Transcription
Now, this conversation might piss a lot of people off, but it's time we get into black and ghetto fatigue. Let's talk about it.
>> Guys, before we get into today's video, please like and subscribe. I don't know how this one's going to be taken, but I feel like this is a conversation that needs to be had because I keep seeing this particular phrase or these particular phrases pop up all over the place, and it's black fatigue and ghetto fatigue. And first we have to talk about what these things mean.
Okay, so the phrase black fatigue has actually changed over time. Interestingly enough, when you look up the term black fatigue, you're going to find that it's derived from an author Mary Francis Winters in her book titled Black Fatigue: How Racism Erods the Mind, Body, and Spirit. And the term was originally used to describe the feeling that black people have in facing systemic racism and systemic oppression. A fatigue that only black people experience because of their black experience in a western colonial system.
But now you've seen black fatigue taking another direction online. And it's people essentially saying they're tired of black culture. They're tired of ghetto behavior. They're tired of black behavior essentially. Now, of course, I'm going to put a disclaimer on this video. Not all black people behave in a way that is later used to justify feeling black fatigue. Not all black people are engaging in the black culture that we are going to talk about in today's video. But there is a very present issue I think that our society is facing right now and it's leading to things like black or say ghetto fatigue.
So we're going to break down this issue and I've seen a number of people do this on YouTube already. Shout out to Amir Odum who did a huge video on black fatigue and teen takeovers. I recommend you go and watch that. I'm going to show you some examples of what people are talking about when they say they're experiencing black and ghetto fatigue.
This video says, quote, "The definition of you can't take black people anywhere." >> 650,000 likes on that with people just getting down in a restaurant filled with tons of people on a packed night where people are trying to work. Here's another one in Houston. in the gas station is the after hours spot, meaning this is happening late at night at a Houston gas station today. >> So, you hear loud music playing. You hear somebody saying, "We're out here in the hood. Period." Here's another one from ABC News7. Hundreds of teens take over Chicago neighborhood. 2.
Now, I'm going to read some of the comments here. Some say, "I'm tired of this." Some say, "Well, well, well." And essentially, they're going, "Well, well, well. I know exactly who the people are who are going to be responsible for this sort of behavior." And it's actually a pop culture reference, which I won't get into right now. Well, where well, >> there's a lot of levels to this, and I don't even know that I can unpack all of this in an entire video. It's going to take maybe multiple parts to get down to the bottom of all this, but we're going to start today. Another person writes, "Fatigue is real with a broken heart."
We're going to get into another video. This one shows a bunch of people populating in a burger spot. So over and over again, it seems to be the same story. A ton of people getting together. A ton of it seems really young black people, loud music, screaming, congregating in areas where you probably aren't supposed to be congregating, where people are trying to do their jobs, where others are trying to get things done and lead their normal lives. And a lot of people are attributing this to black people in black culture because that's who they're seeing in these spaces. And it's then leading to the phrase black fatigue being shared all over the internet.
And this expands far beyond the teen takeovers and the mobs and the street hangouts and parties. People are now looking at other parts of black culture or what they believe to be black culture and saying they're fatigued with that as well. One of the things they're saying is part of black culture that they're fatigued with is the dependence on government and popping out a bunch of kids. And if you haven't seen this, I'll show some examples. This Tik Tok says, "I received a letter saying I make too much to get food stamps. I have 12 kids. How y'all? So, I just got a damn notification from Department of Children and Family cuz y'all know they do the um my food stase. They sent me a damn letter. First of all, I thought it was a letter because I did let them know that I did not want to do um I want to do paper notifications instead of email notifications because that's how I forgot to reertify. They going to send me a letter saying that I make too much. My household income is too much. So they don't won't even qualify me anymore for EBT. >> How in the [ __ ] And I got 12 kids. >> How did 12 kids get into the picture? One of the top comments on this video. Raise your hand if you're tired of this.
Let's move on to the next video. This one says, "They done took all the sweets from food stamps. Going to have to trade a pack of chicken for Little Debbie snacks." >> They have taken all the sweets off the snack. Y'all, y'all, we are about to be passing out packs of chicken in exchange for Little Debbie snack cakes. I promise y'all it'll be worth it. I'm going to get y'all the organic grass-fed chicken. >> And guess what, guys? I'm going to keep going. This next one, white people making babies versus black people making babies. >> Yo, one thing I never understood is when white people be like, "Yeah, yeah, we we're trying for a baby. We're we're trying for a baby." You know, we we we've been trying for years. me just trying and and that's just one thing I never understood like cuz in our community it's just like it's like yo this this [ __ ] just keep getting pregnant.
A lot of these videos are shocking. I can't say that they're necessarily surprising because I think a lot of us if we're being honest can look at certain parts of the black community and recognize that these issues are running rampant throughout these parts of the community. And it's become one of those things where you can't necessarily talk about it because you'll be labeled as a bigot or a racist for saying these are things that have been attributed to black culture and now the black people are taking on and essentially saying this is our culture and this is how we are. And of course there are people who act in these ways that are not black. But when you look at this behavior, there does seem to be a particular pattern of black people and young black people at that engaging in this way. And we're going to talk about why that takes place. Not just the reaction to it and the idea of being fatigued with black culture. We're also going to talk about the fact that this was not black culture in the past. Black culture is something that has shifted and taken on many different forms. And it's very interesting that some black people want to hold on to these sorts of acts, behaviors, and tendencies and call them black culture.
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But first, let's keep laying out what people are seeing. So, we got through kids and the dependency on government and welfare systems that we have set in place in our country. Let's talk about how these children are acting. Here's a video on Tik Tok that says, "We got to save our children." >> We got to save our children. a sit around here. >> We going ass. >> What y'all going to do? >> They ass got >> So, for those of you who do not understand what these kids are saying, they're saying things like, "We're going to pop their ass. We're going to shoot people." Essentially, they're saying, "We have ops out here." which if you don't know what that means, they're saying they have enemies in their community and that's why they are armed with toy guns to shoot their toy enemies, I guess, and the other little kids who are running around in these neighborhoods who are their ops. Let's keep watching. >> We got real blow. >> I'mma pray for you. You hear me, my boy? crazy.
And it's so crazy to watch these videos because you know that these kids are going to grow up and keep emulating this behavior but in far more serious ways than maybe what you see displayed in these videos. You have ballet teachers, kindergarten teachers saying that kids are showing up to class wanting to listen to rap music, wanting to dance to Sexy Red and Me the Stallion. And I mean like five-year-old ballet classes. That's what people are dealing with in some of these communities. And I've already shown you videos of the teen takeovers that are happening in places like Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, where black teens are getting together to the tune of hundreds, if not thousands of them, and deciding particular places, establishments that they're going to show up and essentially create mobs. And in these mobs, there's loud music, there's screaming, there's often violence, sometimes shootings. It's getting out of hand. And when you watch videos like the little kids I just showed you, it's very easy to figure out how they may end up at some of these teen takeovers and in other horrible positions within these communities. It affects their personal lives and their growing up, their coming of age stories, but it also affects all the people who are living in these communities with these teens and with these young people. And it's no wonder a lot of them are screaming out black fatigue.
Now, when it comes to the effect that you're having on other people's lives within the society that we're all trying to coexist in with one another, I think a great example of this is trying to go shopping and having all the different products that you are trying to purchase as somebody who is trying to live their life locked up behind glass. This is something that I experience all the time living in LA. It is very interesting how you can go into certain communities where everything is open and you're able to shop freely and others where things are locked up. And even when we get down to the items that are locked up, you can see there's particular issues with particular communities. I'll explain. >> This is $3.80. This is $11. >> This is $3. This is $11. >> Do you see the logic at Walmart? Okay. Just want to make sure everybody sees the logic.
Now, this is a white woman trying to shop at Walmart. She notices that a $3 skincare product is locked up and needs security in order for you to purchase it. But an 11 or $12 sunscreen is not locked up. I have to ask who's buying sunscreen. What's the racial demographic of a person buying sunscreen? Can we have the conversation? Okay, here's another video where somebody says you go to Target in Forom for the first time and everything is locked up. Ah, the ghetto. The ghetto. Interestingly enough, the audio says, "Ooh, the ghetto." The ghetto. Another one. Everything is locked up in PG Mall. My god. >> Yo, I am literally at a Target in another neighborhood and I kid you not, like everything is locked up. Everything is locked up. Everything is locked up. >> Why is it that you're in a Target in another neighborhood? And what is the racial makeup of that neighborhood? And could that explain why things are locked up? And we've seen other videos where people go into stores and they're looking at things like foundation and makeup products and finding that those of darker skin tones are locked behind glass while lighter foundations are free for people to purchase at any moment they want to. They don't need to call an employee in order to grab a certain product. Why? Because products with darker complexions or that service a darker complexion are being stolen more than lighter ones. And I have to say, as a mixed person myself, it is so embarrassing to have to go out into your community and try to shop, try to be a normal person living in society, and you have to eventually, I guess, have a chaperone to just do the shopping that you need to do in a regular store. And when we talk about issues like racial profiling or being judged or having to have a chaperone when you're trying to shop at a store, can we at all be surprised? And this is the reality. You have people who are choosing not to abide by the law impacting those that do. So now my experience and the experience of so many other people changes because of people who don't want to follow the rules and people who don't want to engage in society in the way that everybody else has agreed to. And what this creates is communities that I will call high-risk, low trust, where it feels risky just to walk out of your front door and try to be around normal people or try to go to a restaurant or you feel like you're going to be judged for looking the way you look because how other people who look like you behave. Low trust means there's not as much freedom. Nobody's trusting you to actually engage in the way that they would engage. And it creates so many barriers to just experiencing life in the way that others get to experience it.
Here's a great video example. Look >> how freaking cute this is. I was on my walk and I saw this little sign with all these little flowers. So, I went home and grabbed some money and now I'm going to put some money in and take a little flower thing. How cute is this? Got myself some flowers. These are so freaking cute. >> That is freaking cute. But let me ask you a question, right? Let me ask y'all a question. Y'all know what the question is going to be. But here we go. I'm going ask the question. How long does a place like that or a stand like that last in Atlanta? Now, y'all won't ask the question, so I asked the [ __ ] question. How long would a stand like that last in Memphis? How long would a stand like that last in Detroit? How long would a stand like that last in Chicago on the south side? How long? These are questions that we have to start having answers to. And the interesting thing is nobody could speak and answer this guy's question, but we all would know what the answer is. These stands and things could not exist in these areas because they wouldn't last. Nobody would be trusted to go home, put a little bit of money in a jar and then take these flowers at their own discretion. And I see these things in being in different neighborhoods. You go to predominantly white places or white shopping centers and sometimes they'll have stands with fruit or snacks or baked goods and it essentially says I trust you. Put in $5 and take whatever you want. And you see a jar full of money and people who are going and buying these goods without any attendant, any cashier, anybody to keep things secure. Could you see the same in some of the areas that he mentioned in this video? No.
And just one more example to drive this home. I could go on and on with all the different ways in which this impacts us and we could break down all the minutia of this, but I'll stick to things that I've just personally experienced and conversations that I've actually been having recently with friends and people in my community. I know a lot of people who are servers here in LA. And whether we want to have this conversation or not, nearly every single server that I've spoken to in this city says that they are not interested in serving predominantly black tables and customers. Now, this comes off as a racist, bigoted conversation. But is it in fact that when we look into how people of these cultural backgrounds engage when they go out to restaurants? Show you a video. >> Our own servers are afraid of us, y'all. They don't even want to come to the table no more. Way she didn't come back in to check on us, but she was ever so present for that white family was looking at us like, "Y'all not going to drive me cat raggedy for no tip." Talking about why are my wings fried hard. Asked for plastic silverware. My food ain't cooked all the way even though I ate it. I want a whole another one, but I also want a refund because it's not what I wanted in the first place.
Now, for those of you who didn't catch what she said, she said black people are coming into restaurants. They're demanding for their food to be cooked in a very particular way. They want things like plastic forks and knives because they don't trust the restaurant cutlery that is given to them when they're served. When they get food, many of these people are acting like they got the wrong food. They don't like the food in order to get services comped and the food comped and to have their bill lowered. And then when it gets to a tip, which typically in America people are expecting 20% tip, these people are not tipping or when they tip, they tip very, very low. Even the black servers that I know are looking around and going, I do not want to serve black tables. Why? Like, don't even get me started on what's going on in the Red Lobsters and the Applebees. I saw a video the other day of three young black girls who were just devastating their local Wendy's over a biggie bag, throwing drinks at the servers, throwing food at the servers, trying to bust down the window. It's getting ridiculous. And it is just devastating to me that this is being attributed to black people in totality when it is not black people in totality. And we're going to get to at the end of this video, black people who are over black people themselves and they're feeling black fatigue and they're over this like ghetto behavior.
Now that we've sort of laid out the issue and people's responses to it, I think a common bit of push back is why are you talking about this through the lens of race? Why is it black culture? Why are we calling it black fatigue? There are people other than black people who act in this way. And that is fair. Although I think we've already laid out that there's a particular pattern and a particular intensity at which this appears in the black community. And that's why people are framing this as black culture and black fatigue. Another issue is a lot of black people are sort of gatekeeping these particular behaviors and these particular aspects of their community and saying that this is blackness. And if you fall outside of these behavioral mindsets, you are labeled as acting white or having internalized racism or white supremacy. Because this is a larger idea, I'm going to break it down with a few very unique examples.
There was a trend that took place online called the quarterzip and matcha trend. Some of you may have picked up on this. It was a trend where black men in particular were saying, "We're going to abandon some of the clothing styles that are attached to blackness and black culture and we're going to start wearing quarterzips and matchas. We're going to start dressing like the finance bros that are walking on Wall Street." Essentially, what they're saying is we're going to start dressing for success. Really nothing more than that. we're going to start dressing in a way that brings about a better look as far as society is concerned. Now, here's a black woman responding to this trend and saying that it is actually internalized whiteness. >> Like, maybe I'm too woke, but I don't find the quarterzip [ __ ] funny because I also didn't find it funny a couple years ago when all those black men put on suits and then stood around in suits. I don't understand what men in general, but especially black men's obsession is with defining themselves by their clothing and not really actively doing any is not deeper than just like, well, we can put on suits. I can also put on a suit. What is the point that you're trying to make here? Like, it's like costume. Like, let's dress up as the socially the social idea of success or productivity or decent productive human being. I don't know. I don't even understand what y'all are trying to communicate to us. Y'all are constantly like essentially dressing up as white men. Like that's kind of the underlying idea. Suits, quarter zips, like associating yourself with this like stereotypically white style. Hello. Who said that suits were for white people? Who said that cordisips were for white people? And that matchas were for white people. And of course, we draw these lines in sensing certain patterns. And you do see predominantly white people or white men in particular dressing in these ways and acting in these ways. But just because a black man chooses to then engage uh with that part culturally or to dress in that way culturally does not mean that he's in fact trying to be white.
And if you don't think this runs deeper than a Tik Tok video, I'm going to bring up some interesting research that was done by none other than Roland Frier and Paul Terelli. Now Roland Frier has spoken about on this channel before. He was a Harvard professor. He had a very tumultuous career because of a lot of the things that he was studying. But he did an empirical analysis on acting white. And he actually found that within lowincome predominantly black communities, what would happen is that as black kids started to achieve academically, started to raise their standards and perform better within education. They were labeled as acting white and they became far less popular within their respective communities and with their friends and peers. Now when they stepped out of these communities into places of different economic statuses and of different racial makeups, this idea of acting white essentially disappeared. People were not making this accusation against other students. They were not treated in a similar fashion for being successful and for achieving academically. And beyond that, we have to acknowledge the fact that this is not always what black culture was. And with that, I'm going to get into this video that sort of spawned this entire idea for me. wonder why so many people recoil away from us. They don't recoil away from us because of the color of our skin. That's foolish. They recoil away from us because our culture sucks. >> And I know that's that's a lot for a lot of people to take in because we're we're supposed to be nice. We live in a very PC culture, but you're not going to get that from me. Our culture, black culture sucks. It just does. Nobody wants to live around it. We have to look at how black culture has so put an impression in people's minds that that's something they want to get away from and not something that they want to be associated with. It's 100% cultural. The fact is black culture today is in such shams that it causes people to recoil away from it. Before the 1960s, the man to aspire to be in the black community was the pastor, the entrepreneur, and the father. Those were the three. >> Wow. >> Um, what we've managed to do since the 60s, going into the 70s, there was something called black exploitation films. Black exploitation films were films that glorified things that used to be taboo in black culture. Namely, pimping, hustling, drug selling, being a degenerate. They glorified all these things in the ' 70s films. And it wasn't something that the whites or the Jews were doing to us. No, you have black actors who were all too willing to play the part. As you get into the 80s into the 90s, you have the introduction of gangster rap and you have the introduction of all these things which are leaning heavy into this degenerate culture. If you look at black and white photos from the 40s of black families and white families, you see no distinguishable difference. They dress the same, they look the same, they walk the same, they take care of their families the same, everything's the same. There's no there's no emphasis on being black and being separate and being different. You don't get that until the 70s with the say it out loud, I'm black and I'm proud. This kind of black culture.
>> He's saying the uncomfortable part out loud that not only do people not want to engage in this behavior, they don't want to be around people who are engaging in this behavior. And instead of having a conversation about that, I think we sort of deflect and stop people from taking accountability. We blame others. We blame whiteness. We blame racism. Sometimes when you look at lower inome communities who are struggling with these issues and maybe white people or higher inome people or differently educated individuals move into these communities, we call it gentrification. When those people can no longer withstand living in those communities and they leave because this behavior is taking place, we call that white flight. And an important part of this discussion is that black culture was not always like this as he stated in that video, but that it also doesn't have to continue to be like this. we can work our way out of this. And where I could go a thousand more directions in this video. And as I said before, I will probably need a part two. I will close out this video with black people who are also experiencing black and ghetto fatigue because I think this can so often be packaged as white people judging black people or white supremacy or bigotry. And I've already stated that a million times, but black people are over this, too. And it's okay to say that. So, here are some examples.
If you're a black American, I need you to stay right here. If you're not, I'll give you a few seconds so you can go on and scroll on by. Great. Okay, we need to have a talk. You know, it comes to a point where supporting and defending your community just is it it becomes so exhausting that you feel this frustration and you start to understand why people have the black fatigue that they talk about. >> I just came on here to say that I'm keeping my child as far away from ghetto [ __ ] as possible. I hate everything that come with it. Like I hate the way that people glamorize the hood, glamorize everything about the ghetto. And it's so stupid to me because when you know better, you do better. But people in the hood don't seem to understand that that is not a good life to be living.
Next, this lady was doing a job interview, did a drug screening on an applicant. He ended up testing positive for cocaine. She says, "Hey, we're going to have to test you a little bit further. I'm going to need a urine sample from you." He asks for a favor and says, "Wow, you really you really work by the book, don't you?" Here's what she had to say. >> What is it with other black people thinking that I'm supposed to jeopardize my job so they can get a job? I I'm not one of those. I'm all for the culture. I'm a girlies girl. I'm going to do everything I can for my people. But where we draw the line is when you come in here and fail a drug test and you still think that I'm supposed to put you in a job.
And one more in case the topic is not being driven home enough cuz this guy just lays it out like it is and he's very passionate about what he has to say. >> No, we don't hate our own con. We just So don't confuse me with every black person you see. I don't like they about to the whole summer up. Look at these kids. Look what they wearing to school. Where the [ __ ] is these parents at? I don't give a [ __ ] who got something to say about this. These kids is about to this summer up. Every mall in America about to be [ __ ] up. It's no parents being held accountable. People talking about we going to war. Donald Trump need to see about this. These parents out here is worthless. THESE KIDS OUT here running around like theying grown. The teachers are scared to teach them at the [ __ ] school. These little girls is dressing like prostitutes coming to school. We hate they're about to destroy this summer. The summer is about to be destroyed. I don't care what nobody feel about this. Watch what I tell you.
So there it is. Call it what you want. Call it black fatigue. Call it ghetto fatigue. Call it being upset with your community. Call it being upset with what is now deemed to be black culture. this issue is an issue regardless of how you package it. And if we're more concerned with the packaging of the conversation than the conversation itself, then we're not going to get anything done. And there are people out there of all different backgrounds, creeds, colors. Black people themselves who I think have solutions when it comes to this issue, have something to add to the conversation. But again, we can't have the conversation unless we choose to sit down. Acknowledge that it may be a little bit uncomfortable. Acknowledge that it may not always feel good to talk about these things, but we have to talk about them nonetheless. So, this is, I guess, part one on black fatigue and ghetto fatigue. I would love to hear your thoughts on everything we discussed in this video, cuz it was a lot and there's so much more. Uh, drop them in the comments down below and let me know how you feel. If you disagree with anything I said in this video, do not do so. respectfully encourage healthy debate on this channel. And if you like this video, like, subscribe, click the notification bell, be notified every single time I post a video for you guys, which is every day. And I will see you guys tomorrow. Bye, guys.