Is your teen 'a gangsta from the hood'?!?!

[Robertsmithdoesmyhair]

My 14 year old son speaks in rap and I have no clue what he is talking about most of the time. Lots of 'blud' 'bruva' and sucking his teeth. Funnily enough, he is neither from the hood nor a gangsta and we are a fairly normal family! We don't live in The Bronx and we don't wear soverign rings!
When oh when will he return to normal? Anyone else's teen doing this?

Now black culture would be... well choice from all of Africa then.

My brother spent 6 solid months replying only with "shabba" (in homage to then dancehall musician shabba ranks) to any question that my parents asked him.

Mum "could you pass the butter please Tom?"
Tom "Shabba"

Dad "good day at school tom?"
Tom "shabba"

Ad infinitum.

Still makes me laugh today.

thelastnigel I think it’s really important to take on board what people have said to be honest, black people know more about black culture and history and disregarding them because you find dd endearing is so wrong. Look at cultural appropriation. She’s 11, why on earth do you let her behave that way? The majority here are talking about their teenagers acting gangsta, that’s a world of difference from a child wanting and acting black.

I agree it's (one type of) working class American culture in origins, although a great many cultural icons eg singers, have adopted it. My own (white) kids did, to some extent, as it's become fashionable.

That said, there IS an underlying ignorance about the poverty and crime which underlays it.

And the argument about whether white people experience actual racism was resolved years ago, surely. They can not, only prejudice (and more so if they are poor, or female, etc). It is insulting to black people to claim otherwise. That isn't to say that poor white men don't have a hard life-they do.

I also think because many celebrities have also adopted this mode of expression this is who the teens are copying as most of the rural dwelling middle class kids who are doing this have never met a real 'roadman' in their lives. This is just about copying celeb culture more than anything else.

Also, as a non white person I do get bored with the london - centric lets get offended by everything culture. Where we live we are still dealing with old fashioned racism. yYu know, being called a filthy paki in the street by drunken lads, to get too excited by an 11 year old wanting corn rows!

there IS an underlying ignorance about the poverty and crime which underlays it.

I agree. I think that this whole talking like a gangster bullshitery is as much class based as it is race.
It sounds stupid from the mouths of kids from middle class background, whatever race they are.

quencher I didn’t say the 11 yo wants to be black so you can fuck off right back!
I said the 11yo wants to dress and talk the same as she admires the culture.

When I see the term “cultural appropriation “ I reach for a bottle opener.

What a stupid bloody term .

It doesn’t mean being racist although am sure some kids ARE racist.

I’d worry far more about those far right idiots than an impressionable teenager who thinks black culture is great and might inappropriately express that with a lack of understanding that she’s getting it all wrong.

We’ve all become a tad oversensitive and pathetic. I hate the term “snowflake” but ffs sometimes it’s needed.

Not everyone thinks the same things are cultural appropriation - who gets to decide? People from the same culture are not an homogeneous mass who all agree. Take corn rows for example - I know a black woman who has offered to do dd's hair for her. Another woman from the same culture might view that as wrong.
To me CA is about treating core cultural beliefs in a disrespectful way for one's own entertainment. I don't think that applies to hair styles, but others disagree.

Most things are copied from somewhere if you go back far enough. I see many a tourist swathed in tartan trotting along the Royal Mile and even an American relative has a ‘Celtic’ tattoo (I haven’t the heart to tell them that it is really incorrect - the visual and translation of the family motto is just wrong).

Lol @ "odd looks in the village shop when she calls the gentle older lady behind the counter 'cuz'."
🤣🤣🤣

Reminds me of the ‘mockney’ chap on tv who does the Motorcycle shows ‘he’s a wheeler dealer on the lookout for a bargain’ (Eton educated, etc, etc) with his ‘awwwww, mate’, ‘let’s do a deal, mate’ ‘maaaaaaaaate’ (channeling Arthur Daly).

Yes, all this ‘mockeny’ nonsense drives me as spare as all the ‘jafacian’.

What about Shane McGowan?

Privately educated boy from Kent.
Granted his parents were Irish.

🤷🏻‍♀️

Hmm. I didn't know road men was a black thing 🤷 around here ALL the teens, whatever their skin, talk with slang words like the above and roadmen are just trackie wearing, with ahoody and a shotters pack to deal their drugs from. It is a trend thing not a race thing?

Screamer @Shabba

Shabba

I think the gangsta voice/accent is ugly-sounding and pathetic.

Its a miserable and grim accent stripped of all life and laughter, is often quite aggressive and full of grievance.

You also get alot of the attitudes along with it.

Not a fan.

Yeesh.you bitches need to chill innit. Big ting.

It's not about race. This is a culture that spans all races.

SherlockHolmesPipe 😂

We were all goths or emos in my day / town. Now it's gangsta or obsessing over sodding gender.

Yh its bare jokes the way u mandem flexin’, I’m fucken shook bro.

I actually cannot keep a straight face listening to DD’s boy mates talking like this! 😂😬

“U walk in here looking like a snack”

Ummm, okaaay then!