Pack Up All Your Cares and Woe, Yo, Yo, Yo

Several years ago, I was on the Subway, and observed an [East] Indian lady talking to a Canadian lady. The Indian lady was punctuating her conversation with Eh wherever she could, obviously to fit in with her, I'm guessing, less articulate Canadian colleague. After a while, she stopped doing it, because she couldn't keep up the charade.

I saw a white teenager on the bus yesterday, sprawled on a seat, feet on his skateboard, talking on his cellphone, punctuating his conversation with Yo, without any of the Indian lady's hesitation or discomfort. I thought that maybe Yo had replaced like in his limited vocabulary, but he used both words.

There is a genuine Black culture in North America, but I've rarely been exposed to it, instead to the manufactured hip hop subculture. This would seem to be what this guy was imitating or assimilating. Why?

Many people of his generation are emulating the cool, successful, sexy images of black rappers, rapperesses, musicians, athletes, and other non-typical, one-in-a-million black people - a similar percentage to those people of other races, as far as I know - without questioning the images presented to them by the media. They do both themselves and the black community a disservice by this servile imitation.

Recently, I watched a black author being interviewed on TV. He had written a book, the title of which escapes me, bemoaning the fact that the high salaries and public success of black athletes was detrimental to the black struggle for equality. He suggested that black people look at the examples of these athletes, and conclude that black equality has arrived, that the struggle for equality is over, and that there's nothing left to fight for. Obviously, this is not the case - as Chris Rock said, "Shaq is rich, but the man who signs his cheques is wealthy!"

Watching him reminded me of a late 60's University of Toronto Psych. class, where the professor told us about a book, listing American Jewish professionals, and other successful Jewish people. He informed us that the book had been published not by the B'nai Brith as a celebration of Jewish success, but by the Klan as a warning that "the Jews are taking over America!"