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Originally Posted by Sunil's Dad
As for the music, I don't think those records in question are distributed or disseminated by black people, because blacks do not control the record industry.
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The major label stuff (that's controlled by whites) isn't the problem. By the time artists like Jay-Z and 50-Cent make it to MTV they are watered down and only threatening enough to be interesting to suburban teenagers. And even before, when he was slightly more dangerous, well, Russell Simmons ain't white. The hardcore stuff that the kids on my corner (and anywhere in this city) listen to is DIY and recorded in someone's basement or it's some small-time record label run by the local drug lord - like this guy
The Takedown of Ace Capone | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/10/2007
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Yes, it incenses me when I hear things like "talking white" or "trying to be white" when black kids try to speak standard English or take up hobbies that are not "typically black."
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I was in a department store at the Cherry Hill Mall last year and this latino woman got a call on her cell. She answered it and starting talking. After listening to her for a minute it was obvious that she grew up here but had that Mexican-American accent one would expect to hear in San Antonio. Then she said, "why you talking white?" and I could I hear the girl on the other end say "What!?" and the woman, on the other side of the clothes rack from me, said "You sound white all the sudden, who you been hanging out with?" Then she saw me on the other side of the rack and immediately switched to Spanish but still admonishing the girl, so I chuckled loud enough to get her attention and said as sarcastically as possible, "no, no, todo esta bien. no soy aqui."
Generally, the kids on my corner are no different from the white kids in Whitman or Fishtown who dress the same and even sell the same drugs. What is different is that few of the black kids on my corner know how to conjugate a verb. It's not that the white kids are much better ("I seen him last week.") but they generally seem to grasp the idea that there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd person verb forms, singular and plural. They still talk like morons, though, and it's a big part of why they'll never break out of a few select fields. No one wants to hire someone who sounds barely literate to be the face of their company - black or white. It's really a shame because some of these kids (the guys on my corner) are really bright and just get used up and spit out by the bosses who drive the nice cars and go back home to the suburbs every night.
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However, I do not act, speak or dress like a gangster, but I still have a problem getting a cab or being harassed (i.e., stopped for no reason) by cops. I do and have done everything "they" tell me to do. Why do I still have these problems?
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I've had cabbies who have told me that they won't pick up black guys after a certain time of day. They're almost always the south asian or arab drivers. I've also had cabbies tell me that they won't drive through or to certain neighborhoods at night and that means that when black people walk up to the cab they roll down the window part-way and ask "where are you going?" and if you give the wrong answer you're not getting in. Those are mostly the west african guys.
When I first moved to my neighborhood I had to get out a few cabs because they wouldn't drive here and those that would drive me would turn around and look at me to see what my deal was and some would even ask, incredulously, "You live there?" And once when I was trying to go with some friends (all white or asian) from Old City to North Philly it took us 20 minutes to get a driver that would take us up there.
The cops thing, I wouldn't like to be black in NJ but to be fair, they're not a nice bunch to anyone, really. My younger brother got beat up by the Long Branch PD (really just one cop) at the age of 17 for playing his car stereo too loudly outside the home of the former fire chief. The cop got off in my brother's case but he was later disciplined and fired for doing the same thing to a black kid.
My brother and I were routinely stopped and frisked while walking home from the Bradley Beach train station. Even after the cops knew us.
When I was in the army and used to drive home for long weekends I could count on being pulled over within 15 minutes of getting off of I-95. 95% of the time the cops would just shine their light in the car, ask me where I was going and why and then say "have a nice night." and if I asked why the pulled me over i usually got a "how 'bout you just get on your way before I find one." This wasn't just here and there. This was 8 or 9 times a year for 3 years.
On the way home from my grandfather's funeral we saw three Little Silver cruisers that had one car on the side of the road all lit up. We expected to see something really dramatic. When we passed the scene it was some white teenager and his girlfriend in some beat up Honda looking scared out of their minds. My brothers and I laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of the scene. But it was January and the windows were rolled up. Apparently one of the cops saw/heard us laughing and chased us down, catching up with us two miles later (I was only going 40 mph) at speeds that must've hit 100 mph judging by how fast he came up behind us and how long his tires locked up for just so he could avoid hitting us. Here we are, all dressed in black, and he's asking me the usual BS questions without saying why he pulled me over and finally I say, politely, "we're just on our way home from a funeral, is there something wrong?" To which he threatened to arrest all of us for "yelling" at them and then told me "looks like tonight is your lucky night" as he had to respond to another call.
My experiences are not at all unique among my (white)peers and that goes for beatings, harassment, illegal stops, illegal searches and general abusiveness. Again, no doubt that black men have it tougher in most jurisdictions but being white by no means gets you any sort of pass.
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Originally Posted by tommyc_37
C'mon, in our society, in NJ, public display of racism is EXTREMELY taboo. It was NOT taboo in the old days of my Italian and Irish ancestors...that is what I was saying.
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It never occurred to me just how taboo expressing any thoughts of racism with mere acquaintances is in NJ until I moved to PA. I don't know if it's that people are actually more racist here or are just more comfortable expressing it to strangers. Either way it's scary and it's a good part of the reason I don't live in a white neighborhood anymore.
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Slavery itself was not a racial thing...it was an economic thing.
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It was definitely a racial thing. European indentured servitude was more or less outlawed by the 17th Century both here and in England. All the slaves in the US came from sub-saharan Africa. If it had worked I'm sure there would've been a lot more native american slaves.
The british were big fans of using indians and indonesians/malays to do all their work (much like the Chinese experience out west) but they were never slaves - so you can't say that it's just the non-christian thing. There was a certain enmity towards africans. Who knows what the excuse was.
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