Rules for the college educated black man in DC. Agree or disagree? (high school, live)

[The Heartbreak Kid]

Be intelligent(or pretend),
Be well dressed at all times,
Know everybody worth knowing
Always be pleasant-well spoken or else you'll be deemed ignorant/ghetto,
Don't have views outside of the collective norm

All of those come with a or pretend clause
Because if you don't your ways of being are not good enough

[KStreetQB]

Don't those rules apply to everyone?

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by The Heartbreak Kid

Be intelligent(or pretend),
Be well dressed at all times,
Know everybody worth knowing
Always be pleasant-well spoken or else you'll be deemed ignorant/ghetto,
Don't have views outside of the collective norm

All of those come with a or pretend clause
Because if you don't your ways of being are not good enough

Those are basic rules for anyone trying to be a professional.

Conformity to the 'professional' norm is expected regardless of color.

If you're college-educated white and don't do those things, they call you hipster, and you serve coffee to those people who can conform to it.

Hick/Redneck if you can't conform enough to even make a double mocha right.

[The Heartbreak Kid]

Originally Posted by KStreetQB

Don't those rules apply to everyone?

I don't know Kstreetqb, only had the chance to experience one side of it. I stole it from a friend's facebook page. In young professional black DC, individualism is frowned upon.

[Bluefly]

Yeah, that's universal for educated professionals. Try being Asian or Indian and you'll see those rules amplified tenfold.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by The Heartbreak Kid

Be intelligent(or pretend),
Be well dressed at all times,
Know everybody worth knowing
Always be pleasant-well spoken or else you'll be deemed ignorant/ghetto,
Don't have views outside of the collective norm

All of those come with a or pretend clause
Because if you don't your ways of being are not good enough

I disagree with not having views outside of the collective norm. I can personally care less what everyone else think. I'm not some robot that has been programmed a certain way. I have my own ideas on things and whether people like it or not is not relevant. The only thing I would say would be similar is how I express those views. You can't go around arguing with people all day just because they have different views. That's a good way to lose friends and contacts. I have a friend from high school that does that and a lot of women avoid him.

[The Heartbreak Kid]

Meatkins, that is a good thing. I am just saying how that is frowned down upon in the DC Young Black Professional Culture. The longer I live here, the more I understand Clarence Thomas.

[mrchanello]

conformity, dressing sharp and conservitive, never speaking out of turn, etc, all rules that are taught to any young professional.

You can always go outside those rules and still succeed, but that's considered what's "safe" and what most who want to serve the corporate overlords will do. Including me.

[btsilver]

Meh, I only look the part. Talking to me is a whole other perspective. I'm pretty sure my thoughts don't fall under the typical "black professional educated" class in DC, but you couldn't tell from looking at me.

[jujulu]

Originally Posted by The Heartbreak Kid

Be intelligent(or pretend),
Be well dressed at all times,
Know everybody worth knowing
Always be pleasant-well spoken or else you'll be deemed ignorant/ghetto,
Don't have views outside of the collective norm

All of those come with a or pretend clause
Because if you don't your ways of being are not good enough

I don't believe this. The ration of black males to black females in DC is out of whack, making dating easy for the SBM without following these "rules".