Wegmans Comes to Prince George's County

Today, October 24, at 7:00AM, marks the opening of the newest Wegmans.  It is located in the newly developed Woodmore Towne Centre off of 495 (Exit 17) and 202 in Lanham, Maryland.

The people of Prince George's County, MD, a largely African-American suburb of Washington, DC, are excited about this highly anticipated new grocery store along with the other retail outlets that will be coming to the area soon, including Costco and a JC Penney (I'd prefer a Bloomie's or Saks but that's better than nothing).  Best Buy opened the last week of September, which was much needed after the closure of Circuit City in 2008. 

Growing up in Prince George's County, my parents were always forced to shop elsewhere, mainly across the bridge in Virginia, to find department stores and supermarkets that were of a higher quality than those offered to residents of the county.  Now, many years later we are finally getting something no other surrounding area has, Wegmans, and everyone is excited. 

While a new grocery store may not seem like much, Prince George's County has been without for so long it's nice to see we are finally being afforded the same opportunities as other affluent communities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

To read the press release for the Wegmans Woodmore opening, click here.  To learn more about the Woodmore Towne Center development project, click here.

If you aren't familiar with Wegmans here's a little blurb I pulled from their website.

Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., is a 77-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The family-owned company, founded in 1916, is widely recognized as an industry innovator. For 13 consecutive years, it has ranked high on the FORTUNE magazine’s list of “The 100 Best Companies to Work for,” placing #3 in 2010. 

Wegmans

9001 McHugh Drive

Lanham, MD 20706
240.487.5400

Negro Dialect - What is that?

I've written several articles and essays over the years about my thoughts on the subject of "Speaking White" and I felt the need to address it again after the whole "Negro dialect" comment sparked an uproar a few weeks ago.

Mid-January Democratic Senator Harry Reid made some comments in regards to President Barack Obama and his way of speaking.  Although, I'm sure in his world, he thought what he was saying was meant to be a positive comment, it wasn't.  But really, who even uses the word "Negro" anymore.  I've heard German and Russian people who aren't Westernized use it but in the United States, the word Negro has been practically obsolete since the early 70s. (except for on the 2010 Census, but that's another story)

 Below is a paragraph from CNN.com discussing Reid's comments, to read the entire article click here.

"He [Reid] was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,' " Halperin and Heilemann say.

Let me begin by talking about my own experience with proper speech.  Growing up, I had friends of all races and from different cultures and we were taught the King's English, as it's so often referred.  If you blind-folded someone and tried to have them guess as to the ethinicity of the children, they would've had no idea because we all sounded the same and we liked it that way.

Over the years, speaking sproper English was all that I knew.  If someone was new to the school and pronounced words incorrectly our teachers would correct them.  You'd never hear a child say "ax" instead of ask or "pacific" instead of specific, that wasn't tolerated.  We rarely used slang and if we did, it was only in front of each other, we wouldn't dare use it in front of our teachers or our parents.  Boy have times changed.

When I went to high school, I decided to venture out because I didn't want to go to my local school, instead I attended a neighboring school that focused on Science & Technology.  The very first week at my new school I knew I was in for a different experience.  While my cohorts in the Science & Tech program were very similar when it came to the way we spoke, the neighborhood kids or "the locals" as we called them (shaking my head) had an entirely different way of speaking.  It was amazing how differently we spoke even though we lived only 10 minute radius from one another.  If you're from the DC area you know what I'm talking about. For instance, area was pronounced ur-rea, Maryland - Mur-lin.  I refused to assimilate and continued to speak that way because that was not what I was taught. 

In high school, I'd alway get comments like "You talk White" or "Why do you speak so proper?"  It never bothered me when other Black people would say it, I just figured they weren't educated the same way I was, but that wasn't my concern.  It wasn't until I was older when White people would comment on the way I spoke, it was always "You're so articulate" or "you speak so well."  I grew to hate the word "articulate", not because I wasn't proud that I was able to speak well, but because people seem to think all Black people or African-Americans are supposed to sound the same.  I found it offensive because you'll NEVER hear a white person tell another white person that they're articulate.  It's just unheard of.

Even as an adult, people make comments and assumptions based on the way I speak.  When I tell them what schools I went to from high school through graduate school, I'm always greeted in shock.  For some reason, people assume if you speak proper English you went to private and Ivy League schools.  Not sure where that idea came from.

I speak the same way, whether I'm addressing a superior, co-workers, friends, or even my mentee.  I see no point in dumbing down the way I speak for anyone.  I don't believe there is such thing as a "negro dialect".  People will speak with different accents based on where they were raised and it doesn't make one person better than the other.  We're all very diverse people and should never be judged by having a certain pattern of speech.

World AIDS Day 2009

Today, December 1, 2009, marks World AIDS Day. I'm glad that there are days like this that encourages people to know their status and to go out and get tested.

Living in the DMV (DC, Maryland & Virginia) area it's scary to hear the statistics out there about the number of HIV/AIDS cases there are, especially in the District of Columbia. Despite the staggering the numbers, the truth is those are only the numbers of those who've actually been tested. There are so many reckless people out there who are infecting their multiple partners and have no idea that they even have the virus.


It kills me that people still think you have to look sickly and have lesions all over your body or be some crackhead to have HIV/AIDS, that is so far from the truth. They think the only people who live in a certain area or live a certain lifestyle are the only ones who are affected by this disease. I guess people won't realize that isn't true until they see for themselves that HIV/AIDS knows no color, race, religion, socioeconomic status anyone and everyone is a target.


It's so easy to go and get tested. In many places it is free or covered by insurance. There should not be shame in saying that you get tested for STDs and AIDS. It doesn't mean that you're a slut, whore, freak, or even that you're engaging in risky behavior, it just means you want to be informed which is admirable. I'm not afraid to admit, I get tested every year regardless of whether I'm dating anyone because it's just something I feel is important. I've made it part of my annual routine.


After all these years, it saddens me to think so many people think they can beat the odds just because. Wake-up people, AIDS is everywhere! Studies show there were more cases of HIV/AIDS in DC than in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The only way we can do something about this epidemic is to get tested and to know our status.


We've all heard the old adage ignorance is bliss. When it comes to taking 5 seconds to protect yourself against the consequences then your ignorance is just plain stupidity. Get tested before it's too late.


Interesting Websites:
http://www.hivtest.org/ (Find a Site Near You)
http://www.posornot.com
http://www.staying-alive.org/en
http://www.aidstruth.org/