'Ghetto' booklet

[Guest drlogic]

'Ghetto' booklet probed by HISD

Some ask why it took 3 months to investigate the item distributed by district officer

By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A crudely made "Ghetto Handbook" distributed by a Houston school district police officer sparked angry words Thursday from leaders in the district and the community — both because of its language and the fact that no action was taken for three months.

"This publication was completely reprehensible and HISD condemns it in the strongest possible terms," Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said in a written statement.

But some also questioned why it took so long for district officials to learn about the booklet and begin investigating.

The officer who first handed it out in May was suspended with pay this week, pending results of an investigation by the Houston Independent School District. Officials refused to identify him but said he was ordered to go to diversity training.

The eight-page handout, which includes a few grainy photographs, purports to offer definitions that will enable the reader to speak Ebonics "as if you just came out of the hood." Ebonics is a nonstandard variety of English spoken by some black Americans.

The definitions include such terms as "foty: a 40-ounce bottle of beer"; "aks: to ask a question"; and "hoodrat: scummy girl."

The booklet — subtitled "Wucha dun did now?" — names six HISD officers "and the entire day shift patrol" as contributors. District spokesman Terry Abbott said, however, that a preliminary investigation has cleared those officers of involvement.

The officers did not respond to the Houston Chronicle's e-mails seeking comment.

The booklet originally was handed out at a May 23 roll call at Barnett Stadium, Abbott said. He said up to 15 dayshift officers and three supervisors attend the meetings.

One of the supervisors immediately collected the booklets, Abbott said.

But HISD leaders said they didn't learn about the incident until an oral complaint was made to the district's Equal Employment Opportunity Office on Aug. 13. It was not clear who filed the complaint, and district officials did not have an explanation for the delay in their learning about the incident.

Abbott said HISD Police Chief Charles Wiley "is not doing any interviews because of the fact that it's an ongoing investigation."

Saavedra expressed regret about the incident and said he has "mounted a very aggressive investigation."

School board President Manuel Rodriguez Jr. said, "I'm completely surprised and overwhelmed that it took us so long to find out about it. In today's age and time, there should be no room for that type."

As of last school year, nearly 30 percent of HISD's 202,000 students were black and almost 60 percent were Hispanic.

Some community leaders expressed outrage.

"It does concern me," said Kashmere High alumna Carolyn Miller, president of the HISD Council of PTAs. "That's quite unfortunate that an officer felt a need to do that."

Carol Mims Galloway, president of Houston's NAACP chapter and a candidate for the school board, said the officer who created the document should be severely reprimanded, if not fired.

"It was really a slap in the African-American community's face," she said, adding that she believes black students in the district already are being shortchanged academically.

"We're paying their salaries with our tax dollars," Galloway said of HISD police. "It does reflect on the district."

She also questioned whether a supervisor really collected all of the booklets.

HISD trustee Larry Marshall called the document totally inappropriate, even if it were printed as a joke.

"These are very racially sensitive times," he said. "It was a huge mistake in judgment."

Houston activist Quanell X said he will ask today that Chief Wiley and anyone involved in the incident be reprimanded.

"What I'm angry about is that the supervisor did not file the complaint himself," he said. "The HISD police chief should have done more immediately, once this racist literature was brought to his attention."

jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5097092.html

[V. Barbarino]

the truth hurts...

I had a ghetto guy call me by mistake not too long ago, he couldn't spend english, I kept asking him to stop speaking ebonics, he couldn't.

[Guest flux]

I have an ad in the paper for a customer service position. Seriously, you should hear the ghettofied ebonics these people have over the phone.

Typical job inquiry phone call begins like this:

"Yeess, uh, yeah, this uh? This uh? This dat lady fo dat job? Ya'll still be hirin'?"

Like that's who I would hire for a phone rep!!

I remember my days at Richmond Heights and Sunset High. I always wondered how they passed English, but then I remembered, that's how the teachers often spoke as well.

[Guest trancepriest]

All the stuff is because of the Iraq and South Africa.

[Guest drlogic]

lmmfao!!!

i hear ya'......I work I.T. for the county and what I see/hear on a daily basis is just down right embarassing.

here's an example:

-my cumpoot'rz broke. i dun mash'd da' key,,,i cut it on, then cut it off, but it's broke. send somebody.

it's sad really. When I do interviews, some of the verbage on the resumes and the basic communication skills is just pathetic. it's one thing when you're drinking w/ your friends and talk shit,,,,,quite another when you're in a professional environment. but it's more than that.....even some top administrators who happen to black have zero grasp of the english language. I guess it's just a product of your environment, but some of these people have degrees....I don't understand how someone who's gone to college can't speak english and is eating infront of you while you're addressing an issue..talking w/ their mouths full,,,,chunks of food flying out of their mouths while they speak......I could go on......But it's bad....Not that there aren't whites or latins who are pigs and foul mouthed, but anyone w/ an ounce of common sense knows this to be true. Even my caribbean friends/co-workers (who happen to be black) agree. They openly admit to hating that crap. They say that sort of "ghettoness" makes their lives so much harder than it already is.

Sad. I don't think it should be accepted. But to address this head on is to essentially put a bullseye on your head w/ a label that reads "racist". I guess it's easier to call your accuser a racist than to learn to speak properly and have at the least, basic etiquette.

[Guest Buck White]

the truth hurts...

he couldn't spend english

This is a slam dunk, Buttermaker .

[Guest trancepriest]

I caught the spend english part.. but i thought i will just leave this one alone.

[Guest ILLMATIC]

It's funny when a black person speaks proper English they are considered “White". I get that crap all the time. WHAT THE FUCK or should I pronounce it WUT DA FUCK!?

[Guest slamminshaun]

It's funny when a black person speaks proper English they are considered “White". I get that crap all the time. WHAT THE FUCK or should I pronounce it WUT DA FUCK!?

Yep, or you're labeled an "Uncle Tom" or some shit like that by ebonic-speaking blacks. Why do you suppose this is? Is it a jealousy issue? Why is being "ghetto" so celebrated in America? Think about it..."oh shit, you so ghetto" or "man, I'm mo' ghetto than you".

It's not just within the black community, but among the white community too! Privileged white kids are going crazy I think....if you ask me, white kids who "act black" are participating in the most subtle form of racism, or a safe form of racism. They can imitate and poke fun at black culture under the guise of it being complimentary and nobody will label them as racists.

The proof is when white kids who "act black" in their teens miraculously no longer act that way in their 20s. It proves it was an act, therefore, it proves they made a conscious effort to try to act that way and then turnaround and not act that way. To me, this proves they're closet racists since they reject this when they get older, and racism is about believing one culture is better than the other. If they weren't racist, they'd continue "acting black", but instead, they feel it's inferior to "acting white" so they switch back at their convenience....the act of switching back is pure racism since the only reason you would switch back is because you believe one is superior to the other.

[Guest ILLMATIC]

It's funny when a black person speaks proper English they are considered “White". I get that crap all the time. WHAT THE FUCK or should I pronounce it WUT DA FUCK!?

Yep' date=' or you're labeled an "Uncle Tom" or some shit like that by ebonic-speaking blacks. Why do you suppose this is? Is it a jealousy issue? Why is being "ghetto" so celebrated in America? Think about it..."oh shit, you so ghetto" or "man, I'm mo' ghetto than you".

It's not just within the black community, but among the white community too! Privileged white kids are going crazy I think....if you ask me, white kids who "act black" are participating in the most subtle form of racism, or a safe form of racism. They can imitate and poke fun at black culture under the guise of it being complimentary and nobody will label them as racists.

The proof is when white kids who "act black" in their teens miraculously no longer act that way in their 20s. It proves it was an act, therefore, it proves they made a conscious effort to try to act that way and then turnaround and not act that way. To me, this proves they're closet racists since they reject this when they get older, and racism is about believing one culture is better than the other. If they weren't racist, they'd continue "acting black", but instead, they feel it's inferior to "acting white" so they switch back at their convenience....the act of switching back is pure racism since the only reason you would switch back is because you believe one is superior to the other.

[/quote']

Jealousy and Ignorance is a major factor.

[Guest swank]

It's funny when a black person speaks proper English they are considered “White". I get that crap all the time. WHAT THE FUCK or should I pronounce it WUT DA FUCK!?

fer reel yo! I git dat mofo ish all da tyme!!! :

The absolute most priceless moment is when I deal with someone over the phone. They remember my name....my voice,(which by the way sound very caucasian) and then "I" show up and completely bamboozle their brain.

[V. Barbarino]

Somehow white kids grow out of the ghetto/ hip hop cultural influence, however for blacks it defines them throughout their lives.

It must be real hard to be a American who is black these days because of all the ghetto stereotyping, but it's so prevalent in black society it's hard to look past it, you have to get to know the person to break those stereotypes.

[Guest slamminshaun]

Somehow white kids grow out of the ghetto/ hip hop cultural influence, however for blacks it defines them throughout their lives.

They don't "grow" out of anything. They make a conscious effort to quit acting that way. But why stop acting that way if there's nothing to be ashamed of? By virtue of the white kids stopping their backhanded imitation of black culture, they're subconsciously saying to themselves that "acting white" is somehow superior to "acting black", although they would never actually say that.

The "wannabes" who purposely change their ways are just as racist as the Georgian who says the N-word at his family's dinner table. The difference is, the wanna-be probably doesn't even realize they're racist....but racism is about believing one race/culture is superior to the other. A wannabe who purposely stops "acting black" obviously believes that "acting white" is superior, otherwise he wouldn't change.

[Guest drlogic]

I cannot believe TP is sitting this one out!

Must be that Jamaican blood....After all, Jamaicans do see themselves as the crem-de-la-crem of the caribbean. Just like Argentines believe they are elites of Latin America.

Keep it tight, ite!

[Guest coach]

There are racists in Texas. Wow, what a surprise.

[Guest swank]

Bill Cosby telling it as it is.......

"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.

I can't even talk the way these people talk:

Why you ain't,

Where you is,

What he drive,

Where he stay,

Where he work,

Who you be...

And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.

And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.

These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what ? ?

And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2 ? ?

Where were you when he was 12 ? ?

Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol ? ?

And where is the father ? ? Or who is his father ?

People putting their clothes on backward:

Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?

People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something ? ?

Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up ?

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from??

We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.

We have got to take the neighborhood back.

People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'baby daddy' -- or men or whatever you call them now.

We have millionaire football players who cannot read.

We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs.

We, as black folks, have to do a better job.

Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.

We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer."

Dr. William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr., Ed.D.

[V. Barbarino]

Recently I've seen Michael Irvin and The Bus talk publicly about how they had to learn how to speak properly. It was pretty cool watching them mention this. Irvin went on and told about how he told Emitt Smith that he needed help as well.

Just last night as Venus won her match, when she spoke, you know she had help. She sounded "white" for a lack of a better term.. Glad to see some of these influential people are leading by example.

[Guest drlogic]

a good friend of mine from Trinidad and rabid CANES fan who I always watch CANES games with throws fits whenever they do interviews w/ former MIAMI players....He always says.."

PLEASE DO NOT INTERVIEW Edgerrin James or Devin Hester...those boys butcher the english language" LOL He's right too.

Michael Irvine has come a long way..but he does over do it sometimes and throws out some big words which have no relevance in the point he's trying to make. "A" for effort though!

It's quite comical.

[V. Barbarino]

On live TV, I'm not sure if I could do better, I probably can't but Irvin can now teach his kids how to speak properly.