re: Aggie reporter Hamm calls Malik Jefferson--"boy"

quote:

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Other than the "especially nowadays" part of this statement, agree with you 100%.

How anyone can think "boy" is not going to be perceived in a very negative way is beyond me, no matter the context.

How someone can see not see that there is an argument that Hamm was just being sloppy is beyond me, but to be honest, I wouldn't require that an African American accept that, because I haven't walked in their shoes.

Finally, EVERY African American in Texas or the south has parents who have experienced the power of words like "boy", so I have no problem with letting them have negative feelings about the word, if only just out of respect for their parents.

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I think the "especially nowadays" thing matters from the context of Twitter and modern slang. A lot of times in order to express what I would call "brevity" or "lightheartedness" in text form we add emojis, punctuation or endearing nicknames to the end of short statements. Otherwise, the first reaction is to take the words in their most negative connotation. Think of when you text someone, say a wife or girlfriend, asking for a favor.

Imagine these responses:

Sure.
Okay.
K.

Are a lot different than:

Sure!
Okay bae.
K. :)


The first set you will assume resentment. The others you don't.

Now. I haven't heard someone use the term, "boy" that often, the common term on Black Twitter is, "fam"... But to me, that's what Hamm was going for. If the older users of Twitter never said anything like that, I'm 100% convinced Malik or any other early 20s black kid in Twitter would have assumed the same thing.

That being said, I wish Hamm would find another job. I have only met him once, and I'm not in the business of putting others down to build myself up, so one encounter will never be enough for me to openly bad mouth someone. He always finds himself in the middle of these kinds of things, and it isn't the kind of guy we need in such a high profile role.