It’s a new little joint called “mind your own business”/When somebody’s in ya face you ask em “Why you all in it”/
Now I’ma tell you how to use “mind ya own business”/
It’s a complicated thing so please quite down and listen/
There’s no simple explanation, punch line and finish/
So I’ll just use some examples and see if you can feel it/
Ok, so I was having a great conversation the other day with a cool friend and the topic of race came up, as it often does when speaking to me.
Side Note: I talk about race not so much because it’s what I care about the most but more because as a Black Man the world never fails to let me forget that I’m black so I will not let the world forget that I’m HERE!
Yeah, so we’re talking about race and I say, during the conversation, “You know, white people should just mind their own business” than I think, we ALL should just mind our own business. It’s clear that we live in a world of people and naturally we are all going to mingle and talk and exchange cultural ideas. The problem I have is when others start to impose their cultural ideas on to me and MY group. When whites came over to Africa, America, and pretty much everywhere else, they didn’t stop and say “Oh, this is different. It’s nice to meet you all. Lets see how you guys do things and learn from each other!” They came and said, “Oh, you guys got a nice little set up here, it’s all good. But this is how I do things. Now that I’m here you need to get down or lay down!” To that I just say MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. But that doesn’t just go for white people. I mean that for all imperialistic/imposing groups! If you’re rich and I’m not and you want to live where I live (Harlem), I say to you MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. Harlem was just fine before you (by you I mean the gentrifying population. If you don’t know what that means it’s because it’s YOU) got here. You might not understand or agree with the way we do things or how we live but fuck that and FUCK YOU. We like it, it’s ours, ease back! Who’s to say that a Wal-Mart or a Virgin Mega Store is better than the Bodega and Mom & Pop’s Record shop. Don’t even get me started on Starbucks! Even religious groups, I’m shouting you out! CHRISTIANS, mind your OWN BUSINESS!!! All I have to say about them is “Crusades” if you don’t get it you should stop reading right now and reevaluate yourself. Jehovah’s Witnesses, PLEASE mind your own business. If I get one more knock at the door at ass crack in the morning I’ma pull my hair out.
You know I really do believe that if we all mind our own business and just deal with our own life would be better. To drive the issue home a tad more, I’ll share this. I like to think about it like a family. Everyone has somebody in their family that is not the most upright person in the world (i.e. Crack heads, in jail, stealing all the time, drunks, ect…) but you still love them or maybe you don’t. But you deal with them in your own way. If one day somebody told you that “Uncle Johnny” had to go to jail for smoking a cigarette you’d be furious, because all this time the way YOU dealt with him was just putting him outside at the family picnic. That’s just an uncomfortable feeling for an outsider to come in and dictate a way of life to you! Even the animals know how to mind their own business. You don’t see deer telling birds how to fly, Ants telling sharks how to swim, horses telling cows how to give milk or dog telling squirrels how to clime trees. RIGHT NOW you can turn on National Geographic and see an Lion chase down, bite and kill an antelope and the whole time there’s a gang of monkeys in that tree waaaaaay over there watching. Now, if you could hear those monkeys and understand that conversation do you really think it would be like “OMG, Earl, we should send a delegation over there to try and rectify Lion/Antelope relations and see if we can come to some sort of peaceable agreement for all the lions to de-claw ASAP. If they don’t comply, we’ll send in the Elephants to maintain the peace.” That’s some bullllllllll shit! That conversation would be a LOT more like “That’s a damn shame what that Lion did to that Antelope” and that would be it. They would stay in that tree and “MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS.”
In closing I’ll say this. People, you know when something is your business so please just mind your own… For those of you that don’t know when shit isn’t your business here is one way that I think will help you in years to come. If you see, hear, or think something might be happening and you don’t have a clear, almost instinctual reaction to it but somebody else around you does… then it “isn’t your business” it’s theirs and you should let them handle it. If it doesn’t have anything to do with you, let it ride…
Thank you for letting me vent, I look forward to your hate mail… ☺
P.S. No animals were injured in the writing of this blog…
~H. Herald ~
OKay so, you are right...everyone is all up in everyone else's business. Hell thats all a blog is, the only difference is that the writer selects to put their writings or thoughts on display so you can't get mad when someone says something about it. However, it stands to reason that almost everything we do is in some way for others to see and judge which is usually our knee-jerk reaction to whatever it is we saw. One could argue how much of that is nature vs nurture but thats just too much for a blog comment. An eXample of this would be the reason a lot of men worry about engagement rings. Its not so much what the woman will think about it (which is already one judgment) but also what ppl who look at the ring will think about it, and in turn him.
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about other matters such as governments getting involved in other places beCUS one government in essence feels they are doing something better than the other we get into another situation. Thats such a gray area and stands to reason that a lot of whats acceptable meddling comes from values and morals.
An eXample to help illustrate my point: As a woman, I believe that women have rights. They are entitled to a good education and health care. Now this isn't even something we have here in the United States LMAO but it is my belief that this is something that is due to EVERY person male or female, poor or rich, colored or white. Some cultures may not agree with my moral and values on this subject. In many cultures the education of a woman is not valued. Technically by me being a part of the Human Rights Campaign and NOW I am pushing my values on other ppl. I mean when looked at objectively who is to say that what I beleive is right and what they believe is wrong? I only view it this way beCUS of my prespective.
So I say all of that to say that although getting involved in other ppls business is generally not a good idea and has led to some terrible times throughout history it can also be a venue for positive change. Well positive in my view anyway LOL
No animals were harmed?
ReplyDeleteyou know you were eating when you wrote this. Stop the lies.
Kente cloth, when Kwame Nkrumah wore it on his first visit to the US, became a reknowned symbol for African culture, specifically Ghanaian culture. But it was only present in Ghana for about a century prior to the 1950s - it originated in Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteHummus, falafel, olive oil, and "turkish" coffee are considered Middle Eastern/Meditteranean delicacies. Gyro's are thought to be Greek, along with baklava - all those things originated in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, respectively.
Hot dogs are a Nubian creation, hamburgers a German cuisine, and the ever-popular Chai tea is Syrian, brought over to India.
Culture is fluid, and things change. While I will lecture the hell out of any asshole that tells me falafel is an Israeli cuisine, I will accept that Arab Jews brought falafel (and tabla drums) to Israel when they migrated there. It was a forced migration, caused by Israeli's bombing Jewish areas in Arab countries in order to force them to leave, but that is why the Arab culture is so predominant in Israel. Likewise with black culture in the North, and Latin American/Creole culture throughout the South and West in America.
I like the concept of everyone minding their own business, but it's not a pragmatic or particularly uniting cause. As Lisa pointed out, imposition of ideology and culture is why good things happen, as well. I wouldn't feel comfortable telling Americans to mind their own business about Sudan... which they are... at the risk of not being able to aid people who need it. Likewise, I want to tell Americans to mind their own business about Islam.. which they won't... which has caused a majority of bigoted sentiment to rise in America.
I think it's about intellect and education, not so much about minding your own business. That's the real problem.
What up Sophy. Normally I just let the comments ride. But in this case I'll be remise if I don't interject. Israel, Islam and Sudan... One could argue that if the the U.S. or "outside" cultures would have "Minded their own business" in the first place the circumstances wouldn't be as they are now anyway. So to go back now and try to "fix" things (and I use "fix" VERY loosely . It should be "perpetuate your own nationalist, racist agenda) or "do good" is just making right what, if you had minded your own business in the first place, wouldn't even be all messed up....
ReplyDeleteI agree Jason - but what if we were to just pull out of everywhere we were now in the world and "leave them alone"? Bye bye economy - it's not a realistic thing to seek now, and I think reflecting on what would have happened is a waste of time. Analyze it, by all means, but accept that it already happened.
ReplyDeletebut isn't that the problem, Sophy? We are worried about ourselves. That's exact quality that begat the state of the world now, selfishness. If we pull out of everywhere now we as America would be screwed. But would it really be that bad for all the places we are literally rapping for natural resources and cheap labor or would it be horrible to the people and families that suffer from all the overpriced goods in their commercialized communities. I mean it'd be a hard interim but if we think outside of ourselves. Would it really be that bad if one day we all (and I use the term we because "we" are americans, NOT because "we" are inclusive of american actions) up and left... Of course all the people we've wronged over the centuries would eventually gain power and blow us to bits... but would America deserve any less. I for one am already making arrangements to move to Guam... ;-)
ReplyDeleteP.S. Sophy, you have pretty good conversation. Why don't we talk like this in REAL LIFE!!! Well, I guess we do, just not at often. lol
My dude, lol.
ReplyDeleteLions and Antelopes do not have round-table discussions about their respective lives because they are from different species.
People from other nations (read: people who live on the other side of man-made imaginary lines) are not from different species.
All humankind are one.
Ok, now go tell that to the Grand Wizard and see how
ReplyDeleteif he welcomes you as his "Humankind" brother...
"Ok, now go tell that to the Grand Wizard and see how if he welcomes you as his "Humankind" brother..."
ReplyDeleteJust because my outlook on existence has a utopian tint to it does not mean that I am dillusional. The Grand Wizard may not welcome me with open arms because of his outlook on race, nationality and life in general but that is his right. I do not let the opinions of others dictate how I live my life.
Nationality? Race? Music Preferences? At what point are we all going to stop classifying and actually start analyzing? People die because they were born on the wrong side of imaginary, arbitrary lines everyday.
When leaders launch wars they systematically dehumanize their nation's enemies so when they treat them inhumanely there is little protest from their constituents. As if the lives of Sudanese children outweigh the lives of Suburban soccer moms. We all are the same.
Minding our own business is great advice. Where we disagree my hairy headed brother is what I actually consider OUR business.
I think it is OUR business is to unify and perpetuate new traditions remembering our grandfather's wars and conflicts but not continuing to fight them.
And that's the truth Ruth...
I’m at work so I can’t write so I’ll just ask my main question. While I agree with the notion of minding your own business, I have to wonder at what point does minding your own business become turning a blind eye?
ReplyDeleteUB Feminist
It's only turning a blind eye when it's actually your business to be watching in the first place... lol ;-)
ReplyDeleteSo if I see someone being attacked, I keep on walking like I don’t c anything that’s better than helping, just because I’m minding my own business?
ReplyDelete