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1swag·ger (from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

1: to conduct oneself in an arrogant or superciliously pompous manner; especially : to walk with an air of overbearing self-confidence

I was on my way home from the track a few mornings ago when this young dude started signaling from a distance. He raised his hand, the back of which was facing me, and waived his middle and forth fingers towards himself. In short, it looked like he was summoning a girl. I turned to look around and sure enough, there were some young girls standing right behind me. I kept walking. Then he started screaming out, “Ayo! Yo!” I turned around again, but I had passed the young girls. Convinced now that the young dude was a lunatic, I kept walking. Then he approached.

“Yo,” he said.

“Are you talking to me?” I asked, truly perplexed.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Then try ‘Sir’,” I said quickly, probably even a little angrily. “I’m an old man. I’m entitled to it. And you know what? It would probably garner respect among your peers if you used it on them too.”

The poor kid turned from a swaggering imitation of a music video character to a humbled child right before my eyes. He wanted me to buy him a Black & Mild.

Now, I have no problem with helping young teenagers obtain drugs, alcohol and sex with each other, but I do demand that I’m addressed correctly while doing so. I’m old fashioned, I guess.

The standard “swagger” that today’s younger “swagger-jackers” (a very good term, actually-it means imitating the way another person behaves foolishly) try to copy is Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em’s.

Why Is His Swag Making Me Crazy?

Soulja Boy, however, is entitled to his “swagger” despite the fact that he makes awful music, because he does at least make hit songs.

And here’s where I blame my own generation (and not just cause we, as a group, tend to hate on Soulja Boy); in our quest to convince teenage girls that 30, 40 and even 50 are the new 16: we haven’t provided the role models necessary for younger people to be able to pattern themselves after. Therefore, they end up imitating each other-and they do even that poorly.

Young people need to know that if you’ve got to swagger around like some kind of idiot, you should at least have something that you’re good enough at to be proud of. Then they’d probably realize on their own that if they were actually good at something, there’d be no need to “swagger”.

AUDIO: Usher “Get My Swagger Back”

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.