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  Posted by M.Dot. at 1:53 AM
  I think that they don't expect us to respond. AND, you know that there are still doctors, lawyers, business owners, teachers, etc. that still live in East Oakland. Some may even still live in the flatlands, and we know there are plenty in the East Oakland Hills.
  Why DO writers think that it is tolerable to write about
  Because they assume that black people won't/don't read. For the the most part their right too. Also, it's easier to keep playing out the same stereotypes than go out and actually see what is going on.
  Excuse me but I'm one of those people who was raised by a third generation relative (i.e. grandmother)and like many of the grandmothers I've encountered in the so-called hood my grandma didn't go for the okey doke.
  As a southern woman she didn't raise 9 children of her own with the motto,"anything goes".
  Excuse me but I'm one of those people who was raised by a third generation relative
  "i wasn't born, i shot my way out my mom dukes"
  i agree with MZ. they assume we are not equipped to respond to these types of discourses, and those of us who are capable of decoding & understand what they REALLY tryna say about US...they feel as though we agree.
  black middle-class flight is almost, if not more, damaging than white flight from our neighborhoods. we have, in some instances, given up on ourselves.
  unfortunately i have seen both sides of the Oakland coin. The middle class Jack and Jill, Debutante Ball, Private School in the Hills and the choatic, homeless drug dealing bandits.
  The later or often reported on because the media is always looking for a reason to continue to criminalize black families...
  I was a sheltered kid growing up in a neighborhood where every one had a job and a pretty nice house. I was out done when I found out what the REAL Ghetto was about it so although some of the journalists may look like they are stereo typing, like myself they too could be sheltered, middle class and out done at the other side of the tracks.
  I love u too, daggumit.
  I was out done when I found out what the REAL Ghetto was about it so although some of the journalists may look like they are stereo typing, like myself they too could be sheltered, middle class and out done at the other side of the tracks.
  But AJ. Meredith knows better.
  She wrote about King estates before.
  SHE BEEN writing about Oakland for at least 7/8 years.
  Technology has changed the structure of the traditional American family.
  Everybody wanna watch their favorite show, but not with their family. We have iPods, facebook, and so many fun alternatives to having dinner table discussions. Some black folks don't even sit with their relatives at church!
  But I feel that some traditional minded people at HBCUs create a sub culture of bourgeois, black elitists who feed into bogus stereotypes more than whites do.
  What constitutes a bourgeois, black elitist?
  What bogus stereotypes?
  as someone who was a sociology major at a predominately white institution I am just going to go on ahead and break everyone's heart by saying that the majority of people don't know that they are speaking in terms of pathology. i swear it's true. Now, not to say that my college is indicative of every other college, but I have witnessed too many readings where professors ask "How did you like the reading?", and the white kids (yes, I will break it down that way) "*loved* it, and they never knew people lived that way", and I hated it, and ranted down the whole class about the author's need to categorize "decent" black folks and "street" black folks, and how he was "othering" these ppl that he never understood, etc and so on and so forth. The professor agreed with me and all of the other kids were ashamed that they didn't notice. We all generalize, i just think that people from urban areas are familiar with *many* different lifestyles, whereas ppl from 'sheltered' backgrounds know and understand only theirs.
  I could go on for days, I have too many real life stories that would make you cry (a reason why I have ignored this type of analytical cultural critique for a while...but your blog brings it back, thanx). One of my favorite anecdotes is where a girl thought it was ok to say aloud to a class (and a Black professor) that she "always thought that hip hop was 'my guns, my hoes, my 40s'". She had no clue that the row of Black students physically cringed at such...obliviousness to her own ignorance and bias.
  I always thought some folks had a particular gift for reading behind the line, for their own survival...and others are not even aware of anything being between the lines because they were NEVER held accountable for their thoughts and actions.