Friday, September 21, 2012

Identity Clash of 2012: Little Bit of Awkward, lotta bit of RATCHET!! (pt.2)





*WARNING: NatDivine and Blogger cannot be held liable for any ratchetness you may incur whilst reading this post, watch the videos and clicking the links. You may want to hide yo wife, hide yo kids, yo finest lace front and yo ebt card before you read this post!*



To get a better understanding of what this post is in reference to, click this link to Part 1. Read before continuing please :D

Just as the internet, video-sharing sites and the Colored-Folk run blogs with content geared toward “black folk” catapulted the awkward black nerd identity, so has it spawned the sporadic f*%kery that is “Supa Ratchet”.“Ratchetness” itself is not a new phenomenon in the treasure trove of identities ascribed to black people over the few hundreds of years. However, the term "ratchet" has been recently labeled to the content.

The word is actually a southern colloquialism.  The word “ratchet” is the ebonic cousin to the English word for “wretched” (which stands for someone or something of low caliber, poor quality or unpleasant state). When written in its romanized form, it looks like “ratchet”, when spoken it is said with a southern twang.

Social media and video sharing sites have been the primary sling that has shot “ratchetness” to Sup Ratchet status and the forefront of what identity of blackness is supposed to be.  Mainstream media can also be named a culprit in the creation of le “Rachet” and one could point out stations like VH1 news stations, shows like “House Wives” shows, and MSNBC docs for maintaining the black stereotype of le “ratchet”. These shows and relics of old media  don't hold a thing to the impact new media and sites such as world star hip hop,  Media Takeout , twitter and the power of Youtube that not only accept the ratchetness, but celebrates the tom-foolery that occurs as a result of le ratchetness. (and profits exponential)

Old media outlets (news, television and cable networks) were able to contain and present ratchetness between items of serious news and entertainment segments of the day (except VH1 of course). Ratchetness was (is) spread to the masses but not to its fullest capacity. The mainstream media lacked continual visibility. To become a true all-encompassing structured identity ratchetness needed another faster, strong, dedicated avenue to mature. The miracle (or curse) of online media is that it’s a 24 hour content monster that can dedicate whole sections of the web to the nurturing and molding of a variety of different identities; hyper stimulation for the fiends of ratchet content. Hence why I call this identity “Supa Ratchet.” 

From cursing kids, to anthems, to churches singing fast food jingles on the corner, to gangsters dancing in diapers, to this *ish, and much, much, more; ratchetness has come into its own. Ratchness can be identified, has its own language , music (See: Youtube ), styles, websites (See: world star hip hop) and epistemology (yolo).  As noted in one of the links I've presented, ratchetness is not only a "black thing" but can be enjoyed by members of all races. However, if you were to google ratchetness...mmmhmmm. (The ire of a community can be seen here).

Ratchetness if its own distinguishably unique identity; however, even with ratchet content being streamed at the online community at the speed of light it has not been able to quell the online communities hunger for come content.. From pure ratchetness to structured ratchness you can see throughout YouTube and other online mediums. From ratchet girls anthem, to faux-ratchet rap, to sketches, Supa Ratchet is born. Supa Ratchet is just a imitation of what ratchetness is supposed to be.

In my last identity clash post I was able to identify the King and Queen of the Awkward Black Nerd identity; however, for this identity I can't quite peg a queen and king because of the nature of ratchets. Ratchetness is an identity but it isn't a consistent one; it is capricious, fleeting and amorphous. Ratchetness is had within a moment and reveals itself at the most inopportune timing for the perpetrators of it.  The Sweet Browns and Antoine Dodsons weren’t out to be “ratchet”, unfortunate events occurred and they reacted…while the public labeled and auto-tuned their reactions. I'd have to update this post at least 3 times a week to crown a new King and Queen.           

The awkward black nerd identity is fairly new it has a solid foundation; “pure” ratchetness is not a new phenomenon is very inconsistent and forever changing. The awkward black nerd was constructed by the black online community as opposed to Ratchet being another identity that was constructed and placed upon the black community like the jezebel, the crackhead, the mammy, the welfare queen and the other more deplorable identities. With the nurturing of the online community, with its infinite supply of ratchet content coupled with 24 hours access created the Supa Ratchet identity.

So where does the black community go from here with these two emerging identities? I don't know. \o_0/ 

I think both are very interesting and more attention needs to be given to these and many other new black identities emerging from the online revolution. 




Part 1 Here

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