First impressions: I’m a tall Indian girl, who can seem reserved and awkward at first. However, if you see me at a party where they’re blasting some ghetto rap music, you will probably see me cat-daddying it up. My love of rap and hip-hop music has resulted in a direct correlation to my recent attraction to African American men. Yes, people, I have been hit by jungle fever.
I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I’m rarely attracted to men of my own race, much to mother’s appall. My friend Nicole thinks I am attracted to black men because they are much cooler versions of Indian men, which may or may not be true.
I guess I kind of brought this crazy obsession upon myself. This past summer, while flipping channels, I found a VH1 Behind the Music documentary on Lil Wayne. This resulted in me buying a shirt with Weezy’s face on it and attempting to call the local radio station to win concert tickets.
While watching the documentary, I became even more hooked on Drake (yes, wheelchair Jimmy from “Degrassi”). Not only did I download the leak of his album Take Care (in stores today!), I also pre-ordered it on Amazon just to support him. I’ve got posters of him and he is my current phone background. I’m not crazy, just a tad obsessed. This past weekend I won tickets to see him live in December, so my life is pretty much made.
While doing more channel surfing over the summer, I ultimately landed on BET’s “106 & Park”, where they play the top 10 hip-hop/rap music videos. The show soon became a daily ritual that I would make time in my lackluster schedule for. Something about being able to identify the obscure rappers that showed up randomly in the music videos made me feel like a music connoisseur.
To add more excitement to this ritual, my brother and I would have Rick Ross grunting competitions while watching the music video for DJ Khaled’s “I’m on One.” Pretty soon, it became second-nature to spit Busta Rhyme’s rap in “Look at Me Now” and memorize the songs on ‘Ye and Jay’s “Watch the Throne.”
By the end of summer, I was not only darker in skin tone, but also had a greater understanding of African American culture, or at least rap music. There was only one thing left to do: start scouting out those men.
Many of my closest friends began to knowingly point out black guys to me. They were now aware that my type had shifted from tall brunette men to tall African American men and helped me scout out these hotties.
Most people are taken aback when they hear about my obsession with rap music. I recently came out to my fraternity about my attraction to black men and hip hop. Here was this quiet Indian girl who seemed like nothing more than a hard-working student and now she’s in the living room teaching people how to dougie and yelling about how much she loves Drake.
I’m not one of those girls that will exclusively date black guys, though, I’m still open minded to men of all types. I did get an application to join the Black Student Union, but I’ve been a little too intimidated to turn it in because I lack the confidence to go in there and check it out.
My jungle fever, although recent, has become a huge part of all aspects of my life, as strange as that may sound. I’ve gone from listening to alternative bands like Linkin Park and Incubus to rap music from the likes of E-40 to Childish Gambino.
This music has also gotten me more into dancing because who doesn’t want to take a hip-hop class where you learn to dance to your favorite songs? Not only do I enjoy dancing and listening to rap and hip hop, but I feel like I have become more open-minded through the experience. So next time you’re at a party, don’t be surprised if you see me trying to jerk and cat daddy at the same time to impress that hot Drake look-alike in the corner. Don’t hate, I’m just being me.
MEDHA SRIDHAR loves her dark chocolate. If you want to accompany her to a BSU meeting, contact her at mdsridhar@ucdavis.edu.
Honestly? I dont meant this to be taken lightly at all, what sort of trash is this? Like others have said, this is a terrible waste of digital space, and spits in the face of everything Davis strives for in terms of diversity and cultural awareness. How could a college student at a university of all places have written this crap?
I will just echo what others have said by saying that this article is a waste of digital space and I am disgusted with the editors for printing it. I shouldn’t be surprised though this school isn’t known for its ethics.
There’s really no good explanation for opinion pieces like this to be published, especially coming in a publication from a university that loves to promote, honor, and cherish what little student body diversity we do have. It’s wholly vindictive and stereotypically boxing African-Americans into a genre of music when we’re so much more than that – and with that, a subset of that genre within a period of 5 years (Lil Wayne, Drake, and the “Cat Daddy” dance does not and will never speak for the social, economical, musical, and political implications of hip-hop) – which formulates this writers’ subsequent affinity for black men. Now, I’m not going to slander the author completely, because she clearly is ignorant to African-American culture and its impact on America past the physical attributes to its males. However, she has to know or at least have an inkling of knowledge since she’s been in college for some time that when speaking about race in such a general and stereotypical way, one could bring about a flame war. If she doesn’t, the she has not earn the moral compass that should come with writing opinion pieces. I do hope The California Aggie chooses to reevaluate the decision to publish this piece, and rather than punish the author, encourage her to seek out and learn more about African-American culture using the various resources and classes here at UC Davis to further her knowledge in its culture. In the future, I hope nothing like this speaking in such a stereotypical way of a group of any race, gender,religion, creed, or sexual orientation will be published in The Aggie again.
tolerance to these types of remarks by any individual is a perpetuation of stereotypes in society. We have to take a stand on this and not let it become an acceptable societal norm!
OCCUPY MEDHA
The California Aggie; 90 + writers, editors, photographers,and designers …. and they still let this slip through. I’m not “Hating”, I just happen to think that this is rather inappropriate as an opinion article. No opinion is expressed, other than a big “I <3 Black men and rap" sign. All I can say is WHY DID YOU BOTHER TO PUBLISH THIS?!?! THIS IS NOT LITERATURE. THEY HAVE AN APP FOR THIS! And honestly? Next time, use facebook.
in all honesty, to me this article is asinine and terribly written, and that is the most offensive thing about it. other than that, i don’t find it to be racist. this girl is basically just making a 300+ statement about how she wants some black dick, and that’s fine by me. you go get some, girl, but next time, don’t write about it.
This.
Freedom of speech. BOOM. Lawyered.
And before you yell out the hate speech argument, the definition of hate speech is: “Speech not protected by the First Amendment, because it is intended to foster hatred against individuals or groups based on race, religion, gender, sexual preference, place of national origin, or other improper classification.”
Do you honestly think she “intended to foster hatred” against African Americans? She’s trying to get with black men. Unless this is a weird strain of flirting, I highly doubt it.
BOOM. Lawyered twice.
You obviously do not understand what all these commenters are talking about…this article is all about stereotyping people making face-value judgments, two things that are part of the slippery slope of hate speech.
This is honestly one of the most disgusting articles I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not even mad at Medha, i’m more disgusted with the editors of the Aggie for giving ignorant speech this platform. As University of higher learning I would expect student to follow along with the goals and missions of the University as stated in the Principles of Community. I can no longer respect this editors for destroying the name and reputation of our University but publicly posting ignorant messages like this for the world to see. I will do everything in my power to report this and see that critical action is taken, because this is completely unacceptable.
Wow can’t believe this even made it on the newspaper…Guess i can “scout” black girls cause i listen to ghetto rap too.