It's A Big Black Thing

It's A Big Black Thing

By Staff Writer Last Updated May 27, 2020

The History and Impact of Women’s Equality Day
Facts About Koalas: Habitat, Threats and Why They’re Now Endangered
As the NPS Turns 106, Explore Yellowstone — the First National Park
Build Better Biodiversity: How to Garden for Pollinators
What is the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution and its Interpretations?
What Is a List of Biodegradable Materials?
From Grammarly to Hemingway: the Best Free Grammar Check Options
Pool Rules: How and Where to Play Classic 8 Ball
What Colleges Offer Online Degrees?
As the darkest color in the spectrum, black is known as being achromatic. This means it doesn’t have any hues, like gray and white. It’s actually considered to be devoid of color but you’ll get black when mixing the three primary colors or red, yellow, and blue together. The color black absorbs light and doesn’t reflect it back to your eye. The darkest material in the world is called Vantablack, which was created by scientists in the United Kingdom and absorbs 99.9% of visible light.
There are numerous black things around us. A list of these includes animals like penguins, fruit bats, black widow spiders, crows, panthers, cats, dogs, rats, ravens, bears, ants, and various other black insects. In nature, other things that are black aside from animals include gemstones, such as black tourmaline, black sapphire, and black diamonds, as well as coal, oil, soot, graphite, and tar.
The Black Sea has water so dark that it looks black, hence its name. Black holes in space have an incredibly powerful gravity, preventing anything from escaping them, including light. Supersonic ice, which may be found across the solar system, is purportedly hot and black. Storm clouds read as black the fuller they are. Shadows are black. And of course, there’s the black-as-night evening sky made even darker on a starless night. Generally speaking though, many naturally “black” items are actually other shades interpreted as black because of their intense darkness.
The color black can be found everywhere. Black-colored clothing and accessories (shoes, belts, hats) are popular around the world from little black dresses and biker jackets to tuxedos and full-length chadors and everything in between. Cosmetics are frequently black and include charcoal eyeliner, mascara, and nail polish. Vehicles and vehicle tires are commonly black, as are some musical instruments, such as oboes, clarinets, and pianos. Furniture and home accessories are often black. Roads are paved black. Windows can be tinted black. Basically, just about anything can be black.
Black foods include licorice, black rice, black tea, black garlic, black beans, black pepper, black lentils, squid ink pasta, black trumpet mushrooms, black sesame seeds, and blackberries. Charcoal has even been used to darker crackers and ice cream to noir shades.
Black is said to represent dark moods, seriousness, despair, and depression. People traditionally wear black clothing at funerals yet wearing black is also considered to be stylish, sophisticated, to give people an air of authority, and to look glamorous or seductive.
Strangely, black has a very mixed symbolism. Black cats were once considered to be evil yet nowadays they’re considered to be good luck. Black is thought to be mysterious, powerful, and strong. Yet it is also associated with secretiveness, negativity, and being conservative. Its negative connotations include getting a black mark, having a black mood, a figurative black eye, being the black sheep, or having a black heart. On the flip side, it’s elegant and dramatic, helping to evoke certainty and provide protection, with positive connotations that include being in the black (profitable), black gold, a black tie event, and having a black belt in martial arts.
In Africa, black represents masculinity and maturity. In the Middle East, the color represents mourning as well as rebirth. It also symbolizes mystery and evil. In Asian countries like China, black is seen as more positive, representing prosperity and good health as well as being the color associated with boys. Feminine energy is symbolized by black in Japan while India looks on it as representing death and rebellion. In South America, it symbolizes masculinity on the positive side, and mourning on the negative side. In Western cultures, it’s also associated with mourning and death, but is also considered a formal and sophisticated color.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

" Smooth Operator " Released: August 3, 1989
" I Get the Job Done " Released: December 23, 1989

^ Ursula, Melissa; Goldsmith, Dawn; J. Fonseca, Anthony (December 1, 2018). Hip Hop around the World: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes] . ISBN 9780313357596 . Retrieved November 16, 2019 .

^ " All Music Guide review" . All Music Guide . Retrieved October 7, 2009 .

^ " Robertchristgau.com review" . robertchristgau.com . Retrieved October 7, 2009 .

^ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian David (2004). Rolling Stone review . Google books . ISBN 9780743201698 . Retrieved 2009-10-07 .

^ "RIAA Searchable Database: Big Daddy Kane" . RIAA.com . Retrieved October 7, 2009 .

^ "Top 100 Best Rap Albums" . Rocklist.net . Retrieved 2009-10-07 .

^ "VH1's 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs" . prefixmag.com . Retrieved October 7, 2009 .

^ "Big Daddy Kane | Artist | Official Charts" . UK Albums Chart . Retrieved March 4, 2017.

^ "Big Daddy Kane Chart History ( Billboard 200)" . Billboard . Retrieved March 4, 2017.

^ "Big Daddy Kane Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)" . Billboard . Retrieved March 4, 2017.

^ "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums – Year-End 1990" . Billboard . Retrieved April 2, 2021 .

^ "Big Daddy Kane singles charts" . allmusicguide.com . Retrieved October 7, 2009 .

^ "American album certifications – Big Daddy Kane – It's a Big Daddy Thing" . Recording Industry Association of America .

It's a Big Daddy Thing is the second full-length album by American rapper Big Daddy Kane . It was released on September 19, 1989 by Cold Chillin' Records and Warner Bros. Records . Critics call it his best album by far.

Unlike his debut album, which was solely produced by Marley Marl , Kane himself produced the majority of the album. Production was also provided by Prince Paul , Easy Mo Bee , Teddy Riley , Mister Cee , as well as Marley Marl. In character with his first album and many other albums of the day, It's a Big Daddy Thing branches out into different styles, from battle rhymes to love ballads and more. His later posturing as a self-proclaimed ladies' man is somewhat foreshadowed by the hit song "Smooth Operator".

Even though "Wrath of Kane" had already been recorded & released on the "I'll Take You There" single, a decision was made to include a live performance taken from the Apollo Theater . The studio version has never been released on compact disc.

To date, it is his most successful effort commercially, certified gold by RIAA . [5]

In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. [6]

In 2008, the single "I Get The Job Done" was ranked number 57 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. [7]

The track It's a Big Daddy Thing has sampled sound bit from ITC Entertainment ident.

Tracks 8 and 17 are omitted from the vinyl version.

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

"Calling Mr. Welfare" (featuring DJ Red Alert )
"Pimpin' Ain't Easy" (featuring Nice & Smooth , Scoob Lover and Ant Live)
"To Be Your Man" (featuring Blue Magic and Chuck Stanley)
"The House That Cee Built" (featuring Mister Cee )
"On the Move" (featuring Scoob Lover and Scrap Lover)

Part of HuffPost Home & Living. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.
If "Black" is capitalized, should "white" be, too? Here's what language experts and Black writers think about the debate on race, culture and what we call ourselves.
Why is it so important to capitalize ‘Black’?
- Alexandria Neason, a staff writer at the Columbia Journalism Review
Why is this a thing now? And what’s wrong with African American?
Subscribe to HuffPost’s relationships email
Part of HuffPost Home & Living. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.
Senior Lifestyle Reporter, HuffPost
Koritha Mitchell writes extensively about race; through the years, she had gotten used to copy editors deleting the capital “B” in “Black” in her work.
Mitchell, an associate professor of English at Ohio State University who’s been working in academia since the early 2000s, has made a point to capitalize the B in recognition of an ethnic identity.
“Because lowercase ‘b’ was standard practice, doing otherwise usually required a struggle,” Mitchell, the author of “From Slave Cabins to the White House,” told HuffPost.
“When I was told that I would have to use capital W if I insisted upon capital B, I let it go,” she said.
As the professor saw it, there were bigger fish to fry when it comes to racial injustices than uppercase letters and “typographical equivalencies.”
But she knew it was more complicated than that: “I allowed myself to be content with how thoroughly I was representing the truth about the dynamism and dignity of Black people, even if the typography didn’t do it in every possible way.”
But this spring, amid nationwide protests about racial justice, everyone started talking about capitalizing Black.
A watershed moment came in June, when The Associated Press style guide ― which many newsrooms adhere to ― announced Black should be capitalized in “a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person.”
(The AP said it will now capitalize “Indigenous” in reference to the original inhabitants of a place, too.)
A majority of news outlets are now capitalizing Black, including this one and Fox News .
AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa.
As race continues to dominate the national conversation, it’s worth digging into why a simple matter of typography is so meaningful. Sure, you could just start capitalizing Black ― that action isn’t just AP-approved, it’s culturally sensitive ― but the reasoning behind doing so matters.
As we make efforts to redress our past, simply erasing mistakes and oversights isn’t enough; we need to make an effort to understand the whys and the history that got us to this point.
Below, we unpack the arguments for capitalizing Black ― and explore the arguments for capitalizing “white” as well.
Those who see the AP decision as superficial might argue that we should shift our focus; calls to end policy brutality and address institutionalized racism are obviously far more important. Correcting language may seem performative, a distraction from making real policy changes that impact Black Americans.
But two things can exist at once: We can fight for a more racially just America and fight for a more inclusive, racially aware language.
What’s more, there’s precedent for this: Capitalizing Black aligns with long-standing capitalization of other racial and ethnic identifiers such as Latino, Asian American and Native American, as the AP explained .
Writers of color and alternative style books have long stressed the need for capitalizing Black. Years before the AP decision, The Diversity Style Guide ― which is produced by San Francisco State University journalism professor Rachele Kanigel in consultation with some 50 journalists and experts ― recommended capitalizing Black.
“It’s true that Black, unlike African American, Asian American and Italian, is not derived from a proper noun,” she told HuffPost. “But it is an identity and to lowercase it robs Black people of a certain dignity.”
“To capitalize Black is to acknowledge that slavery 'deliberately stripped' people forcibly shipped overseas 'of all other ethnic/national ties.'”
“The widespread move by media organizations, universities and other institutions to capitalize Black restores this dignity to Black Americans, who have had so much taken from them for so many generations,” Kanigel said.
Alexandria Neason , a Columbia Journalism Review staff writer, said she “views the term Black as both a recognition of an ethnic identity in the States that doesn’t rely on hyphenated Americanness (and is more accurate than African American, which suggests recent ties to the continent) and is also transnational and inclusive of our Caribbean [and] Central/South American siblings.”
To capitalize Black, she explained in a blog post , is to acknowledge that slavery “deliberately stripped” people forcibly shipped overseas “of all other ethnic/national ties.”
For people of African heritage scattered throughout the United States, what to call themselves has always been a question up for debate, said Prudence Layne , an associate professor of English at Elon University in North Carolina.
“We’ve seen the use of negro/Negro, Afro-Americans, African-Americans, blacks/Blacks,” she told HuffPost. “It is important to understand that the use of the term Black can be applied to persons in and outside the United States who choose to identify themselves in that way.”
There’s nothing wrong with African American. Some still choose to identify as Black and African American ― using them interchangeably. Others feel that “Black” is more inclusive to immigrants from Haiti, Jamaica or other Caribbean nations who don’t identity as African American even though their ancestors may have come from Africa centuries ago.
African American can also be a confusing term for people whose families immigrated from Nigeria, Ghana and other African nations in the past century, Kanigel said.
“They may see themselves as Nigerian Americans, Ghanaian Americans and so on.”
As for the issue of capitalization, this isn’t a new conversation. In his lifetime, sociologist and NAACP co-founder W.E.B. Du Bois petitioned to get newspapers to capitalize the “N” in Negro — an argument over a different word, but one made in the same spirit.
“William B. DuBois wrote to the NY Times saying the lowercase was an insult and asking them to do otherwise,” said thandiwe Dee Watts-Jones , a psychologist and social justice advocate who writes about race. “That’s the thing when you have power: you control what is acceptable or not, what reaches the light of day, and what doesn’t.”
Some media outlets, including The Washington Post ― have moved to capitalize white, too.
“Stories involving race show that White also represents a distinct cultural identity in the United States,” the paper wrote. “In American history, many White Europeans who entered the country during times of mass migration were the targets of racial and ethnic discrimination. These diverse ethnicities were eventually assimilated into the collective group that has had its own cultural and historical impact on the nation. As such, White should be represented with a capital W.”
Capitalizing white, many argue, forces white people to see themselves as a racial group ― not just the default mode of experience.
The Center for the Study of Social Policy made a strong case for capitalizing white in March of this year, writing:
To not name ‘White’ as a race is, in fact, an anti-Black act which frames Whiteness as both neutral and the standard … We believe that it is important to call attention to White as a race as a way to understand and give voice to how Whiteness functions in our social and political institutions and our communities. Moreover, the detachment of ‘White’ as a proper noun allows White people to sit out of conversations about race and removes accountability from White people’s and White institutions’ involvement in racism.
Capitalizing white moves us toward being able to explicitly discuss the effects of whiteness without brushing them off, said Nicole Holliday , an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.
“For example, we call some classes ‘Black History’ but the ones that focus on “white history” are just called ‘history,‘” she said. “That kind of erasure is an issue, because it continues to situate whiteness as ‘normal’ and everything else as ‘other.’”
Capitalizing white certainly doesn’t have widespread support, though, in part because white supremacist sites have also been known to capitalize the “w” in white.
“Capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs,” the AP said of its decision to leave white lowercase .
Some think it may do the opposite, as Kwame Anthony Appiah , a professor of philosophy and law at New York University suggested in the Atlantic in June.
“If the capitalization of white became standard among anti-racists, the supremacists’ gesture would no longer be a provocative defiance of the norm and would lose all force,” he said.
For Mitchell, the argument for capitalizing white is understandable ― she wants to encourage white people to grapple with how they operate in a racial way, too; but she has her reservations, especially given how hard-won the fight to capitalize Black was.
“I’m not a fan of equating the terms via capitalization because, even though both whiteness and Blackness operate racially, there’s nothing equal about how ,” she said. “I prefer more direct strategies for highlighting how whiteness works.”
Until those conversations become mainstream, she’s at least relieved that capitalizing B has become the norm.
“I’m thrilled that capitalizing B is no longer a fight,” she said. “I already have to fight on so many fronts.”
Kanigel, too, said she’s celebrating this win while also looking forward to more active, meaningful systemic changes, especially in the media industry.
“Media organizations have to make other, more significant, changes, including alterations in hiring practices, pay and promotion of Black people and other people of color,” she said. “They need to change the way they cover communities of color. This a positive step but it must not be the final step toward racial equity in media coverage.”
Senior Lifestyle Reporter, HuffPost

If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.
Videos you watch may be added to the TV's watch history and influence TV recommendations. To avoid this, cancel and sign in to YouTube on your computer.
An error occurred while retrieving sharing information. Please try again later.
0:03 / 3:23 • Watch full video Live

Hypnhub
Fappening Emma Stone
Fucking Grannies

It's A Big Black Thing

Report Page