Thank you. One of my good friends is from Vancouver. How do the 2.1 black kids get lumped in with the white students, though? And we have a show here called “Fresh Off the Boat.”
It’s just what you get when your school is divided based more on where you come from than what you do. In this milieu, most people are Chinese; moreover most of them weren’t born here. Those that aren’t Chinese and were born here (“here” as in “not Asia”) get lumped together (as whites, because most of them are white and teenagers will be teenagers).
That’s what majority-minority is in this part of the world…
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I don’t know. They just ended up that way. Teenagers…
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Yeah, but like some other words, it’s not a term that just anyone and everyone should start slanging around.
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Yeah, well the same goes for Honger or Jock for that matter. The question was asked what a majority-minority was in a school context and I described straight up what it means in my experience.
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Cool beans. I wasn’t necessarily chiding you for your usage of it, just providing more info. 
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I don’t think they had cell phones in schools much in 1980, when the show is set.
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Ah ha, nit successfully picked!!
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we each make sweeping dismissals of the other our own way, eh?
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Thank you for that explanation. Context is relevant.
Regarding would-be offensive words and descriptions: l find the insider-outsider idea more revealing that descriptions of race. Maybe l’m not saying this correctly, but here are a couple examples, the first:
I can talk about my family, but YOU can’t.
I have a very good friend from Najaf, Iraq, who refers to another one of our friends from the Middle East–he’s from lran–as “towel head.” He wears a towel on his head because he is a cleric. I never use the term, although l did once to mock my friend.
One time in the newsroom, someone from another department came to guest-edit and she constantly complained about everything. She would not shut up. I checked her, like, “Yo, you just got up here. You don’t even know anything about the system.” When she had been there long enough, she understood.
Another time, a news editor took offense to something l wrote about bagpipes being used as instruments of war. It was during President Ford’s funeral. She said her grandfather, an lrish man, was fresh off the boat. It is not a term l have ever used. Was actually appalled when she said it.
Just wanted to share. Hope you can make some sense of what l have written here; it has been a long day and l am not so lucid.
Oh, yeah, one more thing: l have straight hair. There are people in the African-American community who are offended by my writing a book with the word “nappy” in it.
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Wow. Just… Wow.
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NHNS Press Release.pdf (228.6 KB)
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Read the Preview Edition of “Nappy-Headed Negro Syndrome” right here:
NappyHeadedNegroSyndrome_InteriorFINAL.pdf (147.2 KB)
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Thank you!
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I think these are as much poetry as short story.
Agreed, and good poetry at that.
Also brought to mind another book i loved, Toi Derricotte’s The Black Notebooks.
My only complaint is that it’s so short. More plz.
Thank you for the preview copy, Oneita!
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Thank you! This forum is closing soon. If you have time before then, will you let me know, please, which pieces resonated with you?
The responses l receive break down like this:
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People who are fearless, who have open minds, and who appreciate truth love the book.
People who appreciate good humor and good writing appreciate the book. That is why Dave Eggers’ name means so much to me. He endorsed BOTH my books. I wrote another one about bad customer service: “Letters from Mrs. Grundy.” Honest people tell me they see themselves in both books. Brutally honest white people, especially my liberal white friends, whom l think are the scariest people on the planet, tell me the book has been an epiphany. -
People who are easily offended by so-called “pejorative” or “inflammatory” words dismiss the book, especially because of its size. They would rather have a problem with a title or a word than to consider the ideas in the little black book–l have been asked: “Why is it so tiny?” I have attention-span issues, OK? My question is: “You’re offended. Now what–what happens after you get over yourself?” Words don’t have power; we give them power. People have suggested l change the title because it evokes painful memories from their past. Not my issue. Be honest with yourself about this truth, about why these words offend you and why you are dedicated to holding on to the pain.
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Melanin-rich people love it and have a lifetime’s worth of stories of their own to share.
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People who appreciate satire love the book. I think l am a Little Black Buchwald, studied the newspaper columnist, fiercely, and Juvenal and Evelyn Waugh and Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar, among others. It is interesting how this writing l do, holding up humanity for consideration, is received.
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The book makes many of my white friends uncomfortable–when they admit it. I am not easily offended, but l become angry by my white friends who try to explain why something happened to me. I do not need anyone explaining my existence to me, and l am tired of people interrupting my existence to inform me that l am black. For example, in “Guest Who?” a woman gets on me for being late. Some of my white friends–and white friends ONLY–have said, “Well, maybe she thought–” STOP. RIGHT. THERE. This is the antithesis of thought: coming to a conclusion when you don’t have the facts.
Here is an example of what l call the subtle “privilege of obliviousness,” otherwise known as “white privilege”:
In “Audio Visual,” l go to see an Indian (Bollywood) movie titled “Queen.” My upper-class, middle-age, dismissive white lawyer friend from New England thought the ticket agent’s reaction was odd–“That’s a Indian movie!”–because, he said, ‘The Queen’ with Helen Mirren is not an Indian movie." He is correct. It is not. “Queen” with Kangana Ranaut is.
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You’re welcome!
I have to get that book! Thank you for mentioning it. What else are you reading?
