One of my signs of the apocalypse.

[raybear]

Last night after discussions of the possiblity of being a house boy and on my way to pick up Damon so we could hang out before he leaves town for two weeks, I passed a greasy diner quasi-Sonic's/Checkers type restaurant that had a sign out front with the following announcement:

TRY OUR NEW GHETTO FRIES

I nearly had an aneurysm and crashed the car. The use of that word will be the death of me, I swear. What the fck does that sign even mean? And why, oh why, do people use that word in such flippant privileged stupid white ways?

P.S. I was not even driving through a "ghetto".

Comments

Not angry, just discussion points...

[writeli.livejournal.com]

Wait a second though...Why can't (or shouldn't) a "white boy from a suburb in the South" be able to recognize what's wrong with the word ghetto in that use? And if he recognizes it, why should he do anything but speak out against it? If the only people who have the right to speak out against ignorance are those on the receiving end of it, then where is the place for advocacy in our culture - the idea of speaking for those who may not be present, or empowered, to speak for themselves? Or worse, if people have no right to speak out against wrongs that aren't against them, then do we sit around and watch everything go to hell in a handbasket?

In fact, you made a comment that I could have taken offensively: when i see ghetto fries or black people selling toothpaste i just grin. i think, they must be good 1. the fact that you're doing exactly what makes the word offensive - thinking ghetto=black. 2. reacting to the commodification of negative stereotypes of black people (black people were used for the selling of toothpaste because the idea was that the white teeth looked so starkly white next to black skin.) And what raybear is talking about seeing isn't the evidence of black culture you reference apropos Chicago, but the exploitation and commodification of and utter lack of respect for black culture. When I see those things that make you grin, they make me cringe and angry. Oh, and I'm black, so I have the right.

i'm not re-writing this, though i'm worried the tone make come out stronger than i mean too. sorry if it does, i just get really passionate about this. But really, just discussion points. :-)

Re: Not angry, just discussion points...

[dommeyourass.livejournal.com]

good points.

[lenny-wick.livejournal.com]

now where i live the brown people are in such a terrible minority, that when i see ghetto fries or black people selling toothpaste i just grin. i think, they must be good.

Maybe the idea is, where she lives, people of color are so rare, even seeing them in advertising is thrilling. I can understand the gist of that, even if it does ignore a long and ignoble history of using goony images of black people to sell product (rice to toothpaste). Not many people know this history, but it's there, and is still filtering out in its most egregious Stepin Fetchit, Amos N Andy forms.

The "ghetto fries" thing just sounds up to no good, especially as it sounds like it's a white suburb in the south. That especially sounds like it's up to no good. The action of poaching on inner city black life (which I'm guessing is the meaning, and not a reference to Nazi pogroms) is so fraught and complicated, there's no sense in getting into it here, but white America can be awfully fucked up.

As a white guy who has spent more time in the barrio than in the ghetto, I have no idea what ghetto fries are.

Why has Elvis popped into my head? "In the Ghetto," that treacly, soft-hearted condescention of a song.

[clockwatcher.livejournal.com]

not that this adds to the discussion at all, but all day, i've been thinking of the dolly parton version of the elvis song thanks to this discussion.

[bigfatmama.livejournal.com]

Maybe the idea is, where she lives, people of color are so rare, even seeing them in advertising is thrilling.

so sad and true. i'm like, see! folks are trying to sell stuff to black people! so they are here! a community of toothpaste buying black people! and ghetto fries falls outside of this i'm afraid. and the pms was/is riding me hard today. and i've read raybear on this one before and where i totally am absolutely in favor of the white folks taking on the education about racism etc. i was not thinking of it like that.

AND dommeyrass has a great point because i do the same thing. as raybear and the thanks my man thing. but a close relationship with and respect for african american people and culture does not an african american make. and i'm over my damn head trying to stay legit in my own racial regions.

so i take the hand slap and give ray respect and take my lesson learned here today too. and you know ray, you have some cool friends.