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Don't think much about you all although I'm interested in learning more about the minority of Black Canadians the descendants of runaway and free Black Americans.
I understand there is a significant community of Blacks in Nova Scotia. I would like to learn more about them.
I'm a Black Canadian. Most of us are either from Africa, Caribbean, Europe, and some are from America. Also, we make up a small percentage of the population in Canada. So we don't make as much of a impact on society or our media as a group. Many people believe Black Canadians don't act like Black Americans. I mean can you tell the difference? Other ethnic people can add their opinions as well.
Did Thunder Bay used to be two different cities, or was it always one city?
The thing is that many Canadians DO NOT identify themselves racially at all. I find that to be especially true of the latest generation, those 20 or younger. I have two grandsons who are half Jamacian black and half northern European very white. My daughter is blond, blue eyed and very fair. Anyway, her sons do not identify themselves in any racial manner at all. They consider themselves to be 100% pure Canadian. I see this as being the way we are going in the future. As our country becomes more and more diverse and the kids from all these different cultures marry people from different cultures racial identification will be nil after 2 or three generations of mixes this represents.
I'm a black American and I don't think anything about black Canadians just like I don't think anything about black Mexicans, black Germans, black French, etc. I know there are black people in practically all countries of this earth and I don't think anything in particular about them just like I don't think anything in particular about black Americans. There are a lot of us and I don't generalize people based on skin color.
Read the thread and it is pretty hilarious in a lot of places.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stretchy
I know for a fact that black Americans get stereotype of how should a black person act in America thanks to the media and other things of that nature. However not all blacks from America act this way because they probably grow up in a environment where acting ghetto is frowned upon.
This was funny, kind of hard to understand, but the gist I got is that black Americans are stereotyped. This is try but it is funny you think some don't act like this because it is "frowned upon." lol you must be one of those people who believes everything you see on TV.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stretchy
Like I said, black Canadians make up a small percentage of the population in Canada. Most of the crime, drugs, and out of wedlock children occurs in small black communities in the large cities. Young black canadians try to pretend to be Americans?
Not true, we might be similar but we have different mentality than the black Americans does.
This was interesting. What is the mentality of black Americans? You are reminding me of ignorant people here thinking that all of us black Americans are the same and are only the same in regards to negative stereotypical portrayals shown to you via entertainment outlets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by beenhereandthere
The US, is pretty much the only 1st world country where Blacks born there, often, talk Ebonic and different from whites (he be, I gots mine, etc). Other 1st world countries, including England and Canada, don't have this.
Part of what you speak of as Ebonics the "he be" and other aspects of what is known as the Black Vernacular are tenants of specific west African languages where the formation of phrases, especially "he/she/they be" are phrased the way the African would have said that phrase when they were learning English. BV is a pidgin language with specific formations of words/phrases that relate to ancestry. The "he be" said above is one sample. Another is "finna" used instead of "about to." there are other examples. You should learn about the BV and its history before denigrating it. Some areas of our country have a more foreign sounding BV like parts of GA and SC where the geechee/gullah culture is practiced. Also FWIW Creole is a pidgin language as well - a combo of African dialects and French. Many black Canadians who have African or Carribbean ancestry more than likely have their own pidgin languages that include English and other dialects. Pidgin is common in many African countries. FWIW I used to work with a lot of guys from Ghana and they had a pidgin language. After working there a year, I actually started understanding their conversations because their pidgin wasn't all that much different from English and BV both of which I understand. My coworkers were surprised I could understand and joked about them now having to watch what they said since I'd cracked their code lol.
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Originally Posted by squarian
Of course not - but very few can't "sound black" at all. Several of my university-educated professional friends easily pass the "phone test" most of the time, but slip into the classic black southern American speech patterns when they're around older family members. There also seems to be a gender difference; upper-middle class black women seem to more easily drop the black southern speech markers more readily than equivalent men.
This was pretty funny to. I am not from the south so how would I drop a southern speech marker lol. Also what is wrong with sounding "black." I am a middle class black woman and I do have a specific phone voice at work where I speak in a more professional manner but usually I speak in a relaxed manner and fwiw I don't think the BV is a horrible thing like maybe what you think. I am happy to still have something left from my African ancestors since so little is known about them. The BV IMO is something to be cherished and even though I can speak and write standard American English, I don't see it as a necessity to speak "proper" all the time. And if you have professor friends I would bet they don't either since quite a few black people know the history of the BV and are not ashamed of their ancestry like many seem to think we should.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Packard fan
Uh; "Ebonics" pretty much low class Scots-Irish English. Why so many Black people wanna sound like PWT don't make sense to me. I'm "PWT" around the edges and I'm actually white.
Please see above the BV is not the same as PWT talk though Scots-Irish also have pidgin dialects from their home country, especially in some Appalachian areas.
Last edited by residinghere2007; 12-27-2012 at 11:07 PM..
I don't believe everything I see on tv. But to a certain extent, some of the stereotypes about some black Americans on mainstream media are true most of the time and I witnessed it myself when I go to different cities even though I never live in a majority black neighbourhood and I grew up surrounded by different cultures. What is the mentality of black Americans? It depends on the individual, some act ghetto, loud, hood and unfriendly than other black Americans. I'm just being honest
For the record, I am Black American. The first Black Canadian I met was in my college years. To this day, we are still friends. I got along with her very well, and in some ways, it was nice to meet someone like her.
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