Monday, January 31, 2011

Nappy Headed Ho's

 Most people were not offended when jokes were made about how ugly the Celtics' teams were from the 80's.
Sure, they won games but they were easy fodder for comedians and commentators.
The jokes are always funny when they are not about you.
The2007 Rutgers women's team cleaned up for this photo - but none of these women would stop traffic for being good looking.
When Don Imus noted that these were some "Nappy Heaed Ho's" - much of the Blackosphere was up in arms.

I walked by as a group of women were watching a recent women's basketball game.
As I noted that one of the girls playing basketball was kind of cute - all the women agreed.
As I noted that most of the others were kind of rough looking - most of these women became angry.
"You were probably mad when Imus called the women from Rutgers "Nappy Headed Ho's", I said.
This set of a maelstrom from these ladies.
"That was 'racist'", they all said.
"Why? They were all kind of rough.", I said.
"But it wasn't his place to say that.", they said.
"Why? He talks about current events.", I said.

As I brought back the jokes made about the Celtics from the 80's - most of these women agreed that that was an ugly team.
"That's because you don't identify as being one of them." I said.
"You see yourselves as being "Nappy Headed Ho's.", I continued.
"All those aspirational brands, all that makeup, all those weaves and perms, all that bling and being able to dive better cars and live in better neighborhoods does not mask the fact that you are trying to hide your own lack of self worth.", I finished.

These women are still mad at me.

4 comments:

brohammas said...

While you may be generally right, you know this is a bit different.

If our good buddy just called them ugly, he might be right. Thats not what he did, he called them names that, trust me, white people of his generation don't normally use. When he did that, and I'm sure he is smart enough to at some level know what he was doing, he used words that tied his criticism directly to the ladies' race. "Nappy" is not part of the white lexicon and by using it he was essentially saying those players were ugly BECAUSE of their race.

COurse, I'm sure the ladies that are mad at you now didn't parse that out and would still be mad at you anyways.

uglyblackjohn said...

@ brohammas - Walk into a room a say something bad about one particular group.
People who are not members of that group may look to see who is being addressed but they probaly won't be offended.
Those who get offended will be those who think that you are talking about them.
Whether Imus was racist or not (IMOHO - He was/is) - these women still view themselves as being Nappy Headed Ho's and that's why they still get mad.

brohammas said...

valid point.

Zaire said...

Damn, I never really thought of it like that....