Am I too much of an Uppity Negro?!

Today I got a text message from my friend whom I refer to as my sister about my godsons. They are 3 and 4 years old. The text message read “I think I’m going to dread the boys up” and in response to this text that awakened me from my good slumber I responded with:::

” Dreads are a choice that are adults can make not children. They are not supposed to be a fashion statement. I’m sorry but I’m going to keep it funky with you, in my opinion that’s hood rat shit. You may as well get their ears pierced too, and put a sign around their necks that says “” hey I’m a niggah child! Judge me before I open my mouth and before you look at my test scores! I will be deemed a problem child in the classroom because no one will really take the time to see that I’m an intelligent and charming child.So go ahead I welcome you, place me in those ESE classes!!” 

The conversation continued and shortly in response she said to me: ” I can name a shit load of teachers with dreads…it’s a Tampa thing! All the kids are black, they’re all intelligent and they’re all from the hood.”

Now maybe I’m just that much of an Uppity Negro that it all went over my head. But I just feel like young mothers today are consistently subjecting their children to the hip hop nation. I think that dreads are a choice that one makes, when they are older and exploring who they are as a person. I think today dreads have lost all meaning and are for a fashion statement or to prove that one is “blacker and downer” than the masses. I just don’t feel that she should be handicapping our children before they even really get a good head start out of the gate! I’m sorry to say but black men can’t do everything black women do…they just can’t. If a black woman has dreads she is deemed as a one with nature strong beautiful black woman by blacks and whites , while men on the other hand are profiled even more so than usual and deemed dangerous drug dealers.

I don’t care how intelligent, how successful, handsome a man with dreads is, the masses don’t care to see that because all they see is “that’s another drug dealer” or “he’s going to rob me!” Even black people think the same thing…black women even say “ew he has dreads they better be clean that negro nasty” 

So why in the world would we put dreads in 3 and 4 year olds head. Children are influenced by what their parents want and like, if she says to me that the “boys want them though” of course they want them because you’ve planted the seed and said “baby…you like that little boys hair like that? you want dreads? Mommy likes that” then the boys will be begging to get dreads..when they need to be begging to read a damn leap frog book. 

Am I too much of an Uppity Negro to understand this? Am I too conservative?? Do I live to much in the white man’s world that I’m not down enough?! 

Someone please offer me some insight and give me another way of looking at this, because at this point I can only say…damn there go some more niggah children raised by a mom that was too young to have children in the first place…damn another statistic.

Parents who encourage hood behavior get hood results..

But maybe I’m just too much of an Uppity Negro….