I took the deep breath necessary and watched “When They See Us” Ava Duvernay’s series on Netflix that has resurrected the word, “wildin,’” the treacherous word, so pregnant with meaning, pain, rage and memories. How did this silly word get to mean so much, as it was desperately plucked from the mouths of babes? How did it so quickly morph into an indictment of all black men?
What does wildin’ really mean? As “they” have used it, it means: wild, violent, on a rampage and without regard for human life? As used in the Central Park Jogger era, It is a word that became synonymous with young black male restlessness. Wildin’ is the whip that was taken to the hides of black babies as they were abused, coerced, lied to and jailed.
Could this poison word be reflexive, referring not to us, but to it: an evil racist system.
Used in a sentence: “We know whose really wildin’.” And, they must be stopped in 2020.