countrified

The Spanish is paisa — countrified — while the English has the tough tone of someone who grew up off Vermont Avenue.

Even at Howard, that great mecca of higher learning, there was always a formulaic assumption about Black Southerners: that we were countrified hicks, docile, unaware of the social constructs that bind us to a way of living, incapable of resistance — our drawl, the way we said mane and gull instead of man and girl, made us different, a sorta sideshow, an oddity within the fabric of Blackness.

Even at Howard, that great mecca of higher learning, there was always a formulaic assumption about Black Southerners: that we were countrified hicks, docile, unaware of the social constructs that bind us to a way of living, incapable of resistance — our drawl, the way we said mane and gull instead of man and girl, made us different, a sorta sideshow, an oddity within the fabric of Blackness.

But between the countrified lineup and the summer heat, which came in after many of the Californians who flew in for Jonipalooza left, Sunday brought the weekend’s most party-friendly conditions — that is, if the long-haulers could rally.

“Combs unleashed his crunchy, countrified head banger ‘Cold as You.’