Real Housewives of DC: The Mis-Use of the Word “Racist”

by today’s Urban Chameleon contributor HaJ

Last Thursday’s Real Housewives of DC Reunion show sparked an interesting conversation with my family about race and culture. Cast member Stacie Scott Turner called co-star Mary Schmidt Amons out for personifying a more ethnic demeanor when talking to her; imitating the stereotypical “s” shape motion of the finger and head roll that is usually associated with Black women. Mary explained it as a “quirk” that has nothing to do with race. I beg to differ.

My family and I talked about how common it is to take on the persona of someone you interact with. When I get in front of Caribbean folks, three might turn into tree. A foreigner who speaks very little English may cause me to speak slower. If I’m in a corporate setting my “ing’s” are enunciated. When I’m with my Puerto Rican girls from around-the-way I may speak it so that juno.

My point is, dialects, hand motions and energy levels can constantly change depending on whom one interacts with. However, what I find problematic is when people take on an urban tone with me when I’m not personifying one.

In corporate environments, where I have been the minority, I've found this to be most common. A white colleague once sent me a work e-mail that started with, “What up yo.” I was the only person in the office that he seemed to take up this informal language with. I never initiated or reciprocated it. So where is this coming from?

He, like many others whom I’ve encountered, is personifying the only image of Black culture featured in media, Hip Hop. Therefore, it’s all they know, and as a result urban professionals everywhere fall victim to stereotypes. I remember a friend of mine from Inglewood annoyed with her boss for telling clients that she was from Compton; as if to brag that she was a child of a ghetto he had saved. Even Michelle Obama has been called a "Baby Mama." What in the hell! Not even the first damn lady of the United States can escape the stereotypes.

However, can we qualify this behavior as racist when people simply don't know any better? The fact is there are more images of Black rappers in media than urban professionals, more Asians portrayed as tech geeks than slouches, and Muslims as angry cynical bombers than people with hopes and dreams like everyone else.

The question is how does one become educated when more often than not… they don’t even know they’re NOT educated?

Have your Urban Chameleon story featured by e-mailing tickles.tv@gmail.com

click here for: How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Baby Mama Drama vs. The Business of Educating Our Children

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

My cousin, who lives in Philadelphia, called my husband and I to get our take on whether or not he should attempt to get his three-year old daughter into a better school.

Now the obvious answer to this question would be: Of course! Especially since Philly’s public school graduation rate is so low.

My cousin recently moved from the ‘hood to the suburbs, and now has the opportunity to send his daughter to a great school; FOR FREE! But apparently, it’s not that simple.

You see, by the time he figured out that the woman he had laid down with during a night of hot and heated passion was drama, a baby was on the way. Thus, another classic case of “Baby mama drama” was also born.

Now baby mama, who has custody of their daughter, tries to make my cousin’s life as difficult as possible. Calls the crib all times of the night, comes by unannounced, threatens his current girlfriend, creates difficult arrangements for him to see his daughter, etc., etc., etc. To make matters worse, baby mama cannot read and write. I don’t know what’s worse – dealing with an educated fool or an ignorant one. When I asked why not get custody of his daughter he informed me that the court won’t separate a child from their mother unless you can prove that there is something “wrong” in the household like drug or physical abuse. What about ignorance abuse?

My cousin is concerned that his daughter will end up like her mother if he doesn’t at least put her in the better school. The new school is two hours a way from baby’s mama who wants the daughter home with her every night. Oh, and did I mention that she doesn’t drive? So my cousin would have to drive two hours in the morning to pick his daughter up and two hours in the afternoon to bring her back, which his work schedule doesn’t allow.

Baby mama has another daughter, by a different father, who is seven and doesn’t know her multiplication table. My cousin described the time he tried to teach her and the mother shouted for them to stop. Lawd chil’ this was like a scene right out of Precious. The idea of a parent not wanting the best for their child is bewildering to me. It’s a deadly mix of low self-esteem and ego, which can keep us from recognizing the bigger picture.

Regardless of the school, your child’s education starts at home. So what do you do?

Have your Urban Chameleon story featured by e-mailing tickles.tv@gmail.com

Click here for: How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

The Inner Racist vs. The Business of Educating Our Children

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

I am a Jewish woman who works at a high successful charter school in Newark, NJ teaching predominately Black children.

I came to this educational organization not to be the "Great white hope" but because I truly know that if one of us is not free than we are all enslaved.

In my years working at this school, I have been brought to me knees in awe of the children and their capacity to grow and change in the face of tremendous adversity. Many of our children have incarcerated relatives, are exposed to drug activity and gang violence on a daily basis as well as countless other mountains of opposition. Still they come to school everyday because they believe in education and the power it has to change lives. Just about a week ago we got word that we were awarded the prestigious Blue Ribbon in education. President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan give this award to high achieving schools that are sending children to college. Only 300 schools were given this prestigious award and of those schools, 80 were given the dubious honor of being named high achieving (the best of the best) and we were in that select field.

It is a tremendous honor. Education is not a sexy field; they don’t make TV shows about the truth of education. Instead they make poorly acted movies where a privileged white woman goes into predominantly Black neighborhood wearing pearls wanting to make a difference and over night change comes about. This is not the temperature of education in our county. Getting this award really meant something to my school and it really meant something to me Our community is here at 6:45 in the morning and stay through 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 at night all to be the best at serving our children. It was nice to get recognition for our hard work and for our children to be regarded as beacons of excellence.

I excitedly shared the news with my family who were very proud of the accomplishment and the recognition. My sister came over one night for dinner and I told her the good news. She responded, “Well, because it’s a Black school.” She immediately went red in the face, half-heartedly tried to back pedal and explain at the same time really feeling that way.

Her ignorance was jarring since for the past few years I have been working in a cocoon surrounded by like minded people as me who believed in creating a school where under privileged children succeed...and yes the reality is that many of these children are Black. However, the honor my school received wasn't given out of affirmative action as her comment suggested. It was in response to a crisis we face in this country around education.

Corey Booker, the mayor of Newark stated, “One cannot have a superior democracy with an inferior education system”. The rights of our children to be educated is a human right that we are denying them if we continue to provide them with sub-par schooling. The state of education in this country is in dire need of social reform…and not just for Black children but also for ALL children. We will never reach our full potential as a people if we continue to ignore our inadequate system of educating our children. If one of us succeeds we all succeed. 52% of our countries' children did not graduate from High School last year. In Newark alone, less than 2 % of all children graduate from high school.

My sister has since apologized stating that it was just her “inner racist” coming out. However, it's this kind of fundamental thinking that also needs to be educated.

Suffice it to say, we still have a ways to go.

Have your Urban Chameleon story featured by e-mailing tickles.tv@gmail.com

Click here for: How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Validated by a Degree

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor Anonymous

A few months back I attended a brunch that a friend of mine was having at her home in Brooklyn. Endless mimosas, salmon cakes, scallops, waffles, sweet potato fries, grits, collard greens and some kind of artichoke pesto situation- damn it was lovely.

People eventually got to talking about what they do for a living versus what they went to school for. It’s very common that people end up doing something completely different from what they studied in school but this one Black woman described how her white male boss when interviewing her for the current real estate position she holds, inquired why she had gone to Harvard Business school since none of the things she described that interest her required such a prestigious degree. She looked him straight in the eye and replied, “So that you could see me as an equal.”

That sat with me as I find that this is the case for a lot of people of color who attend prestigious schools, specifically those whose families are from countries outside the US.

Just yesterday I was catching up with an older white male colleague/ friend of mine who was telling me about his son, a sophomore in college barely passing with D’s and I thought to my self, “WHAT!” There is no way I could have ever gotten away with that let alone feel comfortable enough to be telling anyone! My Chinese friend told me that her parents used to put her and her brother's report cards on the fridge for public exposure. But that’s the difference. As far as we know my white colleague's son is still on track of becoming the next President of the United States.

Have your Urban Chameleon story featured by e-mailing tickle.tv@gmail.com

Click here for: How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Scarface the School Play(the kindergarten version?)

How do you know when school systems are in crisis?

When elementary students are performing an adaptation of the movie Scarface. What faculty approved this?

But wait... why is this both hilarious and disturbing... yes we sometimes struggle with chameleonism between our intellectual and ign't sides

click here for: How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Have your Urban Chameleon story featured by e-mailing tickles.tv@gmail.com

9 year old Nigerian British Twins Attend High School

Urban Chameleon Spotlight

Stories like these we don't hear every day. It's a breath of fresh air and an inspiration

9-Year-Old British Twins become Youngest High School Students In History

HipHopWired

By Danielle Canada

Two 9-year-old twins in Britain are preparing to find out what high school they'll attend, making them the country's youngest high school students in history.

Paula and Peter Imafidon, dubbed “The Wonder Twins”, are known for their record breaking wit after becoming the youngest people to ace the University of Cambridge's advanced math test and soaring above their classmates.

The twins, born to Nigerian parents Chris and Ann, are part of an Imafidon legacy of intellect.

Their 20-year-old sister Ann-Marie won a scholarship to attend Johns Hopkins University at the age of 13.

Their 17-year-old sister Christiana is the youngest student in Britain's history to study at an undergraduate level after going to college at age 11 while their 12-year-old sister Samantha passed two high school level mathematics and statistic tests at age 6.

Paula Imafidon wants to grow up to be a math teacher and Peter wants to be a prime minister.

Check out a video of the Wonder Twins on Britain's GMTV below

click here for: How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Raising an Urban Chameleon

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor
Jon Carroll

I embrace the notion of being an Urban Chameleon because it puts a contemporary twist on the Duboisian ideal of Double Consciousness, an ideal I continue to explore in graduate study. As I follow the insightful posts on HOTUC, I try to relate the issues raised to my life, a great deal of which is dedicated to ensuring the safe passage of my son through the educational pipeline. So it got me to thinking, how does an old head chameleon teach his young to use the powers encoded in his DNA? These are the lessons I've come up with so far:


1. TEACH THE YOUNG CHAMELEON ABOUT COLOR

Even at 2, my son already recognizes differences in skin color, so it is important to help the growing chameleon understand what color means in this country. My little man must understand that he is never to allow people to put him in a box because of his primary skin color. He is also never to judge others based on their differences from him. As he gets older, he will come to understand that the idea of race is also not about color, but of power and privilege. His color does however link him to a cultural history and lineage which he must also learn because an understanding of this ancestry will give him a sense of how to use his multiple colors wisely.

2. IT IS OKAY TO BE MULTICOLORED

It is a blessing to have the ability to move in and out of a variety of contexts seamlessly. This skill does not come without practice. The parent chameleon must be able to provide support as the young one struggles with "color expression". The parent must also help the young one understand why they are placed into various settings meant to help enhance their "color quality". As a youngster this meant understanding why I had to take piano lessons when all I wanted to do was play basketball. Why did I have to take Latin in 7th grade when I was already taking Spanish. Why did I have to go to a private school when most of my friends went to public ones? With each new color that the growing chameleon masters, the parent must continue to reinforce that they are not "selling out" who they are at the core, but instead are learning behaviors and skills that will be of benefit throughout their lifetime.

visit Jon Carroll's blog, Class in Session

Have your Urban Chameleon story featured by e-mailing tickles.tv@gmail.com

click here for: How the Urban Chameleon Came to be