The author of “Thug Kitchen: A Recipe in Blackface” needs to spend some time checking her assumptions.
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Somewhere in this big world is a misguided, small-minded writer who’s disappointed because she saw the word “thug” on a blog and expected a “gangly black man” with gold teeth and instead saw well-to-do white folks with a taste for vegan food—she felt bamboozled, hoodwinked, lead a stray, if you will.
Ms. Akeya Dickson, who penned the article “Thug Kitchen: A Recipe in Blackface,” believes that mainstream society—in particular the white folks behind the popular Thug Kitchen blog—are somehow swagger jacking from black people, because apparently we hold the exclusive rights to thug culture.
Ms. Dickson’s views on black life, black men and thug culture are everything wrong with society. And in my opinion, it’s that type of thinking that leads to police officers disproportionately stopping blacks on the streets when looking for a suspicious character or thuggish brute.
I don’t know the race of Ms. Dickson—and I really don’t care—but what I do know is that she’s unaware of world history and language.
In Ms. Dickson’s world, where ratchetness in moderation is apparently healthy, the word thug means, for a lack of better words, a dangerous, uncouth black person.
But in the real world, the word thug isn’t assigned to any particular race. As a matter of fact, thug simply means a criminal or robber, and it originated in India, as it was the moniker attributed to worshipers of Kali, the Hindu goddess of empowerment; “Thugs” robbed and strangled victims as a sacrifice to her.
Ms. Dickson, its pretty offensive to broadly and exclusively associate thug culture with black people, young black men in particular—we’re not monolithic! But what we are, Ms. Dickson is enterprising, scholarly and innovative beings who don’t all have a problem wearing a belt or forming sentences that total more than thirty syllables.
Ms. Dickson, in closing, I offer one piece of advice, something I was told often as a child: if you don’t open your mouth nobody will know how ignorant you are.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™