I spent a lot of time making excuses for Yaba. I excused her accent. I'm not talking about the twang. I'm talking about the manufactured "blaccent," particularly on words like on, which screams... wigger (by way of the Bronx). And the dreaded I seen construction. I've gone my whole life without hearing that, I start listening to Gorl World, and it's everywhere.
I excused her lack of reading comprehension, her failure to correctly pronounce certain words, even when told how to pronounce them (Seriously, 2 years on and you still don't recognize the word quinoa in quinoa trauma?) and her stuntedness (e.g., the Cartman voice for... everything). I also excused her "I-may-not-be-book-smart-but-I've-got-street-smarts." Or common sense. You can always, you know, read a book. You could read several. Presumably.
I excused her "preaching," her parenting practices I didn't care for (not just removing her son's door, but the fact that it was due to his not doing his homework -- I don't recall Yaba ever talking about, say, making him do his homework beside her/in her presence). And I, of course, excused the company she kept (Ron, MFW, Diane, Sam, ex-partner, DC, Charlie, Callie, FFG at times, etc.), because at the time, I didn't care much about the rest of Haydur Nation or its history (and I suspect I was like a lot of her audience). I even forgave two middle aged lesbians identifying with the music of a 25-year-old white rapper, which is just... cringe.
I genuinely enjoyed her point of view and it went well with my coffee. During the Belinda meltdown, I wanted to put the blame on Samantha. She was riling up Yaba! And that's not fair. Yaba is a grown woman, a mother, a vinyl business owner, a survivor of this or that, and she has street smarts. And given her history, Yaba lives for this. This is what Yaba enjoys (way more than Chantal -- unfortunately, it doesn't pay) -- she's just getting back to her roots. The Belinda livestreams (hers and Sam's) demonstrated it. And this behavior affirms it.
This makes me wonder about a lot of aspects of Yaba's life. Is she a good parent? Is she a decent person? I'd entertained the notion of giving her another chance, as I'm out of reaction channels. I suppose I'll have to "keep it pushing" for now.