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Its not about education or speaking proper english nessecarily. I don't think most Americans speak proper english all the time. Michelle Obama is very educated and I have yet to hear a black person make fun of her English. Tiger Woods on the other hand is different.
What I thought of as talking white was about the accent. I know its not politically correct to say this, but there is a difference in accent between the average black person who grew up around areas with signficant black person and white and black people who grew up in mostly white areas no matter the region. I have cousins who grew up in mostly white neighborhoods and their accent/tone is noticeably different from the black neighborhood I live in.
Not necessarily. I know many African-Americans who have grown up in predominantly White areas that have an accent/tone that is similar to persons who grew up in a predominantly African-American area. Sometimes other things influence the way one talks.
Somewhat. It does have a large black population, and quite a few are middle class. I like Columbus, and if I were going to live in the South or Lower Midwest, it would be my first choice.
Its not about education or speaking proper english nessecarily. I don't think most Americans speak proper english all the time. Michelle Obama is very educated and I have yet to hear a black person make fun of her English. Tiger Woods on the other hand is different.
What I thought of as talking white was about the accent. I know its not politically correct to say this, but there is a difference in accent between the average black person who grew up around areas with signficant black person and white and black people who grew up in mostly white areas no matter the region. I have cousins who grew up in mostly white neighborhoods and their accent/tone is noticeably different from the black neighborhood I live in.
So every black person from Canada "talks white?" Because they ALL have Canadian accents -- some even speak French. Most black Minnesotans (who are not from the Cities) have Minnesotan accents.
Tiger Woods speaks the way I would expect an educated person of any race to speak. I don't find anything "white" about his dialect. Also, Tiger Woods is not black, but mixed -- he's more Asian than anything.
Personally, my accent is Upper Midwestern, with a hint of Inland North/Great Lakes. I don't have the "African American" dialect and I don't sound like I'm from the South, because I'm from the Midwest. Yes, I grew up in a mostly white area, but I don't see why it matters.
I think you just say this because you're from Chicago, where there is a large difference between black and white accents. Most black Chicagoans sound like they're from Mississippi or Arkansas.
West, I get that. What I don't get is Kazoo's generalizing in a very condescending and denigrating manner about an entire people and an entire culture, one, despite his aspirations, which he is connected to. One thing you have to understand is that the outlaw figure has been glorified in American culture since there has been an American culture. The desperadoes of the Wild Wild West. Al Capone. Bonnie and Clyde. Various and sundry gangstas, murders and robber barons. This is no different; it is quintessentially American. Couple this fascination with white American media's exploitation of the black Other for profit, and we have the convergence of very dangerous factors. Yes, it does happen, but most black folks want nothing to do with this idiocy, a fact totally lost on your homeboy.
the problem with what you said is that AA took it too seriously... seriously, it's easy to be mad at someone who criticize you but harder to wonder why you are being criticized...
While I have to admit that the gang culture is less predominent in the media (a god thing), many black people still glorify it, here many exemples :
- A 4.0 grade black youth in engineer student decided to drop school to become a wannabe rapper... WTF?
- 4 young middle class borther got gift from their uncle... that gift was rifles & uzzis... & they took picture posting like gangstas with thoses... WTF? The mom did the right thing by suing them... but you see how ****ed up their mentality were when the sister blamed the mother for suing her brothers... again, WTF?
- Hoodnews... a so called news network run by black people focusing on the unfair threatement in the "hood"... First of all, why do you focus on the hood, ain't nothing other than the hood for black people...?
Secondly, they are full of crap, they support bad behaviour, here some exemples : woman on a bus see police on the street minding their business, woman on the bus flip off the police, police come to arrest her, she resist the arrest, no footage of her being beaten... But hoodnews, defend that woman, say that what police did was a crime, show some footage which clearely show nothing about bad behavior by the police, but hoodnews says missconduct...
police recieve call about a robbery, police arrive at the scene see a man run who fit the description, police chase him & arrest him, hoodnews complain about police arresting him...
idiot black man blaming white people for his bad credt check...
just type hoodnews on youtube, you will see what i'm talking about.
Now the most disturbing parts
DC: 51% of the peoples are black but almost all the murder victims are black (mean it(s a safe place for whites)
USA : 14% of the peoples are black but 48% of the murder victime are black...
Thoses are the issue we as black people need to solve... we can call police brutalities & hate crime as loud as we want but we are the main people who kill & bring bad publicity toward black peoples...
ps; to the one citing montreal as the best exemple for black people... dude, black people in montreal only make 7.1% of the total population, so they have to make friends who are also non black othewise they will run out of friends... & it's also very segregrated, minotiries lives in rundown place like cote des neiges, montreal north, riviere des prairies...
By not having an interest in stereotypically black things, that means someone is denying her culture? How is that the case?
Personally, I show pride in all aspects of my heritage, including my black side. I don't think I need to have stereotypical interests to be proud of being black.
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think I see what you're getting at. So, if I'm understanding you right, in your opinion, being African American is defined by fulfilling the perceptions that many have of black people. So, a black person who:
is from the Deep South or the inner city
speaks AAVE (sometimes called "Ebonics")
listens to rap and R&B
eats "soul food"
plays/watches basketball
enjoys Tyler Perry and Wayans Brothers movies
wears 59/50 fitted caps and baggy clothing
dates only black women
is "African-American," while a black person that:
lives in a small Midwestern town
speaks North Central American English
listens to country, rock and techno
eats all kinds of foods
plays/watches hockey
likes satirical comedies
wears clothes from American Eagle and Target
dates women from all ethnic backgrounds
is not "African American" and is distancing himself/herself from black culture.
I'm sorry, but I don't go for that at all. In my opinion, what makes someone black is their African ancestry. That's it. You don't need to fulfill the stereotypes to be black, anymore than a white person must fulfill their stereotypes to be white.
I seriously doubt that is what UTHorns was saying, but as always, your issues of self-hatred shine through and you jump to the most ignorant conclusions.
I'm a black woman, and abhor Tyler Perry or Wayans Brothers movies, I feel a lot of the mainstream hip-hop is utter trash and filth used to denigrate black women and emasculate black men and thrives on the worst stereotypes about African-American Culture.
And just to let you know, quite a few white, hispanic, and asian men have got a taste of the Oatmeal, thank you very much.
I don't really have much of a discernable accent, don't really talk in slang, I'm an agnostic, I love all sorts of cuisine of food, I wear clothes from Target, and I love satire, and I listen to all sorts of music. I was playing MUSE and Dixie Chicks on my iPod when I was working out last night. Yes, I love R&B and hip-hop, but I tend to prefer more independent and concious artists or singers like Jill Scott, Algebra, or Erykah Badu (even if she is a practicing witch, or so I've heard when I lived in Dallas), but those are not the only genres I listen to.
But as usual, you let your internalized issues and self-hatred get in the way of having a discussion and depend on the worst stereotypes because you think you're so different from or better than other black people. And then have the nerve to sit here getting all defensive and wonder why people confront you the way that you do when you condescending attitude and instantly thinking the worst of all black people in general in your posts, even when people try to explain those aren't the only things considered traditionally black in America.
I used to think you weren't this obtuse, but I truly think you must be if you think all 40 million black people are a monolithic entity who all enjoy the narrow window of stereotypical activities you listed that you think that all black people supposedly enjoy. If you think those sort of stereotypical activities are what is considered to be 'culturally black' in this country, or assume that is what UT was saying, you are more ignorant than I previously thought.
I see why you didn't fare too well in the South. In spite of your efforts to distance yourself from black culture, talk down to blacks, or align yourself with the whites you so desperately want to be, they let you know real quick what they thought of you. Self-hating tragic mulatto archetypes such as yourself don't usually do to well there. So keep living in your little world of delusions, but you'll get a "Negro Wake-Up!" call sooner or later.
Last edited by Overcooked_Oatmeal; 03-23-2011 at 12:08 PM..
Being black is having a black skin, end of discution
That's the one drop rule all over again. Are you "more" black if you are darker/have a larger percentage of African genes?
What if you are 25% black? Are you still black? What about the other 75%
Although "having black skin" is a really easy definition, but it isn't very clear because there isn't one look for "black skin" and some light skinned black people look like meditteranean people, latino people, middle eastern people etc. It is pretty ambiguous.
That's the one drop rule all over again. Are you "more" black if you are darker/have a larger percentage of African genes?
What if you are 25% black? Are you still black? What about the other 75%
Although "having black skin" is a really easy definition, but it isn't very clear because there isn't one look for "black skin" and some light skinned black people look like meditteranean people, latino people, middle eastern people etc. It is pretty ambiguous.
ok, let me say it diferently, being black is having afro characteristic no matter how you behave
I seriously doubt that is what UTHorns was saying, but as always, your issues of self-hatred shine through and you jump to the most ignorant conclusions.
I'm a black woman, and abhor Tyler Perry or Wayans Brothers movies, I feel a lot of the mainstream hip-hop is utter trash and filth used to denigrate black women and emasculate black men and thrives on the worst stereotypes about African-American Culture.
I don't really have much of a discernable accent, don't really talk in slang, I'm an agnostic, I love all sorts of cuisine of food, I wear clothes from Target, and I love satire, and I listen to all sorts of music. I was playing MUSE and Dixie Chicks on my iPod when I was working out last night. Yes, I love R&B and hip-hop, but I tend to prefer more independent and concious artists or singers like Jill Scott, Algebra, or Erykah Badu (even if she is a practicing witch, or so I've heard when I lived in Dallas), but those are not the only genres I listen to.
Other than self-identifying as black, there isn't really a common definition. But when people assume you aren't identifying as black because you listen to certain music, dress a certain way, or talk a certain way that's equally as wrong as creating a monolithic definition of black culture and identity, and I don't feel like we've moved on from that yet.
For me, I was accused of "acting white" by some people for a long time until someone threatened to get into a fight with me, and I politely told them off. Suddenly, that was proof I was "black." **rolls eyes**
I found, growing up, the "acting white" concept wasn't an issue in California. Most people sound "Californian" although there are some people that have a so-called black accent (I have met plenty of whites, latinos, asians, etc with the exact same accent. It is more neighborhood than anything else).
I'm a black woman, and abhor Tyler Perry or Wayans Brothers movies, I feel a lot of the mainstream hip-hop is utter trash and filth used to denigrate black women and emasculate black men and thrives on the worst stereotypes about African-American Culture.
I hate this argument, the women listen, praise, and dance to these songs willingly. And there are women artists that perform songs with identical content but they aren't generalized as the men are.
Being black is more than your skin color, in my opinion. You don't have to conform to the stereotype of a black person but to be in-tune with your culture (African American culture) is important. Latinos, Europeans, Asians and others can be "acting white" as well.
I hate this argument, the women listen, praise, and dance to these songs willingly. And there are women artists that perform songs with identical content but they aren't generalized as the men are.
Being black is more than your skin color, in my opinion. You don't have to conform to the stereotype of a black person but to be in-tune with your culture (African American culture) is important. Latinos, Europeans, Asians and others can be "acting white" as well.
Beyond the stereotypes, what do you mean by "being in tune with your culture?" Is it about being "conscious" and political? Or is it just about being interested in the typical "black interests" I listed in my other post?
You can't act a color.
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