Although it is Ginger Spice of The Spice Girls who is the first one to decide to take her flava out of their mix, it is Scary Spice I want to address here. Straight out---Why did that one get to be called Scary? Yeah, it's clear to see that she is "The Black One", but they are all, seemingly happily, pigeonholed into some kinda young male fantasy characters. I mean, none of the other Spices have a name that could evoke a negative (Did I miss something, is the word scary ever used to mean it's opposite?). What, Sporty? Baby, whatever? I've heard little acknowledgment of this from those who say; "Their a fluff group but they are popular and are actually making boucoup bucks from this stint...", BLAH, BLAH, BLAH (I know yadda, yadda is more popular now but I prefer this).

I think if anyone should be called Scary in that group it should be that Baby, whatever. I mean, she must be over 19. I'm mean, I know the Girls are not working to mature into the Spice Women (Could be interesting, no?) but, what's all this sexual baby girl act she's working? What, it's better to be a little girl? Yo, that's the same ole, same ole. I've been told that The Spices are heavily admired by adolescent girls. You know, I see girls all over the city, sucking on their Spice Girl candy. Ginger, Baby, and Sporty seem to be the most popular for kid sucking (Although I understand popularity and peer influence, there's something sickeningly weird about a kid wanting a Spice Girl candy) What's up wit that? What's she promoting?

It is a rare thing for a popular girl group to be in any way racially mixed. These groups tend to appear briefly (remember that accapella female English group some years back?), are usually hyped somewhat because of this mix, and fade off into I Don't Remember Them Land. Whether you are down wit them or not, Scary Spice along with the other girls are international stars. They appear to have a lot of back as media spices. Which leads me to believe they have fans, which may include young girls of races other than white who may consider Scary an idol and will begin to act on her name cue. This could begin a fad of girls of color who will dub themselves with other stereotypeophile names like Bitch, Goldigger, Welfare Mom, Savage, Lil' Hottentaut, Chocolate (I think some musician or poet has already been there). OK, OK, I'm going off. More than likely this idea is actually way over the top. But I do think some young girl somewhere thinks Scary's name is really cool.

I don't want to be a whiner here, but let me lay this out---The black Spice girl being named Scary, seems a none too subtle statement of the obvious; black women are considered scary. I mean, even Astronaut Mae Jemison, was harassed and charged after she was pulled over by some cops. She knew she was back on this planet then.

What planet are the Spice Girls on with this Scary stuff and why doesn't it seem to matter to anyone? Hey, maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe I'm just jumping on the bandwagon of endless press about this Spiced up group. Truthfully, I've only seen them once or twice on TV usually doing a number for some awards program. I did read an early article about their United States arrival in the Sunday Times. I also perused the groups spread in the Sunday Daily News (which was overly promoted in radio and television advertisements). I think I even looked at the poster.

Possibly, Scary Spice chose the name herself. But if so, to me, there's something seriously twisted in that. I mean, what would inspire her to chose that name? Did she feel she needed to stand out more from the Spice pack? I don't wanna jump all over Ms. Scary but, why has her name been a total non-issue with the public? Maybe things are different in England (original spice rack for the Spice Girls). Maybe the word scary does mean it's opposite or something else in England. I do believe that Americans have a large hard capacity to entangle race and naming in excessive detrimental ways. I have not seen proof that Americans are willing to work consistently and thoroughly against their own prejudices.

I've gotten a lead (I'm sure there are fan clubs out there) on The Spice Girls record company, and I plan on doing some looking into what Ms. Scary's opinion is about her name. I copied some information from the back of one of their CDs that I put back on the rack when I was done.