call em how I see 'em--don't come at me wrong on myspace

I have a love and hate relationship with myspace, I have connected with some wonderful people from homiez I grew up with, to people of like minds, who I am honored to call my friends, and i love that it allows me to have easy access to good music.

But the shit that gets on my nerves are the never ending random ass friend requests, the inquires for art and then faking, dudes trying to be cutty buddy when they know I have a man, and the fact that it has added to a culture where people are constantly trying to take pictures of themselves to post it so they can look like they have a life of myspace, and girls posing in there thongs-putting it up on the internet, for what?

I was in the computer lab the other day waiting to print out my report and as i was waiting I watched this girl who kept uploading pictures and making slide shows of her out at clubs and cup caking with her man, writing these little captions, and in that moment i was able to see how vane it is too be all about pictures of yourselves, I'm not knocking her and I am guilty of it too, but I just think it' s a little self absorbed, now that doesn't apply to [music] artists cause with that its a way to connect with fans.Anyway I sometimes go for months making a conscious effort to not go on myspace cause I don't have time, & I don't want my time to go to it, and because I want to see if I am effected by it (i do the same thing with T.V and other things just to make sure I am not brainwashed or dependent on anything).

Anyways I checked my friend request box and found more folks I didn't know (taking up space), but 2 people who wrote a message, one was from this cool homie who was saying he read this here blog (he's on my bloglist-'From Ashy to Classy') and I checked his blog and I'm feeling it, cause he's speaking for folks like myself with empty pockets and fresh style and big dreams.

anyway then I look at the next message and its a kid from one of my classes, who will remain nameless but this is what it said "wow you never told me your bf was black that is why when i say o right oright you are happy o right than see you in class." and I just got out of class with him and he proceeded to talk in this manor about how shocked he was that I kicked it with the "sistaaas" and that he didn't think I was the type of girl to have a "ghetto black boyfriend." And then proceeded to tell me that some of his friends spoke "black languages" and that he new ghetto people too. (I'm tired its been along day my first reaction is to cus him out, or pretend like i didn't hear him so I woudn't have to get mad or deal with it, but I feel it's my responsibility to all the people I know and all the knowledge I have learned from seeing this fucked up system, to speak out when ignorant comments are made, plus he talked about my man so I had to say something...)

Please believe that I corrected him saying that he was over generalizing and that if he was talking about slang than thats called Ebonics but if he was talking about a language from a country in Africa than he should find out the name of it and what specific country his "homie" was from (i let him know I have friends from three different parts of Africa and that they all speak different languages with the example of my homegirl Sojourner who is from Tanzania and speaks Swahili) then I informed him that there is a difference between ghetto and black, and that I grew up in an area that was not that white, and predominately African American, but that I don't limit myself to kick in it with one race, and that my boyfriend is half Filipino and doesn't consider himself ghetto, no matter what hood he was raised (because against all odds he was able to live, to graduate from high school (look up the Oakland drop out rate) and go to a good college and has never sold drugs or killed someone in his life)...anyway I said it in a way without getting angry or making him feel bad but just to let him know not to get it twisted. Whenever I have these little incidents I always hope that that person's mind is opened just a little bit, maybe an inch, so some of those stereo types can escape and some knowledge about other cultures can get let in. In order to continue to speak out, I have to tell myself that even if I cannot see impact, it is there. And that is a true lesson in patience.

Each week its another battle, another comment, another frustrating moment. The only thing that gets me thorugh is to see like minded people who feel how I feel. I was missing my bay fam and then I got to kick it with some dope folks. Just conversating with such wise intelligent like minded folk made every moment of this week so far, not seem so hard, my friends are my motivation to get thru.

that's all i really wanted to say, I'm tired as hell but on my way to pull another all nighter, and I ain't gonna stop fighting until the battle is won!