The recent "code-switching" episodes made me remember an episode of #NYPDBlue when Andy and Lt. Fancy were on a stakeout with another Black detective who Andy both despised but helped as a fellow alcoholic. 1/
Doing this from memory so may be fuzzy on some of the details but basically, Fancy, who challenged all of Andy's racism and biases, started "talking Black" to the other detective and Andy was confused. "Where'd you learn to talk like that? I thought you grew up middle class". 2/
"At my daddy's knee" said Fancy. Andy was aghast and thought because of Fancy's upbringing he always spoke how he spoke at work. Fancy made the point (and this is where I can't remember his exact words) that we do it for people like him. Which is the point. 3/
We do it often to stave off the assumption that too many white people won't admit they make, that we're uneducated, inarticulate, and ignorant. The funny thing is, when people encounter this at work, as I have, the white person who's so "impressed" by how "articulate" 4/
the Black person is, never stops to think that WE work in the same place. WE had to have the whatever they had to be hired, promoted etc. WE had to graduate from schools, including sometimes better ones than white people attended. But always the tone of surprise. 5/
WE know we're constantly being judged. Yet I've sat in meetings where white people have mispronounced or incorrectly used words and yes, I've taken pleasure in correcting them, only to be challenged by them insisting on the WRONG pronunciation/meaning. 6/
"It's how it was pronounced/used where I grew up". But let me let loose with an AAVE term and you'd think I'd just used profanity in front of the Pope. At any rate. Andy grew. He was a racist SOB misogynist ahole mean drunk. But he grew. Others, unfortunately, never will. 7/7

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Portia ♍️ McGonagal portiamcgonagal1619 on Insta

Portia ♍️ McGonagal portiamcgonagal1619 on Insta Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PortiaMcGonagal

Apr 13
Gym Jordan wants to try and gotcha Alvin Bragg on crime stats since he has nothing to challenge him in re: Trump's case. Let's look at some facts. 1/

"But when crime numbers are adjusted for population, in many cases Mansfield does not fare well in comparison to Manhattan."
"The hearing is intended to focus on “an increase in violent crime” in the city..." 2/
washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/…
"Crime in New York has increased since 2020 — though it remains far below 1980s levels — and city statistics show that of the seven severe categories of crime, five are down relative to this point in 2022." 3/
Read 5 tweets
Apr 13
So riddle me this. #Kacsmaryk used the #ComstockLaws to justify his decision. However: 1/ Image
Now, as I've said forever, their end game was never Roe, but Griswold. Yet:
"Kacsmaryk rationalized his opinion through a distorted reading of the long-dormant 1873 Comstock Law"

How does this hold up? 2/
washingtonpost.com/made-by-histor…
Even the original Comstock Act didn't support this: 3/ Image
Read 5 tweets
Jan 5
So...do yt folks who reach for a partial MLK quote or cite that Black people were originally Republicans really believe that actual Black people don't know our history? I know for some it's a cynical ploy, but honestly, I do think there are those who sincerely believe 1/
that we are that ignorant. That we don't know that yes, initially it was Lincoln's Republican party that was the party of "abolition". I wonder if they know that Lincoln himself however, didn't actually believe in Black equality? That he was a pragmatist of his time and 2/
while he may have issued the Emancipation Proclamation, that's a far cry from viewing Black people as full and equal citizens of these United States. 3/
snopes.com/fact-check/did…
Read 10 tweets
Jan 3
Second verse, same as the first Qevin down 15 on second ballot. Will he repeat 19 or go higher?
16
17. Do I hear 18?
Read 5 tweets
Nov 11, 2022
This is interesting and points to something worth discussing about how this happened. It's a cautionary tale. 1/
"“I really did not think I was being racist,”
readingeagle.com/2022/11/10/wil…
As much as I tell people "Google is free", as the saying goes, "With freedom, comes responsibility". We all know there's a lot of good stuff on the internet. We also know that there's a lot of crap. The issue I see here is, this white man found something that conformed 2/
to his existing confirmation biases, and because it was written by a Black man, he thought he was safe. Many Black people reading the same article, would recognize "respectability politics", that some marginalized people prioritize. 3/
theroot.com/the-definition…
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(