People from the “hood” are commonly defined by the internet as people who grew up in crime-riddled and low-income neighborhoods or cities. They are stereotyped as being thugs, deadbeats, and criminals by outsiders. The thing that is peculiar about this is that they are, more often than not, fetishized. Fetishizing something is essentially to obsess over it or idealize it in an unhealthy way. People are allowed to have preferences, but fetishizing is different because this preference is based on negative and untrue stereotypes. People make photosets on Instagram and Twitter and caption it ‘If they ain’t hood, ion want it’ or comment on a picture of a man wearing a durag saying ‘hood niggas [insert heart eyes and salivating emoji]’. As if a man in a durag equates to him being from the hood or hood adjacent. They pick and choose parts of the hood they want to be attracted to, but lock their doors and windows when they drive by a street that even looks rough. On the other hand, in the wake of Nipsey Hussle’s death, many women are comparing their men and putting them on a pedestal at the expense of Nipsey by saying ”See this is why I don’t date hood niggas” or “Glad I can sleep at night knowing my good man is safe and up to no good”. Not only is this inappropriate at this point in time as people are grieving Nipsey, but it’s also never appropriate to fetishize anyone and that’s exactly what is happening in our culture.
Twitter user and blogger Erin Dyana Mclaughlin @medusastongue weighs in on the topic, tweeting
“dis why i can’t date no niggas from the hood! what did she expect!” if y’all don’t shut your miserable square asses up. Y’all deadass be talking about hood niggas like they wild animals with contagious diseases or something.
— Olenna Trill (@medusastongue) April 3, 2019
And she’s right, men from the hood are either blamed, or they’re fetishized. There is no in between. Not all men who grew up or live in the hood are up to no good. A lot of them are hard workers and business owners who are still actively involved in their communities. Some of them have made mistakes in the past and got involved in stuff they shouldn’t have but the end of the day a lot of them try to compensate for it. Nipsey Hussle was a prime example of this. He may have gotten involved in bad things, but he was changing for the better. Nipsey was also avidly working towards giving back to his community and helping others not make the same mistakes as he did.
This victim-blaming mentality is just another way many black people try to enforce classism. I’ve seen it first hand with my cousins who grew up in the hood. We attended schools in the same district and went to the same after school, daycare and summer camps, and are all intelligent individuals. But, people instantly try to spot the difference between us and pinpoint that they are dumb and no good because of the area they live in, and try to paint me as this good person just because I lived in a safer area. When they would go to the corner store, the clerk would watch them closely because they were black kids from the ghetto. In reality, I was a thief. I stole my cousin’s game system charger because I lost mine, and yes, I planned to return it when I was done using it, but the principle is that I still hadn’t asked permission. Then when my mom later asked me about it, I lied and said it was mine, but she instantly saw right through it and confiscated it from me. As I grew older, I had a lot of friends who would always have nice new stuff, friends that were from the same side of town as me. However, their parents didn’t buy them that stuff, they would steal it. Most of them had the money, but their train of thought was ‘why pay when I can just steal it AND keep my money?’. Meanwhile, kids that are from the hood mind their business, obey the law and are contributing members to society. Make it make sense.
In order to fully gain equality, we need to start leveling the playing field for people who may not live in nicer areas and opening up the same opportunities to them that are afforded to their more well-off counterparts. Also, the fetishization of people from the hood isn’t cute, and it needs to be stopped. They’re regular people like everyone else. There is no reason why one would specifically be looking for people from the hood to date just because of the stereotype that they’re “dangerous” or whatever else one may think. Once people, especially people in the black community, start holding each other accountable and stop with the arrogance and delusion. The black community could make great strides of progress.
