I'm uncomfortable being called black.

[Benvolio]

At one time "colored" was politically correct, as in National Association of Colored People.

 

[IamNoah]

At one time "colored" was politically correct, as in National Association of Colored People.

No, no I'm not attempting to give you an opening to rant about PC terms for what you and your Aryan rent boys most likely call mud people when no one is around. I mean I am uncomfortable to an extent being identified with this particular ethnic community insofar as I'm not really a member of said community in any meaningful way.

 

[otters]

your Aryan rent boys

[Benvolio's catamites? Druggies, most likely]

 

[Kabluey]

[Benvolio's catamites? Druggies, most likely]

And illegal immigrants...

 

[GreyUnderscore]

Why choose a "side" when you can just be yourself? I've had people say I'm black, black and white mix, and latino. It doesn't bother me when a person assumes I'm black or mixed. I continue to be myself. If I have more interactions with a person who continues to identify me as another race then I'll just mention s/he s wrong but most of the time that's not needed especially after spending some time with me.

 

[bankside]

Yes, well I remember being baffled by an Oprah moment where she was talking about mixed people, some of whom were going through similar lines of thought as you've laid out here, and with the greatest self-assurance she gave us the answer as only Oprah Glibfrey can:

YOU may know you're not black but THE WORLD will see you as black, therefore you're black. OPRAH MOMENT!!!!!!!!
And probably Black with a capital b, btw.

It was such self-evident nonsense. I thought "Fuck that, I'M the world, we all are, and when I see someone with parents of two different ethnicities, I can see how they resemble EACH of their parents. In fact I can't help but see it. The only way to fail to notice one part of someone's ethnic ancestry is to willfully ignore that part, and in my mind the most likely reason for that is racism. At the very least it is profoundly ignorant of a person's actual reality.

Funny thing is, everyone in the (American) audience thundered and shouted their approval - even their relief - that Oprah had finally cleared this up, and bestowed this identity on people from on high.

The other funny thing is, this did not resonate at all with any of the mixed people I knew from my late teens / early adulthood. They thought it sounded delusional, and they quite happily (and logically and accurately) refer to themselves as mixed.

 

[bankside]

I think that arguing style you are describing is more or less just what poor people do tbh, but race and class are difficult to treat as discrete phenomena in the United States.

...if only people had a teacher to help explain the distinction...

I teach this shitty community college class on "Success." In my state context means that I teach poor black kids how to act around white people.

 

[luckynumbah7]

No, no I'm not attempting to give you an opening to rant about PC terms for what you and your Aryan rent boys most likely call mud people when no one is around. I mean I am uncomfortable to an extent being identified with this particular ethnic community insofar as I'm not really a member of said community in any meaningful way.

In that case it would depend why you're uncomfy - what does any meaningful way mean to you? In my experience if someone slots you into a box they're gonna treat you like they treat everyone else slotted into that box - your actual history these days usually doesn't make much of a difference to how strangers treat you. What I mean to say is no one has ever come up to me and asked for clarification about what box they just categorized me in before whatever bigotry takes place actually takes place. It goes for ability/disability, sex, gender, class, what have you.

Then again it can get particularly galling to have people assume things about your history that are erroneous when talking about particulars, especially if those particulars seem obvious to you. For instance the prev house member is black and it took several days to find out he's also antisemetic. I'd hate to think what black (orthodox in particular) Jews experienced in a convo with him. Y'think you're on the same footing and then a whopper comes 'round and beans you over the side of the head.

---nvm on the location, I'm mistaking you for someone else there.

 

[HoodedRat]

Yes, well I remember being baffled by an Oprah moment where she was talking about mixed people, some of whom were going through similar lines of thought as you've laid out here, and with the greatest self-assurance she gave us the answer as only Oprah Glibfrey can:

YOU may know you're not black but THE WORLD will see you as black, therefore you're black. OPRAH MOMENT!!!!!!!!
And probably Black with a capital b, btw.

It was such self-evident nonsense. I thought "Fuck that, I'M the world, we all are, and when I see someone with parents of two different ethnicities, I can see how they resemble EACH of their parents. In fact I can't help but see it. The only way to fail to notice one part of someone's ethnic ancestry is to willfully ignore that part, and in my mind the most likely reason for that is racism. At the very least it is profoundly ignorant of a person's actual reality.

Funny thing is, everyone in the (American) audience thundered and shouted their approval - even their relief - that Oprah had finally cleared this up, and bestowed this identity on people from on high.

The other funny thing is, this did not resonate at all with any of the mixed people I knew from my late teens / early adulthood. They thought it sounded delusional, and they quite happily (and logically and accurately) refer to themselves as mixed.

No real surprise there; Winfrey is a Racist-Amercian™.

 

[-Kane-]

No real surprise there; Winfrey is a Racist-Amercian™.

 

[mikemizanin729]

 

[luckynumbah7]

My husband says this is not class based or racial, but regional? It's a Southern thing. Which makes some degree of sense if one considers that most black Americans are two or three generations removed from the south--at most.

If you're talking arguing style, no, that's the arguing style where I'm from. Then again I once saw a description of pa as "two cities with Kentucky in between" or something like that so not sure if my state counts in the grand scheme of things.

 

[IamNoah]

Oprah did not invent the one drop rule nor is Oprah the reason why my father-in-law who despite his racismm actually loves me in great big fatherly Mormon ways constantly refers to me as black even though I basically never refer too myself as black without air quotes. And don't get me started on the push and pull that black culture does with mixed folks. Insofar as both of my parents are mixed a third of black people think I'm self loathing if I don't just say I'm black with no caveats, another third neither considers me black nor even likes me, and then there's another third who are a mixed bag of skin tone fetishists, normal humans, people who want to know why I never joined my black students union at school, guys who think me sleeping next to a white man every night is the heart of darkness, weirdos who think I have some special insight into the magical properties of whiteness, etc This has become a rant. I'll stop. I'm just frustrated.

 

[HoodedRat]

This thread is RACIST!

 

[LuckysRevenge]

Sounds like you have some deep seeded issues within yourself. Sign up for some ObamaCare and seek out some mental health services. You don't have to be miserable all your life.

Unfortunately have to agree with this.

 

[IamNoah]

Unfortunately have to agree with this.

I invited you once elsewhere in plain language to stay the fuck off of my threads. They seem to cause you distress. Go the fuck away. I can point you to the initial interaction if you are confused.

 

[otters]

Unfortunately have to agree with this.

And I wouldn't have guessed that you're an astroturfer, but apparently you are, unfortunately.

 

[IamNoah]

And I wouldn't have guessed that you're an astroturfer, but apparently you are, unfortunately.

I had to google that.

 

[Vitamin]

Pfft. You have the right to identify however the fuck you want. It's your skin, and you're the only one living in it.

 

[LuckysRevenge]

I invited you once elsewhere in plain language to stay the fuck off of my threads. They seem to cause you distress. Go the fuck away. I can point you to the initial interaction if you are confused.

Sensitive much?

If you don't want certain people in your thread, then maybe a public message board isn't for you.