Written by Nicole J.

Following on from my post about throwaway children, meaning black children birthed into this world as an unfortunate consequence of sex rather than a legacy to honorably continue a bloodline, we have a case study to dissect.

This video, viewed over 2.8 million times at time of writing, features a girl, called Nay Nay, no more than four years old, embodying so many negative black stereotypes in less than thirty seconds. For those who didn’t watch, there is a girl in a play argument with an adult male, where she displayed “thuggish” (for lack of a better word) mannerisms, was loud, aggressive, and getting all up in the dude’s face (well, his knees, because she is a literal child), with the hand ? clap ?emphasis? thing ?  that has gained popularity of late.

Unless some truly dramatic changes are made, this child’s fate to be a member of the permanent underclass, as KsC puts it, is sealed.

Why am I dooming this child from a 23 second video?

Based on her attitude shown here, I would be surprised if she grew up to be a functioning member of society at all. It wouldn’t take much for her to mess with “the wrong one” and end up in a jail, a hospital, or a cemetery if this is already how she behaves. When (not if, when) she squares up against someone who isn’t “in on it” like the dude she’s arguing with, and she catches hands, what will happen then? She has the whole hoodrat spiel down to a science, in her words and mannerisms, and based on her young age, I’ll give you three guesses as to where she’s learned this. Your first two guesses don’t count. But we’ll go into that later.

For Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, I wrote about how black parents fail their children, and this display is an example. For all the comments left under that video criticizing the child, the fact remains, this is a little girl, and it is her terrible parents that have allowed this behavior to flourish. Children at this age are little sponges, and absorb what they see around them. This behavior is what she’s seeing at home, and someone in her circle thought it was cute and decided to record and share it with the world. You can just tell how clever this girl is; can you just imagine if her role models showed her behaviors that would serve her better than Arguing 101? She is not at fault for imitating the behaviors that are no doubt being modeled to her at home.

The adults around her have also failed her in a massive way. Rather than let this child know that this display is completely unacceptable, they have gathered around her, recording her and encouraging her like a sidewalk sideshow. When the adults in her life are getting a kick out of this, it comes as no surprise that she continues for the positive attention it receives.

Speaking of the parents, they are trash and that whole bloodline needs a hard reset. Everyone on the scene recording, encouraging and allowing this behavior to happen in culpable in whatever fate befalls little Nay Nay. As she said, she’s going to “get her mama” and gestured towards her, so she is present to witness this display, and does nothing about it. When the camera pans over to “her mama”, there are four women there, with one holding a toddler also witness to this, ensuring that another little girl sees what she should do to be praised by her family and friends. There are at least six adults in this video, and no one saw fit to hit pause on what is clearly abnormal behavior.

And of course, as per usual, black women will always be there to defend the indefensible, and excuse-make for clearly abhorrent behavior. Case in point:

So it’s slave mentality to teach little girls basic respect and not to fly in the face of males, even as a joke? I don’t think strength was displayed in this interaction, merely video evidence of parental failure and a prelude of things to come in Nay Nay’s teenage years. Silence does not mean weakness, and loudness does not mean strength. I wish more black women knew this.

After reading this comment, I’m mad because there are black women like the woman who posted this who see nothing wrong with the video. Dropping an F-bomb would be the least of it, really. Again, yikes.

If this was her as a little girl, this woman’s parents failed her too. That admission is nothing to be proud of. And if she’s raising her son to be that way, I fear for anybody, man or woman, that crosses his path in the future. This is NOT how toddlers behave, and this belief is what will continue to give rise to the permanent underclass.

I didn’t go through all the thousands of comments, but the small number of people defending this nonsense was black women. Another reaction I saw was a handful of black women tagging their significant other saying “this is going to be our kid” as if it is something aspirational, or other people tagging their black female friends saying “this is you when you argue” like it’s something to be proud of. Why are people so desperate to cling to and identify with the basest of behaviors?

Is it any wonder why society at large believes that black women and girls are not deserving of protection? Why little girls who have barely finished puberty are adultified the minute they buy their first training bra and expected to know better when they fall victim to a well-known molester? Any passers-by could see this girl behaving like this and think that she either 1) can handle herself, even though she is all bark and no bite, and even if she did have bite, her teeth would not have the same impact as a bigger opponent, or 2) will turn that venom to someone trying to help out.

In any case, she is a child embodying the behaviors taught to her and encouraged by the adults around her. Even in the video she proclaims she is going to get her mama, standing on the sidelines. Her mama, who is too busy participating in and praising damaging behaviors for her bloodline than putting the phone down and doing some actual parenting.

With the community in as dire straits as it is, there is great need to truly invest in the children, the very future. Encouraging young girls and boys to be their best selves, and admonishing the negative behaviors they may want to emulate after seeing it somewhere, is key to the improvement of the collective.