Kerfuffles

They were athletic champions. They were serious students at a renown university. They were ambitious and strong young women. They were all these things indeed, until the very “Reverends” Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton turned them into sniveling victims.

How did the very reverend “Reverends” manage such a feat? It is almost too incredible to believe. The two ministers of the Gospel of Christ told the young women that a senior citizen shock-jock that none of them knew existed, a loud potty-mouthed septuagenarian cowboy from New Mexico, had referred to them using popular rapper language. Rapper “terms of endearment” they had surely heard before, however, because an old, grey-haired white guy was parroting the words, Jackson and Sharpton admonished the girls about “heeding their elders”. This they did and publicly declared that their lives were now ruined, torn asunder and left in shambles upon the basketball court. The “Reverends” to the former jock stars: “You be victims now ladies, case closed.”

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me” is a quaint old children’s playground chant which is obviously no longer allowed in today’s schools.

My Nappy Headed Hoe

What in the world is a “nappy headed hoe”? Well, I can certainly tell you. As a life long gardener, I have encountered one every so often. Actually, I must take credit for actually creating one last summer, when I forgot and left my garden hoe amongst the ground cover all season. When the leaves died back in the Fall, I found my trusty hoe, all rusty, and “nappy” with moss. It was certainly a “nappy headed hoe”.

When did “nappy” become a verboten word and why is having “nappy hair” a disgrace? Since the year 1490, long before the English language came to America, the English word “nappy” was in use to describe a type of hair. There was curly hair, straight hair and nappy hair. What other hair words can now get a person thrown over the cliff? How about “bleach blond”; is that some sort of slur now? What about “bad hair”?

As for “hoe”, give me a break! There are the rappers’ “hoes” which everyone, including the most reverend Racebaiters Jackson & Sharpton, ignore, and with good reason. No young college woman has ever declared that her life was destroyed from exposure to a rapper’s lyrics. Then there are my “hoes”, which are indeed most useful tools, and I would be most inconvenienced if they were to be banned from the town’s squares and gardens. In fact, if hoes were to become forbidden - MY life would indeed be ruined.

UPDATE on the Nappy Headed Kerfuffle: While American women are debating which is worse—being called a “nappy-headed hoe” by one old white man or being affectionately called just a “hoe” by thousands of black men, consider the case of the late Coretta Scott King. Today it is being reported by Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam that Mrs. King has been called “a nappy-headed (N-word),” by members of a legislative committee of Georgia’s state government. Abdul-Salaam told reporters: “It’s another example of blatant disrespect for black women in 2007. It’s worse than what Don Imus did.” Indeed. Will the Georgia legislators be banned from the statehouse by the Reverend Reverends? And what next after that? And how bad can it get?

The image, Rough morning, is subject to copyright by Rockies. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by Kerfuffles.

The image, rusty hoe, is subject to copyright by rufie c. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by Kerfuffles.