Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR (May 21, 2021) • Page 42

Awfully brave of her to leave comments on.

 

she’s 19 - she probably hasn’t realized how cynical and awful the internet is yet

 

"don't read the comment section" - best advise you can give any young star

 

they should teach it in middle school these days. @OhTheWater please tell me you’re teaching it to your students

 

I’ve explicitly said this to mine

 

“I got my COVID vaccine last week,
just like we always talked about”

 

radio edit of Brutal changes where's my fucking teenage dream to I'm over this teenage dream which is a completely different song I hate it

 

This is a smart thing to release

 

I know it's tough because internet lingo progresses to a point where cultural appropriation can be accidental but hopefully she stops

 

Not excusing it, but.... Isn't that how 90% of kids these days in the US speak?

 

yes, don’t know why were upset an 18 year old talks the way 18 year olds talk

 

this person on twitter legit calls her out for using..... "yung queen" in a tweet. Possibly the most common phrase 18 year olds use to positively raise up other women.... queen.

 

Yeah you’d have to cancel every female student at the school where I teach.

 

I don’t think “that’s just how the kids talk” really absolves anyone of the problem being addressed but yeah I don’t really get what coming for Olivia actually does in this scenario, like she is somehow worse than anyone else

 

yes. it’s a bigger societal thing that should change. but hyperfocusing the issue on her seems odd and misogynistic. it’s nothing compared to what people like chet hanks and tyler herro do, who are much older and should know better.

 

I just don’t understand people who expect her to make a statement and want to old her accountable lol like what the hell does that even mean


a lot of it is borderline bullying though I don’t care what the law says 18 is still a child

 

It definitely feels a bit misogynistic when they are going hard at her for this but not any white man who also uses this language. Also someone in the replies pointed out that Ariana has used similar language before but it didn’t cause a commotion like Olivia using the language has.

 

Ariana literally has a song with the lyric "Hood love" like sis is blatant lol

Not that it necessarily should make it better but I think it makes a difference to me too because someone like Ariana I heard speak before and she never had that sort of accent until the last few years. Olivia's could be just as put on but she's talked like that since I've been aware of her so I've never rly noticed how put on it is. Actually idk that I've ever heard her speak very much before that clip

I do always notice how in Traitor she said "before I went and fell in love witchu" and it's always been distracting and felt out of place to me and I'd rather she didn't

 

Feel free to tell me I am very wrong here, because I am always open to learning, but is it not a good thing that black culture is part of the American mainstream with the younger generation, that kids of all races and ethnicities are being exposed to multiple forms of music and culture? Isn't the entire basis of language built around what is popular and absorbed, and in turn becomes part of the language itself?

 

I'm responding to this as a black man myself. Black people speaking this way is seen as unprofessional and we've been mocked and ridiculed for it. But when a non-black person speaks this way, no one seems to care, and some people consider it to be cool. It's a pattern of non-black people being able to adopt something considered part of black culture and not facing the same ridicule as a black person doing the same exact thing.

A lot of people take mannerisms and sayings from black culture and use it to seem cool. Me personally, I understand it if you're not black, but essentially grew up in a black environment, and it's a culture you basically adopted because of your surroundings. But too often, I've seen people who don't have a single black friend or acquaintance act this way, and it's weird because it seems like they're trying to come off as cool. It's not natural. Not sure if I explained that very well, but here's an example. Look at how Eminem dressed back in the 2000's. He grew up in a black environment so no one cared. Now imagine a white kid from North Dakota or wherever acting the same way. He'd get looked at a bit funny.

In essence, here's what I'm trying to say.
A white person goes around saying "What up my G." Everyone thinks it's cool.
A black person goes around saying "What up my G." They're told to speak properly.

Hope what I just said makes sense.

 

The short version is (and I’m sorry if I misunderstood your post and am just saying shit you already know) that Black culture has long been a part of the American mainstream but is often used as a tool by non-Black people for their own benefit and/or profit — also often without really acknowledging the Black culture that it comes from. The most common examples can be found in the forms of AAVE, choreography, and fashion

The line between participation and appropriation is super blurry and the frustration about it gets misplaced a lot imo. I don’t think anyone should be out to “get” people that occasionally borrow vernacular, especially if they’re not profiting from it. But I also don’t think it’s wrong for Black people to see a part of their culture used as if it’s a trend and get a little annoyed by it, maybe even fire off a few tweets. In this case it just feels weird because they’re coming specifically for Olivia so it raises some q’s