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Forum nameOkay Activist Archives
Topic subjectRE: "Black Sheep..."
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=13733&mesg_id=13735
13735, RE: "Black Sheep..."
Posted by Baron, Mon Jun-11-01 12:48 PM
>Is it a racist term? Because
>today in English class my
>teacher was talking about the
>biblical origin of the term
>"black sheep" and defined as
>someone who goes against what
>everybody else is doing, and
>usually it is wrong.

I never really took it to mean a racist term, but one can wonder why most things that are considered good are associated with white, while everything bad is associated with black or a dark color.

>She then proceeded to say that
>"people of color" are often
>offended by this term because
>it says that they are
>doing something wrong and going
>astray.

The "people of color" that I've been around don't take this as a racist term either, and those people include family and friends. Your teacher seems like someone who likes to assume what minorities are thinking without knowing too many of them.

>First I thought about the group
>Black Sheep and wondered if
>they would use the term
>for their name even if
>it was somewhat derogatory, or
>if it didn't exist and
>they just used it to
>describe their unique-ness.
>
>I don't think my teacher is
>a credible source for defining
>what is racist or not
>(a few minutes before she
>said that great leaders are
>often contradictory and say things
>you don't agree with at
>all, but her only examples
>were MLK and X) and
>the term could just be
>a liberal manifestation.

Your teacher seems to be someone who has little to no contact with minorities, yet thinks she understands our concerns. And I would wonder about her if she can only point out black leaders as contradictory. Look all the politicians and others throughout history and she can only point out two black men?

>Or maybe Black Sheep didn't care
>about the name (which I
>find quite unlikely considering they
>were brought up in the
>conscious native tongues click).
>
>Anyways, I'd like to have some
>information for a rebuttal to
>my teacher and to be
>educated about the term in
>general, as well.

You might want to put this in General Discussion if you want more responses.

>Be Out (c) Mr. Lif
>
>
>
>A conversation between two girls in
>my science class about the
>definitions of hip hop and
>rap...
>
>Girl 1: Rap is like just
>talking.
>
>Girl 2: Yeah! It’s like telling
>stories and stuff. So what’s
>hip hop?
>
>Girl 1: Hip hop is like
>those crazy people from the
>south like mystikal who yell
>“GET ON THA FLO” and
>“SHAKE IT FAST WATCH YO
>SELF”. Those guys are scary.
>It’s like jeez why
>are they so mad?
>
>Girl 2: Yeah I know.

I take it you live in a really white town.