What the hell is an "African Booty Scratcher" and why are immigrant African kids being called this?
A Facebook friend posed this very question this morning. I must admit, I chuckled when I first read the post. Suddenly I was transformed back to the 5200 block of Warnock Street in Logan, when we kids would torment and mock each other with the nonsensical phrase. We even had a dance for it - if you could call it that. We stand there, with our lips poked out and play-scratching at our butts.
Hey, we were ten and it didn't have to make sense.
What exactly is an African Booty Scratcher? Who started it? And more importantly, when we used the phrase, as children, were we most offended because of the booty scratcher part or the African reference?
Anyway, I googled the phrase - just out of curiosity - and stumbled upon this great short film called, "African Booty Scratcher." I don't know much in the way of background on the short, other than its a couple of years old and written/directed (?) by Nikyatu Jusu. But it deals with the difficulty that first generational Africans, particularly the youth, have in terms of balancing identity and cultural assimilation.
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