It’s what you don’t do, it’s what you don’t say
(It’s what you don’t do) I know you love me, I don’t need proof
It’s what you don’t do, the games you don’t play
Humans have a tendency of saying the right things the wrong way.
Look how we almost fight this lady, and her dog.
BeeBee and I were in Brooklyn on a photoshoot, minding our own little “Sayymahtin” business. We ended up in this enclosed area that had a hill in the centre. Click, click, click, the camera never stop flick. Then this guy comes in with his dog. We figured at this point that this was a play spot for dogs, but we weren’t harassing anyone, and Bee was happy to see the dogs come in and out. Closer to the end of our shoot, this ooooooooooone lady comes in with her dog.
It was a pretty cool dog, but the owner, well … I’d stick with the dog. A few times she ended up walking into the frame just as I was shooting. Now we know that this isn’t a place for humans, so I’d wait until she walked away to resume shooting. We move to a different part of the doggy-playfield-thing and the gate stay open. MISSY going up and tell us to make sure we close the gate because “This place is for dogsssss!” Wu-bro-she-her-wut? Now that was me in my mind, and it might have leaked onto my face. But I think Bee was ready to tell that lady to “Have a NICE day!” (You kno-uhm-shaying)
Now if we were in the Caribbean, some ole mouth would say “She doh get no sex last night man?” However, since we were in Ameri-cer, we don’t tell the lady anything.
Granted, she’s right. We were not supposed to be in there, but there were people before her that had no issue with us being there. On top of that, she didn’t need to pass her rage on us. (“Mamzel doh know who we fuh?”)
This situation just reminded me of so many other situations when someone was saying the right thing, the wrong way. Like how some teachers at school are already frustrated and pass that on along with rightful correction. Or when someone religious tries to force-feed you information that was force-fed to them that they may not even understand. Or even when your mom cuts your backside for doing something wrong, but never explains to you why it was wrong.
There was a guy once that had a lot of knowledge about Africa and “our” roots. The knowledge seemed sound and legit. He could very well get persons to side with him and “see his light.” However, you can’t open your teaching with “Jesus is a f*g*t!” and expect anyone to really pay attention to you after that point. No matter how good or legitimate your information might be.
Approach is so important. It’s like packaging and marketing. The product on the inside is important and having a better-quality product is a KEY factor for sales. However, packaging will cause a lot of persons to choose a crappy product over a solid one.
Just sprinkle some love on it nuh.
(We didn’t fight anyone by the way.)
*Cues What You Don’t Do by Lianne La Havas* (She’s amazing: Thanks Kimbo!)
