poet's "Black Girl Blues" spoken word:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer
"Fannie Lou Hamer ... October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and philanthropist. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi's Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey."...
-snip-
Regarding why she was a civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer said “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”.
**
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church
"The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, that is frequented predominantly by African Americans. In September 1963, it was the target of the racially motivated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in the midst of the American Civil Rights Movement. The church is still in operation and is a central landmark in the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006."...
**
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
"Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman...
Till's body was returned to Chicago. His mother, who had mostly raised him, insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. "The open-coffin funeral held by Mamie Till Bradley exposed the world to more than her son Emmett Till's bloated, mutilated body. Her decision focused attention not only on American racism and the barbarism of lynching but also on the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy.
...Till's murder is noted as a pivotal catalyst to the next phase of the Civil Rights Movement."...
****
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS SHOWCASE VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
These comments are given in chronological order based on their publishing date-except for replies- with the oldest comment given first. However, these comments may not be in consecutive order. I've assigned numbers to these comments for referencing purposes only.
2015
1. Kendrick-Kamau “StreetPolitik” El-Negasi
"This is one of the dopest poems I've heard in a long. She had the wordplay and righteous aggression spelled out for you, undeniably witty but easy to digest with urgency like milk to a babe."
-snip-
"dopest" = African American Vernacular English term meaning "the very best"
**
2. MasterPiece [2016]
"+Kendrick-Kamau “StreetPolitik” El-Negasi Thank you so much!!!"
**
Reply
3. Kendrick-Kamau “StreetPolitik” El-Negasi1 month ago
"+MasterPiece no problem, thank you for creating & sharing."
**
4. lobster0right
"said the woman wearing a weave"
-snip-
"weave" (hair weave) = real or fake hair that is woven or glued to person's real hair to add length and/or fullness. (also called "extensions")
**
Reply
5. Jamesha Michelle
"Excuse you, but a hairstyle defines nothing."
**
Reply
6. Kai Jolly
"What the [profanity deleted] does that have to do with anything?"
**
Reply
7. inspirebabe_
"+lobster0right She can do what she want with her hair!"
**
8. Monkey Teeth
"+Jamesha Michelle you can't have it both ways! You can't recite verses about the veneration of black women and the uniqueness of the black women while simotaneously wearing the hair texture of a white women...some serious self worth issues going on here"
**
Reply
9. Nae2588
"+Monkey Teeth my niece is dark as night, but she was born with straight black hair, she's 8 now, and my friend her hair is still straight, never been touched by a perm, nor a flat iron or a pressing comb. her mom mainly did her hair, and her mom got thrown in prison on drug charges, so if it was nappy someone needed to do it, because white European hair as u claim, we all know can fix itself, just as soon as they get out of bed."
**
Reply
10. wild heart
"+Monkey Teeth What do you mean? She is clearly a black woman who loves herself unapologetically. Plus Black women get judged for whatever they do with her hair. Black women should be able to do whatever they want with it without being criticized."
**
Reply
11. Kai Jolly
"+wild heart I agree."
**
Reply
12. Velvet Velours
"+Nae2588 that's your niece. 90% of black people do not have naturally straight hair"
**
Reply
13. Kai Jolly [2016]
"+Zhang Yixing But some of them do lol.
-snip-
It appears that Zhang Yixing is another screen name for Velvet Velours.
**
Reply
14. Dana Newman [2016]
"+lobster0right It's not about her hair..."
**
Reply
15. Asia Speights [2016]
"....? Because white women don't wear weaves? [Profanity initials deleted] does her hair have to do with ANYTHING."
**
16. Rebecca Shogunle
"strong. powerful. insightful and definitely true beyond doubt"
**
17. Monkey Teeth
"Look how confident and proud she seems. Snatch that wig off her head and watch her confidence instantly disappear as she runs off stage embarrassed of her God given hair !"
**
Reply
18. Azandria Hudson [2016]
"Her weave isn't a mask just simply a style. You don't have to wear your natural hair 24/7 to love yourself and be woke"
**
19. Nae2588
"amazing. black power"
**
Reply
20. G Den [2016]
"Stop it! this is not about "Black Power" or hating others. it's about uplifting our Black women, specifically those who are less mixed than others (Dark Skin). I will not allow YOU to make something so beautiful ugly.
-Black Activist/Community Member"
**
21. mrschrisbrown416
"love this with the entire life of me."
**
22. Emmanuel Mango
"What's her name?"
**
Reply
23. MasterPiece
"+David Emmanuel MasterPiece.... Check out masterpiecepoet on IG"
-snip-
"IG" = "Instagram".
**
24. Snoopy Thompson
"She Tells It Like It Tis"
****
2016
25. Awo Abdi
" "our sons don't need sunscreen, they run from protection" you're lying if you say you didn't get chills."
-snip-
This comment refers to this portion of that spoken word [from 1:40-1:53] in this video:
"They say 'The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice'
But nowdays it's 'The blacker the baby, the longer the noose.'
Our sons don't need sunscreen.
They run from protection.
They get their vitamin D from laying 4 hours face down on the ground."
-snip-
"The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice" is a recurring saying in African American folk culture since at least 1922 (Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Songs: Wise & Otherwise (song/poem "You Love You Girl". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/06/timeline-for-cultural-use-of-saying.html for a pancocojams post on that saying.
The line "they get their vitamin D from laying face down on the ground" is probably a referent to the August 9, 2014 shooting of 18 year old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri by Darren Wilson, 28, a White Ferguson police officer and Michael Brown's body laying unattended for hours after the shooting.
**
26. Adrian Ware
"talk about the power. You can definitely here it in her voice. So moving. The queen just spoke"
-snip-
Since the late 1960s Black nationalist movement in the United States "queen" has been a complimentary referent for a Black woman.
**
27. jack
"Great poem oh my lord! I have chills.
For anyone asking, the song is Behind Closed Doors by Muoi."
**
28. Lemonslay
"You're beautiful with your skin like moonlight and your eyes like the moon."
-snip-
These words may be found in this spoken word, but I'm not sure where they are in this video.
**
29. Sade Tucker
"I give this millions of snaps!!! Incredibly executed!"
**
30. angela modifo
"amandla!!!"
-snip-
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandla_(power)
"Amandla is a Zulu and Xhosa word meaning "power". The word was a popular rallying cry in the days of resistance against Apartheid, used by the African National Congress and its allies. The leader of a group would call out "Amandla!" and the crowd would respond with "Awethu"[1] or "Ngawethu!"[2] (to us), completing the South African version of the rallying cry Power to the People!.[3] The word is still associated with struggles against oppression."...
**
31. Vikki Costello
"what !! amazing Queen! all I can say is powers to the most high & #Kudos cause that was God sent"
**
32. mariemonstre
"Very powerful but also a little saddening. As a mixed child, I feel hurt that she talks about us mixed children are made out of some desire to purge undesirable traits. But I say my parents loved each other. As apparently unbelievable as it seems. And she stays she doesn't want to be attacked for her appearance, yet she attacks us. Think about that."
**
Reply
33. mariemonstre
"Says* not stays"
-snip-
mariemonstre is referring to the portion of the line that is spoken at around 1:00 in this video "She got flavor- ain't that how those mulatto babies are made?"
**
34. Nina H
"Does anybody know where I can find this typed out? I cant understabd her in some parts :("
**
Reply
35. MasterPiece
"+Nina H Book will be released soon ;p"
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post showcases a video of the spoken word "Black Girl Blues" by MasterPiece Poet.
Partial lyrics of this spoken word poem are included in this post along with editorial notes about some of the references in that poem. This post also includes brief information about MasterPiece Poet, as well as selected comments from this video's discussion thread.
The content of this post is presented for cultural and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to MasterPiece Poet for her powerful spoken word "Black Girl Blues". Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to All Def Poetry, the publisher of this post on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT MASTERPIECE POET
From https://www.reverbnation.com/masterpiece83
"Artist Bio
MasterPiece the poetess was born in Dallas, Tx. She also lived in Arizona for seven years while studying Theatre Arts and Business Administration at the University of Arizona. She began performing and acting at the age of 6 and also discovered a love for poetry at 13. Her passion for poetry and performing arts has inspired many people. The debut album Mind of MasterPiece introduces a new genre of music coined by MasterPiece herself: rhythm and poetry. The cd chronicles her story through powerful words, emotions, rhyme, thought provoking lyrics and smooth rhythmic music that has a hint of hip hop, soul, and jazz all mixed into one. Fans recognize her as a dynamic writer with poise, talent, and beauty. She continues to maintain a balance between the arts and business by being an extraordinary poet/performer and business woman. Her hobbies include basketball, dancing, cooking, designing webpages, traveling, and watching movies. Her poet name MasterPiece stems from the idea that all artists strive to achieve and put forth their best work possible. It is a metaphor for a successful artist."...
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: Masterpiece Poet - "Black Girl Blues" | All Def Poetry x Da Poetry Lounge
All Def Poetry Published on Aug 19, 2015
Subscribe for more poetry! http://bit.ly/alldefpoetry
....All Def Poetry is a new channel brought to you by Russell Simmons - a world-renowned champion of the spoken word art form. Fresh, riveting, and featuring some of the best voices in the genre, All Def Poetry brings you the raw power of spoken word! #AllDefPoetry
****
SELECTED LYRICS FROM THIS SPOKEN WORD
[1:22- 1:39 of this video]
Black girl, free yourself.
And when you fly
Tell ’em Fannie Lou Hamer sent you.
Tell ‘em, you are your own queen.
Tell ‘em your brown suga maple syrup can't be bought off shelves.
Tell ’em dark don’t mean dirty,
Nappy don’t mean nasty.
Loud don’t mean ratchet.
Bold don’t mean problematic.
[2:07-2:39 of this video]
We have a purpose here.
You can’t take that away.
You can’t Emmett Till our sons no more.
You can’t 16 Street Baptist Church burn our bodies no more.
You can’t walk up in the church and shoot us in prayer no more.
You can’t kill us in the jail cell and call it suicide no more.
This ain’t open season.
Black girl, you are brick.
You are mortar.
You are designed.
You are ceiling.
More than just measurement.
Raise your head.
This Black girl ain’t got no Blues tonight.
You be you.
In your Blues you beautiful as you wanna be.
Dark eyes, thick thighs, we don’t need to apologize.
-snip-
These words flow together in rhythmic form. I added the spacing for reading clarity only.
I'm sorry for any mistakes in this partial transcription. Any corrections are welcome.
Here's information regarding some of the historical references in this excerpt of "MasterPiece Poet's "Black Girl Blues" spoken word:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer
"Fannie Lou Hamer ... October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and philanthropist. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi's Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey."...
-snip-
Regarding why she was a civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer said “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”.
**
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church
"The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, that is frequented predominantly by African Americans. In September 1963, it was the target of the racially motivated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in the midst of the American Civil Rights Movement. The church is still in operation and is a central landmark in the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006."...
**
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
"Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman...
Till's body was returned to Chicago. His mother, who had mostly raised him, insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. "The open-coffin funeral held by Mamie Till Bradley exposed the world to more than her son Emmett Till's bloated, mutilated body. Her decision focused attention not only on American racism and the barbarism of lynching but also on the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy.
...Till's murder is noted as a pivotal catalyst to the next phase of the Civil Rights Movement."...
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS SHOWCASE VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
These comments are given in chronological order based on their publishing date-except for replies- with the oldest comment given first. However, these comments may not be in consecutive order. I've assigned numbers to these comments for referencing purposes only.
2015
1. Kendrick-Kamau “StreetPolitik” El-Negasi
"This is one of the dopest poems I've heard in a long. She had the wordplay and righteous aggression spelled out for you, undeniably witty but easy to digest with urgency like milk to a babe."
-snip-
"dopest" = African American Vernacular English term meaning "the very best"
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2. MasterPiece [2016]
"+Kendrick-Kamau “StreetPolitik” El-Negasi Thank you so much!!!"
**
Reply
3. Kendrick-Kamau “StreetPolitik” El-Negasi1 month ago
"+MasterPiece no problem, thank you for creating & sharing."
**
4. lobster0right
"said the woman wearing a weave"
-snip-
"weave" (hair weave) = real or fake hair that is woven or glued to person's real hair to add length and/or fullness. (also called "extensions")
**
Reply
5. Jamesha Michelle
"Excuse you, but a hairstyle defines nothing."
**
Reply
6. Kai Jolly
"What the [profanity deleted] does that have to do with anything?"
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Reply
7. inspirebabe_
"+lobster0right She can do what she want with her hair!"
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8. Monkey Teeth
"+Jamesha Michelle you can't have it both ways! You can't recite verses about the veneration of black women and the uniqueness of the black women while simotaneously wearing the hair texture of a white women...some serious self worth issues going on here"
**
Reply
9. Nae2588
"+Monkey Teeth my niece is dark as night, but she was born with straight black hair, she's 8 now, and my friend her hair is still straight, never been touched by a perm, nor a flat iron or a pressing comb. her mom mainly did her hair, and her mom got thrown in prison on drug charges, so if it was nappy someone needed to do it, because white European hair as u claim, we all know can fix itself, just as soon as they get out of bed."
**
Reply
10. wild heart
"+Monkey Teeth What do you mean? She is clearly a black woman who loves herself unapologetically. Plus Black women get judged for whatever they do with her hair. Black women should be able to do whatever they want with it without being criticized."
**
Reply
11. Kai Jolly
"+wild heart I agree."
**
Reply
12. Velvet Velours
"+Nae2588 that's your niece. 90% of black people do not have naturally straight hair"
**
Reply
13. Kai Jolly [2016]
"+Zhang Yixing But some of them do lol.
-snip-
It appears that Zhang Yixing is another screen name for Velvet Velours.
**
Reply
14. Dana Newman [2016]
"+lobster0right It's not about her hair..."
**
Reply
15. Asia Speights [2016]
"....? Because white women don't wear weaves? [Profanity initials deleted] does her hair have to do with ANYTHING."
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16. Rebecca Shogunle
"strong. powerful. insightful and definitely true beyond doubt"
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17. Monkey Teeth
"Look how confident and proud she seems. Snatch that wig off her head and watch her confidence instantly disappear as she runs off stage embarrassed of her God given hair !"
**
Reply
18. Azandria Hudson [2016]
"Her weave isn't a mask just simply a style. You don't have to wear your natural hair 24/7 to love yourself and be woke"
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19. Nae2588
"amazing. black power"
**
Reply
20. G Den [2016]
"Stop it! this is not about "Black Power" or hating others. it's about uplifting our Black women, specifically those who are less mixed than others (Dark Skin). I will not allow YOU to make something so beautiful ugly.
-Black Activist/Community Member"
**
21. mrschrisbrown416
"love this with the entire life of me."
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22. Emmanuel Mango
"What's her name?"
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Reply
23. MasterPiece
"+David Emmanuel MasterPiece.... Check out masterpiecepoet on IG"
-snip-
"IG" = "Instagram".
**
24. Snoopy Thompson
"She Tells It Like It Tis"
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2016
25. Awo Abdi
" "our sons don't need sunscreen, they run from protection" you're lying if you say you didn't get chills."
-snip-
This comment refers to this portion of that spoken word [from 1:40-1:53] in this video:
"They say 'The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice'
But nowdays it's 'The blacker the baby, the longer the noose.'
Our sons don't need sunscreen.
They run from protection.
They get their vitamin D from laying 4 hours face down on the ground."
-snip-
"The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice" is a recurring saying in African American folk culture since at least 1922 (Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Songs: Wise & Otherwise (song/poem "You Love You Girl". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/06/timeline-for-cultural-use-of-saying.html for a pancocojams post on that saying.
The line "they get their vitamin D from laying face down on the ground" is probably a referent to the August 9, 2014 shooting of 18 year old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri by Darren Wilson, 28, a White Ferguson police officer and Michael Brown's body laying unattended for hours after the shooting.
**
26. Adrian Ware
"talk about the power. You can definitely here it in her voice. So moving. The queen just spoke"
-snip-
Since the late 1960s Black nationalist movement in the United States "queen" has been a complimentary referent for a Black woman.
**
27. jack
"Great poem oh my lord! I have chills.
For anyone asking, the song is Behind Closed Doors by Muoi."
**
28. Lemonslay
"You're beautiful with your skin like moonlight and your eyes like the moon."
-snip-
These words may be found in this spoken word, but I'm not sure where they are in this video.
**
29. Sade Tucker
"I give this millions of snaps!!! Incredibly executed!"
**
30. angela modifo
"amandla!!!"
-snip-
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandla_(power)
"Amandla is a Zulu and Xhosa word meaning "power". The word was a popular rallying cry in the days of resistance against Apartheid, used by the African National Congress and its allies. The leader of a group would call out "Amandla!" and the crowd would respond with "Awethu"[1] or "Ngawethu!"[2] (to us), completing the South African version of the rallying cry Power to the People!.[3] The word is still associated with struggles against oppression."...
**
31. Vikki Costello
"what !! amazing Queen! all I can say is powers to the most high & #Kudos cause that was God sent"
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32. mariemonstre
"Very powerful but also a little saddening. As a mixed child, I feel hurt that she talks about us mixed children are made out of some desire to purge undesirable traits. But I say my parents loved each other. As apparently unbelievable as it seems. And she stays she doesn't want to be attacked for her appearance, yet she attacks us. Think about that."
**
Reply
33. mariemonstre
"Says* not stays"
-snip-
mariemonstre is referring to the portion of the line that is spoken at around 1:00 in this video "She got flavor- ain't that how those mulatto babies are made?"
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34. Nina H
"Does anybody know where I can find this typed out? I cant understabd her in some parts :("
**
Reply
35. MasterPiece
"+Nina H Book will be released soon ;p"
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