Category: Ebonics

I’m Gonna Keep Sitting on it Scrubs

On By dancingpalmtreesIn 50+, African American Queen, African Goddess, African King, DeBorah, deception, Ebonics, Edward Palmer, Ethiopian Goddess, Female Divinity, Feminine Divine, Images, Mable Palmer, profane, Sacred, Scars, soul, Spirituality, Stigmata, Tattoos, Visions, WTF1 Comment

Storm
Storm — Power over the Elements

I live in Bodega-Land, Brooklyn. Exchange at the Bodega across from the Laundromat. I’m wearing an old Ecko Red short sleeve shirt and some skinny jeans. I’m waiting for my Beef Patty with cheese and coco bread. While I’m paying for my food and drink I get the following rap from Snagglepuss. “Ya keep ya body nice. Can I get your number and can I give you mine.” I’m polite and keep that smile on my face knowing I’m about to reject this fool because I don’t want any confrontation before I get to eat my food or check my clothes washing across the street.

He notices that I speak proper English and says; I see that you’re an intellectual. Hmmm I’m thinking just because I live in the Ghetto doesn’t mean I must lapse into Ghettoese or Ebonics. Crooked teeth continues, maybe you and me can get together and discuss spirituality, blah, blah, blah, bullshit. You know the way that Rasta Negro was eyeing me up and down his mind wasn’t on the things of God or any type of Spiritual talk. Leon Spinks just wanted to find a way to get some “Coochie”. I lied and told him I had a boyfriend. I just wanted to get away from his sorry ass, finish my food and get my laundry done. Mission Accomplished.

However in the words of the immortal Ruth Brown, “I’ll Just Keep Sitting on it. I ain’t giving it away.” Rochdale Village had its share of old coots prowling for “Coochie” I see Brownsville/Bed Stuy has it’s own share of horny fools with really lame game.
http://youtu.be/KPll4sQDssU

 

Talk to the Hand cause the Face ain't Listening.
Talk to the Hand cause the Face ain’t Listening.

Ladies, always remember Men are like the City Bus there’s another one coming in 20 minutes hopefully with good teeth, fresh breath, who bathes and uses deodorant.

Honey if you’re game is lame and your rap is weak don’t even think of stepping to me. No romance without finance. And no I don’t do Ugly, fat or Stupid. I may be broke but I’m never desperate. I’d work 40 hours of overtime before I hook up with your no job, no car, no talking sorry hoodrat/thug/bad boy ass. Been there. Done That. Paid the Price.

http://youtu.be/pKV8uSX2nEQ

TLC -- No Scrubs
TLC — No Scrubs

Ladies you gotta let these men know what’s up. They telling you they can do acrobatics with their dick! Really! Are they fucking double jointed or contortionists? Give me a fucking break. Please! Why is their dick so much more special than any other. Is it extra long? Does it swing from side to side. WTF! Then they a fucking freak and belong in Ripleys Believe it or Not. Or maybe they should be making porno films. I’m older and wiser now. Dick don’t mesmerize me anymore. Get something in your head or you’ll never get me in bed. My body is my temple and only my true King who I choose can enter in. Don’t get it twisted. Little boy your package does not impress me.  In the meantime Losers give your Ding-A-Ling a hand job.

My Ding-A-Ling

 

Ladies if you’ve had the best don’t settle for less.

Get up off your broke ass, fix your face , see a dentist and fix your teeth, and get an education and a decent job. If you can’t come correct don’t come at all.

Hello Summer in the City!

 

Talk to the hand cause the face ain't listening.
Talk to the hand cause the face ain’t listening.

 

 

Jephthah’s Daughters

On By dancingpalmtreesIn Ambien, Battle, Black Unicorn, Bridge, Cat fights, Catharsis, Cathay Williams, Delusions, Dreams, Ebonics, Education, Edward Palmer, Elements of Style, Ethiopian Goddess, Eurydice, Eyesight, Facial Hair, Family History, Family Tree, Fantasy, Fears, Female Divinity, Feminine Divine, Genetic lineage, Gifted & Black, Goddess, Grace Slick, Green tea, grief, Hallucinations, Hamlet, Health Food Stores, Henry V, homeless veterans, Hood Stories, horror, Hypnos, Icelus, Images, Inscriptiona, Inscriptions, Insomnia, Instability, Intellectualism, Jacob's Ladder, Jesus, Kinky/Nappy Hair, Knowledge, Koyaanisqatsi, Law of Attraction, Loss, Love, Lyrical Family Memories, Mable Elizabeth Palmer, Mable Palmer, Madonna, Manufacturered Reality, Maternal lineage, Menopause, Midnight Marauder, Mind Altering Substances, mitochrondrial DNA, Morpheus, Mother, Mozambique, Mystical Creatures, Native American, Nature, New Age, Night Bird, Night Sweats, Nightmares, Nirvana, Noah's Ark, Ohio, Oneiroi, Orpheus, Paradise, Phantaso, profane, Protean, protest, Redemption, Rejection, River Styx, Romance, Royalty, Sacred, Sages, Scars, sci-fi, Sexual Fantasy, Shakespeare, Sherlock Hollmes, Short Stories, Skeptic, Songs of Solomon & Sheba, sorrow, soul, soup kitchen, Soy milk, Spirit, Spirituality, Squatters, Stigmata, Suffering, Suicide, Surrealism, Tattoos, The Secret, Thracian King, Trail of Tears, Understanding, Vision, Vision Quest, Visions, wage slave, War, Wisdom

Jephthah’s Daughters.(Click here to read more)

Shall we regard our girl children as Jephthah’s Daughters?  How long will we continue to perpetuate the adage, “Women love their sons, but raise the daughters.”  Every child deserves the opportunity to succeed in life but success comes through accepting responsibility and learning to be accountable.  Any child male or female who constantly lashes out at authority figures in a bid to always be “right” is a child bound for prison or the graveyard.  Stop making girls the sacrificial lambs!!

Ladies, let’s love our girl children and stop putting them on the altar in order to save a son who does not wanted to be saved and does not think he needs help or worse some no account man who should not even be a part of our households to begin with. Let us not return to ancient times when girls and women were thought of as little more than chattel or commodities to be bought and sold. (See below for more details on ancient economies)

Girl Sacrifice

“One of the unusual things about the Bible is that it preserves some bits of this larger context. … It would seem that the economy of the Hebrew kingdoms, by the time of the prophets, was already beginning to develop the same kind of debt crises that had long been common in Mesopotamia: espe­cially in years of bad harvests, the poor became indebted to rich neigh­bors or to wealthy moneylenders in the towns, they would begin to lose title to their fields and to become tenants on what had been their own land, and their sons and daughters would be removed to serve as servants in their creditors’ households, or even sold abroad as slaves.

“[This is what the biblical book of Nehemiah is referring to in the passage,] ‘Some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them.’ One can only imagine what those words meant, emotionally, to a father in a patriarchal society in which a man’s ability to protect the honor of his family was everything. Yet this is what money meant to the ma­jority of people for most of human history: the terrifying prospect of one’s sons and daughters being carried off to the homes of repulsive strangers to clean their pots and provide the occasional sexual services, to be subject to every conceivable form of violence and abuse, pos­sibly for years, conceivably forever, as their parents waited, helpless, avoiding eye contact with their neighbors, who knew exactly what was happening to those they were supposed to have been able to protect. … http://www.delanceyplace.com/view_archives.php?2009

Donations to this Ministry for the Housing Fund can be made in U.S. Funds via money order or bank checks made payable to Rochdale Village Inc. 169-65 137th Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11434, Account No. 083-11G-16924 or directly to deborah.palmer280@gmail.com via Paypal.  Thank you and God Bless.

Beauty of the English Language

On By dancingpalmtreesIn Black History Month, Ebonics, Edward Palmer, Elements of Style, English Language, Hamlet, King James Version Bible, Little Brown Handbook, Ohio, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Shakespeare

Beauty of the English Language

I’m a Lover of the English Language. I Love it because of all of its quirks, idiosyncrasies, and eccentricities.

When I was in college The Elements of Style by Strunk & White, plus The Little, Brown Handbook were my best friends. Now the dictionary is my best friend. I’m constantly looking up the proper spelling and definition of words. Yes, when I write I’m constantly editing my work for spelling, punctuation and grammar. The only time I let certain things slip is when I want to create an effect within my poems. With poetry I can be flexible.

The grammar and punctuation lessons from my online writers group excite me. That’s because the English language is dynamic and mercurial. It’s a composite of Latin roots and American English has incorporated words from every ethnic group to settle these shores in addition to words from our Native American sisters and brothers. English has an ebb and flow like the Oceans and opens its arms to embrace and adopt new words that keep it a living language.

I receive thrills and chills when I read Shakespeare or the King James Version of the Bible. For me the KJV has a beauty, flow, cadence and rhythm that the NIV or the Amplified will never have. The scriptures just sound better they way there were written in 1611. Shakespeare. What can I say about him? For me he is the master. The dialogue and soliloquies from Hamlet just trip off my tongue. Out of all his plays Hamlet is my all time favorite.

My parents especially my father Edward Palmer always demanded that I speak proper English both inside and outside our home. Reading was heavily encouraged in my home and my parents regularly purchased books, children’s magazines and had me reading the New York Times at an early age. This was great when I was around my family, however growing up and even as an adult I was accused of “talking white” by my fellow African-Americans! I learned to ignore these gibes especially as I got older and saw the benefits of being articulate. My young cousins know that Cousin DeBorah will correct their speech and their homework if I hear or see them brutalizing the language. I cringe when I walk down Jamaica Avenue, Guy Brewer or Baisley boulevards and I hear young people misusing English. I’m not speaking of slang because every generation had that. Also every ethnic group has its own little axioms or gems of wisdom for getting their point across, I mean when I hear young people use “axe” for ask. Are they about to kill someone? Maybe.

I fully recognize usage of regional slave speech by Paul Laurence Dunbar and dialects such patois, the Creole of the Gullah/geechee people of South Carolina and Georgia. Dialects have their place as they serve to unify regions and social groups. My beloved late Mom was from Dayton, Ohio and until I entered elementary school I never realized that some of the words she used were Midwestern slang and not necessarily acceptable outside of our home. I did find something very interesting when I traveled to Kingston, Jamaica in the late 80s early 90s. Some of the words I heard my mother use every day at home were also being used in Jamaica. Just a different accent.

However dialects and slang not withstanding there is no excuse for poor English usage written or spoken by native-born Americans. Ebonics and/or Black English do not exist for me. I might resort to the vernacular in the “hood” but when I’m out within the greater society proper English is not only essential it’s mandatory.

Of course, my English is not perfect. In fact I’m always a work in progress which is the main reason my desk is a mess. I always need many reference books at hand to complete just one page of work! One day maybe all the various rules and regulations that govern English will just come to mind automatically instead of my always having to look things up. Pray for me y’all!! LOL!!

SPELL

Last year I was part of an English Language association called Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature. Their motto is “Binding Together Lovers of Our Language”. If anyone is interested in joining the address is:

Post Office Box 321

Braselton, GA 30517

E-mail: spellgang@juno.com

Website: www.spellorg.com

 The newsletter SPELL/Binder features many articles on Punctuation and Grammar, Pet Peeves, plus Novelists No-Nos, as well as articles on how the mother tongue is being murdered via the media. It is a very interesting publication.