"You're the whitest black guy I know."

Here's a side note to the Washington DC story, I was at the bar (what a suprise), and I was talking to the sista bartender. I told her I was from Boston, and she said how she felt sorry for me! I said why? "Well, Boston is so racist, i don't know how any black guy could live there." I said, I'm sorry, excuse me? It's not CLOSE to that bad. She explained to me that she dated WM and she couldn't have a good time going out with him because everyone stared at them. I told her that I dated WFs and I didn't have a problem. She asked how I dealt with it and I answered it like this.."I IGNORE THEM!"

I never got that at all. You like who you like and fuck everyone else. You're either in my world or you're not.

Two simple words, but I don't know how to take it. Could you elaborate? I can't change the way I speak. Edit: I'm just curious. Speaking King James English is not a fault and doing the right thing for my work is not a negative.

Black Tiger

 

You know what's funny, is that I've had this exact same conversation, only it was me, in the role of the "white guy".

This "Whitest Black Guy" thing is the story of my life. I agree it gets extremely annoying, because it lets me know how many ignorant people there are out there. Everyone thinks in stereotypes, so when a Black man doesn't speak slang, and doesn't walk around with his pants hanging off his ass looking like a fukkin circus chimp, the world is astounded, and he is "acting white"

I've never understood this, but I've always used proper english. My whole family is this way. Being educated and articulate is nothing to be ashamed of, hopefully society will catch on one day.

 

True Dat homie...lol

But really, I can attest to this. My last GF told me on more than one occasion, that if I had spoken slang and acted stereotypically Black, she wouldn't have given me a second look. I fact, while I was in Michigan, I got around pretty far with WW, because a lot of them weren't looking for the "thug'

 

I was thinking about this topic while on the bus the other day.
I live near ChinaTown and so there are always lots of asians (Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Cambodians, etc...) on the same bus as me.

Now, they have their own unique culture and cultural habits, including the kids having a particular style of dressing (with some of the girls trying to dress all Harajuku and all that...) But it made me think about this topic and I wondered if other races get the same kind of flack from their communities about "acting white". I have heard about the opposition to interracial dating, but I do wonder if there is a whole "act asian" pressure - just like the pressure some blacks feel to "act black".

I wondered if some asians ever hear the phrase "You're the whitest Chinese (or Japanese, Vietnamese, etc) guy that I know."

I know that this is a little off-topic, but I was curious if you guys had any thoughts on this.

 

A little off-topic, but food for thought nonetheless.

 

a few idiots at my college asked me 'have you ever woken up and thought your were white'. i just laughed it off at the time

 

Wow,

I didn't know Black West Africans invented Kings James English. Furthermore, I didn't know wearing Khaki's, polo shirts, wearing pastel and/or blue, gray, and black colors, and wearing tailored suit coats was the thing pre-colonial times along the shores of West Africa. Whew. Learn something new everyday.

Point.

All Black people, who have been colonized by White Western powers, "Act White" to some point or another b/c we have been accultured into the dominant culture, White Westernized society. It's just in different degrees to how acculturated each of us are--some more so than others. Also, "Acting White" has a different meaning to each Black person who is using the term. It is not a monolithic definition.

If you want to go deeper, many of these thugs and ghetto princesses who supposedly call themselves "real brothas and sistas" and "
Keeping It Black" is the most Whitest people you want to meet due to their appropriation of White American traditional values and norms to the 100th power. Worshipping the mighty dollar and doing whatever they can to get it, practicing an extreme form of individualism not considering the collective, and judging your self worth ONLY on the material things you can accumulate in a lifetime--money, power, and respect--Very Mainstream White American too me.

 

Take it from a bloke* who has heard this ALL his bloody* LIFE!!


*I* KNOW!!!!

And it even was as recent as late 2006.....from a YOUNG WHITE FEMALE VISITOR from The States!

Guess it just MIGHT be my biracial blood, eh? :roll:

(* - N.B. : The British colloquiallisms I oft times use -- I, uh, PICKED UP whilst LIVING an' WORKING here.. After all, I *AM* a card-carrying, flag-waving CHICAGOAN!!

OpinionsCartoonStudios@yahoo.co.uk

 

yes yes, i am the whitest guy i know :lol:

 

THAT kind of a mentality from the student body of ESTABLISHMENTS OF HIGHER LEARNING.....that allegedly are to PREPARE them to be FUTURE MOVERS AND SHAKERS?

Yep, idiots....

Wotta WOILD!!!!! :roll:


OpinionsCartoonStudios@yahoo.co.uk

 

Hi all. I'm new to the site, but I had to post in this thread. I've heard this type of thing all my life, from whites and blacks alike, and it is really infuriating...I think it's white people attacking us (subtley) for not fitting their stereotype, and for black people, it's just self-hatred, pure and simple. If you're well-spoken, good diction, good vocabulary, then you're not black. It never occurs to black people what they're saying about themselves, and our race when they say that. As a race, we have serious self-defeating attitudes, and this "acting white" thing is a reflection of that..insane...

 

Welcome seansean. Oddly enough this is something that I, a white woman, has dealt with. When I moved to DC with an (black) ex, I was told on a number of occasions that I was blacker than he was. Crazy, since I am pretty darned white. I attributed it to my ex's more affuent & academic background. With working class roots, I guess I was sometimes more at ease and sometimes had more in common with folks in similar social classes even if we weren't of the same race, like in the neighborhood where we lived.

 

I'm very new to the forum and saw the posts.

I have heard the the whitetest black" comment constantly. I tried to overcompensate by becoming this "black radical type". Guess what it did not change mo' freakin thing. The more I got involved in the Black Community the less love I got.

A lot sistas were rejecting me for being too weird and not black enough.

Don't get me wrong white women have been guilty of the same fallacy. When I was stationed in Germany. A lot of thug out brothas were dating white women. Most white women would not date me because I wasn't real to them.

Here is the kicker. When I stopped dressing like the preppie that I was/am then and wore timbeland boots and hoddies. White women were all over me. I have less trouble with women in general when I decied to be happy with myself.

 

Riiiiiight...sounds like a lesson from hypocrisy 101 :roll: :lol:

 

Nextvision it seem some of those WW loved the thug look.

 

Be Yourself-Don't Pretend.

 

Well, I am not going to relate to Jaime's comment because the original thread isn't about it.

I guess for me I have dealt with it multiple times in my life with the class statements "your different", "I have never seen a black person like you before", "you are really a white in a black person's body". I guess when I think about it, I have had some good relationships with people that would not have been possible and people look differently at you for being different. Although, I dislike hearing statements of that nature because I am my own person.

As one person said about liking J-rock, and other non-traditional black music, it sometimes relates to your influence. Also, I think that you cannot necessarily be a culture you only do what you like to do what appeals to you.

 

Stereotypes never work,they just bring a illusion.

 

My dad is black, my mom is white... people often aren't sure how to stereotype me.

I've got dark skin but I don't sound like a black urban American should, based on what mass media seems to define that as... Mind you, I'm in Canada and have grown up in a predominently white/multi-cultural setting.

It doesn't surprise me when white people have a biased preconception of how I should talk and act before they know me... but I'm often amazed how black people often have a similar expectation about how "black" I am or should be.

I long ago decided not to live my life by meeting other peoples expectations of who I am... I live to shape my character by my own individual standards. I find most reasonable people will judge me on that basis... those are my people.