IF YOU WANT TO HIDE SOMETHING FROM A BLACK MAN....

               

Ever heard of this expression "If you want to hide something from a black man, put it in a book" (or write it down)?

Well, yesterday I had such a busy day, so to unwind in the evening I popped in to see my nephew and niece. I sat there watching them do their home work and couldn't help notice their English textbooks. The topics jumped out at me 'Verbal Reasoning', 'Punctuation', 'Comprehension' and as I flipped through the pages it's all came flooding back and I commented that I wish I could do it all again. You know, like start off afresh, learning my A,B,C from the basics. I 'fessed up that I often mix up the use of punctuation marks and how at times when writing I muddle the whole speaking in First person, Second person and Third person thingy.  As for the 'Past Tense, Present tense' stuff let's not go there.


I've also been known to add a comma randomly when typing just for the sake of punctuation when I feel I've written too much and sentence looks too long.
We sat at the table discussing the difference between a comma and semi-colon, we spoke about the misuse and over use of exclamation marks!!!!!! (Sorry just had to do that)
It was a real English 101 class for both us the adults and kids.  The one I'm yet to understand is thuse of the speech mark with a single dash like this: ' or the other speech mark with 2 dashes like this: " and how and when each should be used.

As is the usual trend in our family, conversation digressed and started talking about a video that went viral this week in the aftermath of Donald Trump's victory in the US Presidential election.  I guess most of you have seen it, but for those of you who haven't. It's a video allegedly recorded by an African-American (why can't we just say 'Black-American'?) mother of a 8 year old boy. Apparently in her son's class at school they had a mock election for the kids, where they got to act out casting votes for candidates of their choice. Well, what can be deduced from this video is that the innocent child told his mum he voted for Donald Trump.

For reasons best known to mum she records how she had packed a suitcase for him placed by the front door, telling him he has to leave home for casting his vote for Trump. The child is crying hysterically and you can tell he is petrified in this video, it's dark outside and mum has packed his suitcase, she is shouting and telling him he has to leave the house. She says 'We don't do Trump in this house" and she forces him outside with him dragging the suitcase.
The child pleads, begs and says he is sorry but all fall on deaf ears, mum is having none of it. The mum quotes the child as having said he voted for Trump because he saw him on TV.
Even this little boy's baby brother is crying as he watches the whole drama unfold and mum tells him that he can join his brother outside if he wants to be a Trump lover as well. (All this time mum is recording this video with camera in one hand while running commentary)
See video here

While personally I do not think this mum would not have made this child stay out all night, for her own warped reasons she was threatening, intimidating him and thought she was teaching her son a lesson. As usual this video made the rounds on all the blogs with all sorts of opinions for and against the mum.
If that mother felt so strong about the whole Trump/Clinton campaign she could have taken steps to speak to her son about things going on, tactfully broach topics of racism, sexism, intolerance introducing him to age-appropriate books, taking him to the library, preparing him for the world and enabling him to make an informed choice in future.

But that's just us all over, isn't it? Not sure if it's an age thing, but I've noticed nowadays people just don't like to read, it's all about short quick fix social media, Twitter-140 character messages , snapchat-Image messaging, Instagram, Facebook, Meme's on Whatsapp. Attention span is at an all time low.
People prefer short video clips, over a long detailed written log of events.

When I first started blogging I was told that my posts were too long but as I had so much in my head to write I just could not summarise or keep them short. In the end I decided I am writing for myself and if anyone found them too long then so be it.
I spoke with my brother who also writes and we discussed how he too finds the usual Naija default response to his lengthy articles is "Ah it's too long....you have time oh' (and there you go, that old number 'you have time' a favourite phrase our people use to knock anything they can't comprehend or have no interest in.)

Another common habit of 'our people' is to use the phrase  "they said...." In Yoruba this translates to "won so pe" as a prefix to express an opinion on something they are very ill informed about or have very little knowledge about.
It is phrase I often challenge with a "Who said it, to whom and on what occasion?" (Anyone remember context questions back in school?)
In a workplace environment a number of rules are passed down through the ages without being challenged and passed on as "we are not allowed to...." question is why is it not allowed, who said so, where is it written!
Likewise children come back from school and say things like "They said, if I shout back at Joe Bloggs who called me names in class today my name will be written in The black book" question is who is the 'they' who said this, which black book? Where is the black book, where in all the school correspondence sent out is there any mention of this black book, what happens when name goes in black book? Does black book existent, or is if it merely a myth used to hold your child down?

In this day and age you find all kinds of junk being peddled/ forwarded on social media as 'gospel' making the rounds, meanwhile with just a little bit of research or reading would find out the true situation.

On that note 'they said' it is not good to write a blog post on a Sunday.
Have a great week ahead.



What you don't know will always hurt you ~ Peter's Observation