Need a job? Speak Jive? The DEA wants you.

The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) is looking for linguists who are fluent in Ebonics.

"Federal agents are seeking to hire Ebonics translators to help interpret wiretapped conversations involving targets of undercover drug investigations.

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently sent memos asking companies that provide translation services to help it find nine translators in the Southeast who are fluent in Ebonics, Special Agent Michael Sanders said Monday.

Ebonics, which is also known as African American Vernacular English, has been described by the psychologist who coined the term as the combination of English vocabulary with African language structure.

Some DEA agents already help translate Ebonics, Sanders said. But he said (he) wasn't sure if the agency has ever hired outside Ebonics experts as contractors." - The Associated Press

In other words the DEA doesn't understand what all those Negro criminals in Atlanta are saying to each other and they need a few Black people fluent in the Negro language of Ebonics to translate. Sounds more like something from a bad movie (see video below) than something a government agency would be doing.

Back in the 70's and 80's Ebonics was called jive, right?

Hey wait a minute! Don't we have a Black President now? Is he okay with the DEA looking for Ebonics translators?

I wonder if the DEA will have linguists who understand the Redneck language as well? Or is Redneck not considered another distinct language like Ebonics?

It's amazing how Black people in this country are constantly subjected to being 'othered'. Pretty much every culture uses vernacular but it's only with African Americans that it is supposed to be another language.

WTF Files: The Luther Burger

What you see above is called, "The Luther Burger". Legend has it that it was an invention of the late great R&B crooner Luther Vandross. The Luther Burger is sold at Mulligan's, a bar in Decatur, Georgia.

The Luther Burger consists of two beef patties, a few strips of bacon and a slice of cheese. The calorie count is somewhere in the vicinity of 1000.

I don't even know where to start. First, did Luther really invent this? Likely we'll never know for sure. And why would anyone want to eat a burger with a Krispy Kreme doughnut as the bun?!

The Luther Burger is an example of what people eat in a country that takes food for granted. I'm pretty sure one Luther Burger could feed a family of four for at least two days. If someone ever sat a Luther Burger in front of me I'd run! Yikes!

WTF Files: Matricide, evil twin style

According to reports the girls above, who are 16 year old twin sisters Tasmiyah and Jasmiyah Whitehead, killed their mother, 34 year old Jarmecca “Nikki” Whitehead, this past January in Conyers, Georgia. The twin sisters were arrested this past Friday.

On January 13 of this year the girls called police to say they had arrived home from school to find their mother stabbed to death. But apparently the girls had a history of violence and bad behavior and so friends of the family say they were suspicious of the girls story from the start.

Jarmeca "Nikki" Whitehead, 34

The sisters were arrested and according to media reports will be tried as adults. Police so far have not said what they think the motive was.


This story is truly shocking to me. Their mother's last moments alive must have been pure hell. Not just because she was in pain and dying, but because her daughters were the ones killing her. I wonder how her soul can ever rest after something like this.




Read more about this story: here and here

Food for thought

The billboard above is one of a series that have been posted in Atlanta recently which targets Black women who may be considering abortion. Apparently more than a few Black women in Atlanta are upset by the ads, feeling like they are being unfairly singled out by the ads.

My thought is that despite feeling like this campaign was ill-advised it is at least a starting point for a better conversation.

In Georgia, for instance, Black women have abortions at three times the rate that White women do. I have known more than a couple Black woman who have had multiple abortions like Sherri Shepard, the idiot co-host of ABC's The View, who has admitted publicly to having had several abortions. So it seems that there are more than a few Black woman who have used abortion as an after the fact form of birth control. Therefore it seems to me a more effective campaign might have been to educate Black woman on birth control rather than trying to publicly shame them.