Status Updates From Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! f...

My awareness of this country's prevalent ideology is on 100 percent.

Welfare to work, the privatization of the prison industrial complex and the likes has been away to keep slavery alive. The marginalized people of America were set up to become indentured servants.

According to Kelley, as of 1997, systemic discrimination has cost the black community has 89 million dollars. I can only imagine the numbers now!!

Part4/4
- Hip hop/rap. The critique of hip hop/rap was that it incited violence. This could be due to the lyrics being taken literally. However, hip hop was never to be taken literally. Artist would take pimp narrative (that was becoming big during the rise of rap music) and violence from movies and infuse it in their lyrics.

Part3/3
- the author touches on AA women being left out of the narrative, with the exception of how AA women should wear their hair. This makes me think of, I Am Not My Hair by India Arie. What is the fascination with the black womens hair.

Part 2/3
- the author discusses the dozens (I call this jonesing) where AA youths would spit your mama jokes. The dozens were seen (by Caucasian ethnographers) as a way that AA dealt with the oppression and poverty that they faced daily. A means of stress relief. An urban ritual. The author and I are of the same opinion that jonesing was just a way to make your friends laugh.

Part 1/3
Essay 1 -- Looking for the Real Niggas

Author is critiquing ethnographers approach to the nuances of what makes one an authentic negro
- the word 'soul' was used. Ethnographers had a hard time coming up with a definition for soul when it came to the black collective. It was chalked up to being something that is innate to the black man. *Notice the lack of mention of black women.

** I should have wrote my thoughts down while they were fresh in my mind. Oh well, nothing I can do now but write what still sticks out in my mind.*

Last chapter takes a strange turn, second to last chapter wasn't that interesting to me, but the early sections gave perspectives worth thinking about.

though the research is nearly 15 years old, this book is speaking to me on many levels-- and the writing: masterful!