(no subject)

[bluebeard]

Oh, here's an idea for a meme...

Let's propogate a black person's phone number across LJ, so we can laugh at how they talk!

wow. how white of you.

Comments

[dom-ino.livejournal.com]

and it was awfully white of him too, behind that he's the whitest black man of them all.

I've known enough black people that know perfect English but choose to speak black street anyway that I'm sure they're well aware of the history behind what led to it, and they're also aware of what white people think about it. For many, there's an identity politics behind that choice -- they don't choose to speak that way out of ignorance (though there's those that are), they choose to speak that way to distance themselves from white people that think they're high-and-mighty but in actuality still hold on to a stale racism that should have been forgotten ages ago.

[dom-ino.livejournal.com]

behind? being.

[arfuni.livejournal.com]

Whitest black man of all? And you're accusing us of being racist?

The inability to learn the language of the country you live in is not a political statement, sorry.

curious

[(Anonymous)]

and who is it exactly who has mastered this "language of the country" in which we live?

dialect:
1 a : a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language

also, refusing to accept something that is used as a tool for discrimination when you have a choice, in other words preferring the discrimination to the preferential treatment acting otherwise would provide, is in fact quite political.

[signe.livejournal.com]

they choose to speak that way to distance themselves from white people that think they're high-and-mighty but in actuality still hold on to a stale racism that should have been forgotten ages ago

Which just gives the bigots all that much more ammo to work with. It's like ... stabbing yourself to spite the bully. You're just doing his work for him.

Cosby hit the nail on the head. Yes.. there *are* smart black people... duh. There also happen to be a fuckload of idiotic "black youts" (just as many as there are white) who think that the stupider they act, the cooler they are. They get nowhere in life and then they're bitter and angry about it once it's too late. The difference is, whites have no scapegoat. There's no "transparent man keeping the white man down," or anything. People are responsible for their own futures and in this day and age, there's little besides themselves "keeping them down."

I don't know what you're talking about with the phone number thing. Sounds stupid.

[kyooverse.livejournal.com]

Ok, I am adding you for the chief reason you KNOW this.

I am so tired, even in my LJ, of having people say they don't understand what I am saying when I know they are attempting to pull some linguistic racism wool over my eyes and I'll be DAMNED if I don't know better.

I am so tempted to write a post the way I would prefer to say it with all the great nuances of B/black street vernacular and then a translation entitled "honkiese."

But then, that is during moments of severe frustration...

Personally, I don't think white people are aware of what they think about it -- seeing as though they use this same language to sell each other products. *rolls eyes*

[dom-ino.livejournal.com]

I'm often amazed how much internalised racism plays a part in people.. but then, I think about it, and I'm not so much any more. Our (the US, collectively) past has made people flock with who's similar, which leads to ignorance about one another, which leads to assumptions, to hate, blah blah... White people assume about black people, gay men assume about lesbians, gay men and lesbians both assume about trannies... and vise versa, all of them. The pride talk is great and all, but it's really sad that people take it to the point that they won't consider the opinions of anyone outside their statistical-marketing-target demographic.

I think a post showing the difference between black street and "honkiese" would be fantastic. :P It's just a linguistic exercise, after all -- maybe include other English dialects? Deep southern? Brooklyn-ese?