Clinton Hill Auto Insurance

6:07 - agreed. I wasn't advocating sympathy for cold-blooded killers. I'm talking about the ones who aren't...

Yes there are "some" black teenagers who kill other black teenagers. Just like there are "some" white teenagers who vent their frustrations with a hail of semi-automatic gunfire in the school lunchroom.

But of the 98% or so of teenagers of both races who are not murderers but simply bored, reckless, immature kids, somehow only the black teenagers comprise a "gang" or have words like "thug" and "criminal" commonly associated with them.

Black kids goofing around and getting rowdy in a group of three or more are instantly subject to suspicion, derogation, interrogation, incarceration and random police violence. White kids doing the same thing get a t.v. show.

Posted by: MizJenkins at July 8, 2008 7:32 PM in response to 'Real World' + Belltel = 'Center of the World'?

No...how about we sympathize with the "roving gangs of teenagers" in Brooklyn who are habitually labeled as "thugs" and "ho's" and locked up and generally given up on by white society for participating in mostly harmless (although admittedly juvenile - they're teenagers - and sometimes destructive) behavior.

Now they get to watch a group of white kids move into the neighborhood and get PAID to drink and whore about and tear sh*t up on national television, while the same middle-aged white women who cross the streets to avoid "gangs" of black kids cheer the little jackasses on and have little voyeuristic fantasies about them. Then other white people, thrilled by the promise of proximity to this infamous display of entitlement (sexy!), will flock to the 'hood, bid up the market and price these black kids and their families out of the homes they've scraped by for decades - sometimes generations - to rent or own.

Query, why is drunken debauchery cute when white kids are involved and criminal when black kids are involved? I'm with 11:23...Real World Brooklyn can go down, but if you want it to be REALLY real leave those brats on Marcy Ave at 2AM and don't let the camera men help.

And yes, they do always have a token black on The Real World (and three on the Las Vegas season and two on the most recent season and no it doesn't really change the argument).

Posted by: MizJenkins at July 8, 2008 4:04 PM in response to 'Real World' + Belltel = 'Center of the World'?

Sure "the kids" might be ultimately disillusioned with Obama...but the fact that teenagers have been energized enough by the Obama campaign to get off their butts from in front of the tv and spend their summer vacation doing MANUAL LABOR in support of a political ideal (i.e., the common good - whether or not it can be unanimously or accurately described) is a good sign if you ask me.

I mean, by the time they are disillusioned they will be old enough to vote for a different agenda. That's politics right? In the meantime, no McCain supporters have offered to build me a homemade bench for my backyard.

Posted by: MizJenkins at July 7, 2008 6:04 PM in response to Backyard Politics: Benches for Barack

Thank you 12:07. No they don't, which is why they will continue to attract reciprocal attention (karma if you will) from the universe.

That is to say, keep it up and some crazy l'il n***as are gonna jump your ass. You don't have to take it from me...

Posted by: MizJenkins at June 19, 2008 12:16 AM in response to Enough With the Marauding Teenagers!

And I will willingly admit, there are plenty of good, kind and respectful white people who are victims of violence simply by association and senseless racial profiling.

And to them I say, welcome to the struggle.

Posted by: MizJenkins at June 18, 2008 11:58 PM in response to Enough With the Marauding Teenagers!

Respectfully, if all you see when you look at your black neighbors is "uneducated trash" and "ghetto culture" then you have made my point for me.

Why would anyone think they were going to get respect from people who they have historically disrespected, especially when they continue to exude a sense of cultural arrogance about them wherever they go?

Try applying the Golden Rule...

There is beauty and intelligence and potential in these young girls who y'all look at and immediately label "hoodrats" just because they may not have money for a fresh weave. (Hypocrisy?? see, Amy Winehouse; see also, Williamsburg, Brooklyn).

Every culture has its baser elements and I didn't celebrate or apologize for anybody's low class behavior. But I wonder why that is immediately all some people want to see when they look at black folks? Are you interested in any other aspect of any black or African culture? Do you actually appreciate or know anything good about it? Do you want to? Do you ever talk about it with your white friends? Or do you really think white people invented everything that's good and worth congratulating or calling "civilized"?

Flaunting your wealth and your ignorance at the same time will engender resentment.

I think that was my point.

Who wouldn't fight back?

Posted by: MizJenkins at June 18, 2008 11:55 PM in response to Enough With the Marauding Teenagers!

Apparently part I of my post disappeared into the ether...

It went a little something like this:

Class warfare in America = race warfare. Welcome to reality. Why are you surprised that cops don't come to black neighborhoods?

1. Take the damn earbuds out of your ears and stop stumbling around the 'hood in the dark.

Also, shout-out to the good neighbors who posted at 10:07 and 10:37 AM.

Posted by: MizJenkins at June 18, 2008 10:11 PM in response to Enough With the Marauding Teenagers!

2. Man up. Skinny jeans and flip flops on dudes might be de rigeur further down Bedford Ave but they get no play in the Stuy. You look like a mark.

3. RESPECT YOUR NEIGHBORS.

This will be the first of many diatribes to come, but there if there is one thing that the newly-rented gentry in Brooklyn really don't seem to understand it's how their respect for the cultural norms in their new neighborhoods (or more often lack thereof) impact the way they are perceived and treated by their neighbors.

When non-whites move to predominantly white neighborhoods they are expected to conform (see, "Fresh Prince of Bel Air"). The 5-0 will swoop in right quick if you wear your jeans too low, pump your bass too loud or have more than five black friends "loitering" outside your property in, say, Greenwich, CT.

But here y'all come, raggedy and unshaven on purpose, Coldplay droning at full volume out the windows, PBR cans strewn about the sidewalks as you sit in your $5 lawnchairs looking like nothing so much as the most clueless, entitled and self-congratulating group of people who ever walked the Earth, surveying with pride your newly-colonialized borough.

Thank god you showed up in time with your Vans and your esoteric ice cream to bring culture to the masses!

News flash: Brooklyn - and especially the black neighborhoods of Brooklyn - has a rich history despite all the crime and negativity. Black culture is not a monolith. There are black and brown people of every stripe and persuasion here and THIS IS HOW WE LIVE.

Undoubtedly, diversity means making room for new perspectives and I like fig gelato as much as the next bougie professional, but y'all need to get with the program. Learn something about your community. Get to know your neighbors and adopt some of their customs. Don't assume you can come in and whitewash the fifth largest city in America without encountering some resistance.

Wake up. There is no "Clinton Hill". This is Bed-Stuy...Bed-Stuy DO OR DIE! These n***as ain't goin down without a fight. You want to fight back? No you don't. You might want to blend in. There's a reason you look like mark.

Posted by: MizJenkins at June 18, 2008 10:06 PM in response to Enough With the Marauding Teenagers!