BLACKS DO READ!! ( I swear we do!!)

You are truly blessed today my friends!! I want to talk about my most favorite hobby. No, it's not Fogg contrary to popular belief. It's reading!! I love it. Rare is the day that I venture into the world without at least 2 books in my bag, backpack (yes I'm still a hardcore backpacker even in my old age) , or purse. I have 3 books on the back seat of my car just in case passengers get bored. I take my books with me everywhere I go because any spare time, free time, or down time, can be spent, learning, broadening your horizon, or simply imagining. All of those things can be accomplished simply, by reading. Reading to me, fiction at least, is like creating a movie in your head. You can imagine things any way you want, based on the initial description from the author.

There are good books, bad books, and horrible books. As many of my Internet and real-life friends know, I do not read nigglature. Well.......truthfully, I have read nigglature only, I repeat ONLY to have a full understanding of what bullshit truly is. Let me define "nigglature" for you my good people:(Especially for you Jayspice and Onyx, my dears)

Nigglature is fiction usually written by a Black author. (PAUSE for the CAUSE-THONG ON FIRE??? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!) Very often nigglature is self-published. Self publishing offers the perk of getting your work out to the masses, however, I have encountered SO MANY self published books that are literally brimming with mistakes. Okay, okay, Ninja is not perfect contrary to popular belief, you may run across a typo here or there in my BLOG, but I'll be damned, yes DAMNED if you find a major one in any book I publish. I don't want my book looking like I just printed it at Kinko's and used string and weave/bonding glue to hold that bad boy together. Yes, there are some that ARE JUST THAT BAD. (make sure you click the words SuperBallerSupreme for an example)

Nigglature usually involves some poor little girl from the projects, (cause you know, that is where ALL the Black folks are), she usually has a severe lack-of-Daddy complex. This complex causes her to turn to...who else? Your friendly neighborhood drug dealer!! Who else is there to save the poor ghetto girl from welfare and clothes from the various Arab-owned "Hip-Hop" stores? Nobody. Not a family member, a teacher, a role model, a girl scout leader, a mentor, a case worker, a church member, or anyone else in the universe. In the ghetto there is only SuperBallerSupreme starring as the New Millennium Jesus Christ, savior of any and all little brown boys and girls. Let us glorify his image by writing even more about him!!*pauses to step over pile of steaming hot shit* He usually saves her for a moment, sleeps with her, clothes her in Baby Phat and gives her a new car, yet causes her more trouble then anyone is worth, someone gets shot/stabbed/jumped/hit by a car/double crossed/stolen from/set up and either they or someone else does jail time. Sometimes a lesson is learned though you usually are so lost in all the bitches/hoes/and niggas that you can't find it....I basically just broke down every Nigglature book out there. I MADE Ninja Jr read that Keisha Ervin book "Me & My Boyfriend", ( the title is hilarious play on Tupac's song titled: Me & My Girlfriend-where Tupac was not speaking of any female, that brother was talking about his GUN). (By the way I found that in the library at the school I work at) Ninja Jr. came to me after 20 minutes of reading and said "Mama I can't do this anymore it has too many spelling mistakes and it's making me feel like I am getting dumber by the minute." I said, "Baby read it for me, and then tell me all of the things wrong with it." The next day Ninja Jr. brought me the book and said outside of the misspelled words, horrific grammar, lack of punctuation or excess punctuation, the story was...well to put it bluntly she called it "hot garbage". I told her all Black books, are not this way. I promptly handed her Octavia Butler's "Kindred" to soothe the pain of having to "dumb-down" to read that "book". Ninja Jr. then told me that ALL of her friends have been reading these kinds of books, (!), including this one: I swear I am not lying I have read this book . Example, here is the blurb for this book: "Tressie faithfully prayed every night that God would send her a thug." WHO THE HELL IS PRAYING FOR A THUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shaking my head and side-eyeing ANYONE who dares defend this.

Don't get it twisted there are sub-categories too, like some Black Erotica is very very borderline nigglature. Some is great, sensual, hot, all of that, however some is written to mirror the internal workings of a 17 year old boys libido. Even established Black Erotica authors, such as Zane, have their bad moments. That book (and several others was TERRIBLE!!!!)

Nigglature has probably always been around, but I feel this was the beginning of the end. Calm down, calm down, I know there are plenty of people who LOVE,LOVE, LOVE this book, I however, do not. I will give it props on the fact that it was at the very least grammatically correct (with the exception of slang words or phrases which are what they are) and someone actually used spellcheck before actually publishing it. I believe that the fact that it was published by Pocket Books and is a mass market book, is the reason for this. I have yet to write a full novel, but you best believe when I do it won't read as an 8th grade girl's badly written diary. I'm sorry but NOTHING was believable about this book, not even Sister Souljah's own guest appearance in her own book. I like Sister Souljah, I appreciate what she is trying to do, however, she gets a "Do Better Black People" Award from me.

Anyone need a recommendation on some NON-Nigglature, hit me on email , I will be happy to share with you anytime. I personally own over 500+ books, and still collecting, no I don't just stick to Black authors, but I don't read shitty books, whether authored by Black, White or purple. I am really into Black Science Fiction and I would love to introduce you to it. I also love mysteries, suspense, sexy, educational, if it's a good read I'm with it. Let me help you get started:

One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets	Skin I'm In, The	When White Is Black	Kindred	Ghettonation: A Journey Into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless
Great Sky Woman: A Novel

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Ninja's going to talk about Black folk and Education today.....

In two of my classes we have been discussing Urban Education. I am one of the few people in the class blessed with melanin, so you know I already had a side-eye waiting in the chamber. Both of these classes consist of a variety of people of both sexes, a smattering of ethnicity, but mostly white folks. One class is fairly young, (I'm the oldest and one of three brown folk) and this is the class that I just sit back and and look crazy at half the shit they say. Professor asked the class to give her stereotypes they may have or are aware of regarding Urban Education and Urban students. Now, prior to this class, she let me know she'll be utilizing me throughout this class due to the fact that I have been in Urban Education for 10 years now. I am fine with that though I am sure you already know, I was doing a mental rolling of the eyes. And so it begins.....here are the stereotypes that these folks listed. Remember it's perceived stereotypes about Urban Education;the students, their parents, the school buildings, the district etc... :

1. The students are all poor
2. They are all in gangs
3. All the girls get pregnant
4. All the students have guns/It's unsafe to work there
5. That is where all the good basketball, football and track athletes are (this was said like it was the most hilarious thing ever, they were cracking up about it til I was like "WOW" very loudly)
6. The schools are all old and raggedy
7. The schools are all in bad neighborhoods
8. Most students are from single-parent homes
9. Parent doesn't work/most are on welfare (notice my singular use of 'parent')
10. Parent probably didn't go to college
11. Parents on drugs
12. The students use a lot of drugs (I almost fell out my chair)

Professor says "Ninja what do you think about this list?". Ninja was damn near foaming at the mouth at this point. I replied to each and every one, some answers were simple, others I was pissed:

1. The students are not ALL poor, most districts determine levels of poverty by the "free-lunch applicants" and you'd all be surprised by how many suburbanites qualify for it.

2. "Gangs" are often mis-labeled, every group of kids emulating their favorite rapper and his outfits is not a gang. If every kid with a bandana is in a gang, then Ninja Jr. is in one called "The Wrap up your hair at night" Gang. I'm not saying there are no gangs or gang activity, but I know my city and for God's sake we do not need these guys to come clean up the joint!

3. I politely let the class know that one difference between suburban girls and city girls is that city girls is that when they get pregnant, city girls tend to keep their babies.

4. It's unsafe to work ANYWHERE. I have NEVER been scared to work in the inner city, and the street I work on is smack in the middle of the belly of the beast, drug central. These days I am more terrified of working in the suburbs, because when Brad gets pissed because Daddy took away his keys to the Beamer, Brad gets Daddy's gun and shoots up 3rd period English.

5. Now I know that African-Americans are strong competitors in almost every sport, but that is not ALL we do. Suburbanites love athletics just as much if not more. Some suburban areas, hell some towns, live SOLELY for high school football.

6. Yes a lot of inner city schools are old and raggedy, but most city school districts are supported by the city, themselves. Suburban school districts are mostly supported by the taxes from the the town the district is located in. Example: in some suburbs, houses average between 300k to a million or better, the town may have one or two high schools to support. Their tax bracket is HIGH, and their school district is MUCH smaller, hence, newer buildings, newer equipment, new field to play sports on and so on.....

7. If one were to believe that, then one must believe that every street within city limits is "bad"

8, 9, 10- Just because you belong to a single parent home does not mean that your life is tragic. There are a lot of folks in the inner city that work 1,2, or 3 jobs and areNOT on welfare-most suburbs have 1 or two areas of housing that are mostly subsidized or accept welfare- in the suburbs they are APARTMENT COMPLEXES in the city they are PROJECTS. There are more WHITE people on welfare in the U.S. than any other race. Just because a parent does't have a college degree does not mean their child should not strive to achieve one. Let us not forget that Blacks with college degrees are offered the types of jobs that whites only need a high school diploma to land.

11, 12. Does that mean parents in the suburbs don't ever come home to a line of coke a kool-aid glass of vodka with dinner? The drug problems of Suburbia are just better hidden and rarely covered by media. Students on drugs? (I almost fell outta my chair on this) In the 10 years that I have been in Urban Education, I have never encountered any drug stronger than weed. I grew up in the suburbs. In the suburbs I was a witness to my mostly white classmates use of cocaine, heroin, huffing, crack, MAJOR alcohol consumption and massive pill use. The first party I ever went to was thrown by the football players and the cheerleaders, the refreshments included a keg of Bud and the sniffing of crushed Ritalin pills, which contrary to popular belief is NOT a new phenomenon.

I thought I already knew what White folks thought of us:

and honestly we don't do a lot to dispel this notion of us not with shit like this circulating, and folks thinking all we do is play basketball, read nigglature, or rap. Even our rappers are sad to me: This , THIS is the role model for our boys.

AS of this date, September 17, 2007, I will no longer refer to my students as Nippy Kids. I just can't not after seeing, no not just seeing, but FEELING down to the marrow of my bones how THEY think of us.

Oh yeah-Check, read, learn and use the new words of the week!!