|
25-03-08, 01:23 PM
Black Lion the non-conformist attitude is great if you create something constructive with it.
How many times have I been laughed at or called a 'sell-out' by my friends who phone me at work and do not recognise my voice. They should realise I would not talk to my parents or even my children in the same way I talk to them so why should i talk that way at work? At the same time, they call me a sell-out whilst they sit on their ass getting benefits from the 'oppressor'. Not realising that if i want to go on the holiday they can't afford my opressors have to pay me even when i'm lying on the beach!
My father has a thick jamaican accent, littered with patois, which i can barely understand when he is around his brothers, however, when he came down the school to confront my racist teachers they understood him perfectly. That accent comes out in me when i'm with my father, some of my friends wouldn't understand me if I spoke to them with it. Mr mother speaks a broken french patois, which she has taught us. This is our culture. We speak english in england around english people. Simple as. No different from the Welsh or Irish.
Being Ghetto is not a positive thing nor does it have anything to do with black culture. Whilst i don't describe myself as british or as having british values i certainly would not desribe myself as ghetto either! Slang is all good and well, so is fashion, but using it as an excuse not to work for the 'oppressor' is a cop-out. There is a time and a place for everything and if you are going to survive in the west you have to be smart.
You wouldn't expect your grandmother to turn up at church wearing batty riders and a mesh vest top, and she wouldn't expect you to turn up for a job interview with your jeans hanging off your ass and greeting the interviewer with "Wha gwan blud" THINK young brother.
Last edited by Melissa; 25-03-08 at 06:23 PM.
|