Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Happy Hump Day...even in this weather. I don't think I've ever wished for summer so hard this early in the winter. You know how by March, you can barely take it anymore and then spring gets here just as you're about to pull your hair out? Well, I feel like that NOW! but anyway...
...here's my REAL rant for today. Watch this clip - just the first minute or two:
Okay, I know "Brooke Dean" isn't the most ethnic sounding name in the world.....I know this.
If you see my name on a resume or an email, you might not guess that I'm a Black woman. I can form a sentence that has subject-verb agreement. I can string some words together that actually make sense. People understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. And even though I can be all jokey-joke with people at times when I may sound like Sarah Palin where I drop a "g" at the end of a word, trust me when I tell you I can speak proper English. Hell, it may not even be "proper"...it's really just STANDARD English. And dare I say, I have no accent...not even a "Philly" one.
Yet, when some people meet me for the first time after having only corresponded with me via email or over the phone, they always seem stunned to discover who I am.
"oh...YOU'RE Brooke Dean....uh....hello."
Then once they realize their ignorance is showing, they always try to cover it up by following with something ridiculous like, "oh...I thought you were...uh, SHORTER."
huh?
How does one sound..."short?"
But I've also gotten those who, in a drunken state at a premiere party, actually say it.
"oh...YOU'RE Brooke Dean? I thought you were White!"
(gasp!) did he just say?....yep, he sure did.
So I ask, "why did you think that?"
"I dunno, I guess because you sound white."
They say it like I deserve credit. And I'm talking about both White AND Black people.
What's funny to me is that I never heard that growing up. I attended a mostly White school all my life, all the way up through college. But it wasn't until my adulthood that I really began hearing people say that I "talk White." Isn't there something wrong with that picture? Should ADULTS be that ignorant? Even Ralph Nader accused Barack Obama of "talking White."
Once, a Black guy who worked in the mailroom asked me where I was from. I answered - Bensalem, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. He said, "figured...you soundin' all white." Every day after that, he would ask me a question to see how "Black" I was.
"Yo, B...you know who Jay-Z is?"
My response? "uh..Marvin, you don't have to be Black to know who Jay-Z is."
That had him stumped for about an hour. Idiot.
Sure, I can throw some slang around for comic effect or emphasis sometimes. I understand some Ebonics. But just because I recognize that there is a time and a place for everything and I can communicate effectively on every level doesn't mean I am less Black than anyone else. I'm no less "down." I'm always surprised that some Black folks actually still think that way.
And for White folks, why would some of them be surprised I can speak and write at my education level. I mean...really?
It irks my nerves that speaking standard English is synonymous with "talking White." Bad grammar is common among many groups of people. Not Black people. Not Latino people. Not White people. But IGNORANT people.
I just walk away.
-b
