Foreigners observations/opinion on AA’s in Atlanta (White: camp, living in)
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LOL! I enjoy watching stuff like this play out when I'm out and about... it's all a part of the culture and it's usually all done in fun. This is the sort of thing I love about living in the city!
I suspect this was all done with a big dose of humor, and the boldness of a guy who is sweet on girl and, no doubt, wants to gets some action!
If the guy was hatin' on his woman, that's another thing altogether.... not having witness the give and take, I'll just assume it was done in good humor with the boldness, and perhaps irony, of black culture.
I'll give you an example...
Last summer I went to a club with some co-worker, First Avenue in Minneapolis [the club where Prince made a name for himself.]
The guys in my group went to the "Techno Music" room, I had about 5 minutes people dancing as singleton robotic statutes to techno/industrial music and said to myself, "get me outta here!"
I escaped to the main floor, where they were playing hip hop music, and in no time I had a dance partner, a black guy, and we were havin' fun. Nothing bad, we were just dancin'
One of the white guys from work saw me dancing, and later asked me how he could get a woman to dance with him. I said, "You white guys need to take a clue from the brothers - just ask!"
The nerdy white guy said, "But she might so 'no'."
"So what? Just move onto the next woman. That's what the brothers do, they play the numbers game. You are afraid to ask even one woman to dance - no wonder you get no where."
"But my friends might see me get turned down, and that would be embarrassing."
"Good grief! With that attitude, you'll never get a dance, much less a date!"
It's a part of the black culture to be bold. Black men who have assimilated into the white/middle-class, professional culture have learned to not do such things as pick up a MARTA speaker to announce his love and lust for a woman... but I suspect he's bold in proclaiming his love, and lust, to his woman in private!
My point is... don't expect everyone to act in the same manner as the culture you were born into.... learn to enjoy the diverse fabric of city living. Learn to appreciate, not judge, other cultures.
And remember, when you are riding the MARTA south of Five Points, you are likely dealing with the socio-economic class of generational poverty. In the culture of generational poverty, crude sexual jokes are much more a part of the vernacular of the culture. You don't have to like it, but try to understand it for what it is... a culture vastly different than your own.
Why do you excuse vulgar and inappropriate behavior as just "part of the culture". Thats a cop out. I know many poor people who would never do this, and I know many black people who would never do this. These people would be pretty offended if they saw you excusing some one talking about having sex on a subway train as just "part of the black culture" and "part of city life".
I was taking MARTA to the airport. I forget what station, but it was definitely south of Five Points (which is a different story). This AA got on the train, and on speaker phone, was loudly talking to some girl about wnating to have sex with her. He continued to use vulgar language in sweet talking his girl. Who does this??? Although you try to not let this sway your viewpoint of a certain race, it unfortunately does. And I know the vast majority of AA's would not do this. But people like this individual give other AA's a bad name.
Ignorance which cross racial and social lines.....
Why do you excuse vulgar and inappropriate behavior as just "part of the culture". Thats a cop out. I know many poor people who would never do this, and I know many black people who would never do this. These people would be pretty offended if they saw you excusing some one talking about having sex on a subway train as just "part of the black culture" and "part of city life".
Fair enough. I am not trying to suggest this is behavior all poor blacks engage in or would endorse! Heaven knows that's not the case!
The fact remains, this type of vulgar humor is a part of the vernacular of a certain sub-culture. Within that sub-culture, the shock-value of the offensive words is all part of the game. It's much like hip-hop music, in that regard.
I just think there is much more in life to get upset about. The guy was probably just havin' fun... if you get bent out of shape by his use of vulgar words, that's all part of the fun.
If black folks want to take on the issue and work from within their own community on it, more power to them - obviously I don't feel called to take on that cause.
I'm just trying to tell the guy to not waste his energy getting all bent outta shape by it, and to not make more of it than what it is.
People are people. Cultures are cultures. I've seen white folks display some real ghetto mess just like I've seen in hispanic, chinese and other races.
Whatever.
We can discuss this issue until the cows come home and most people will remain to embrace their opinions (often warped opinions) of entire races and cultures.
Whatever.
It would be good to learn how to accept people for who they are as long as they are not trying to hurt or destroy you. There is scum in every race just like there are some exceptional, exciting, fascinating and good natured individuals in every race as well.
Understand it.
Accept it and embrace it for this is what makes the world go 'round.
Yes Korean people have tension with Japanese. But Korean people also don't sit around complaining about it. Yes you can look back on it and learn from it (and still be bitter about it), but they don't let that define them or everything they do. AND YES I KNOW NOT ALL AA's DWELL ON IT 24/7 either. But it feels too many feel like they should have it easy because of the past. No one will give you anything in life. You have to work hard and earn it.
One of my good friends in Georgia is of Korean decent. His parents work 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, and most holidays. They work hard. They don't sit and complain about the Japanese.
Logical fallacy my man. This is the U.S why would a Korean complain about how the Japanese treated him in America? As I said I don't think you are endowed with the mental capabilities to understand what you see. See when you try to make analogies that have no base you can't apply intelligent examples because they hold no real commonalities. What you need to wonder about is the average income of Brazilian Americans which are not high no higher than AA's actually, something closer to home easier for you to understand then expand. As of now you look like a plum fool.
I have to shake off the stereotype so I won't lose out on knowing some really fantastic people!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LahdeeDahdee
It would be good to learn how to accept people for who they are as long as they are not trying to hurt or destroy you. There is scum in every race just like there are some exceptional, exciting, fascinating and good-natured individuals in every race as well.
Understand it.
Accept it and embrace it for this is what makes the world go 'round.
IMHO, these are two of the best comments in this entire discussion. I would only add, I challenge you to not only cross over racial divides, but also socio-economic divides.
I will leave you with a quote:
Quote:
"I've been here for four years and yet, I cannot give you the definition of black, I cannot tell you what a black man is. I really learned to look much deeper. It takes a lot of effort to know people."
~Joshua Packwood, Caucasian-American & the 2009 Valedictorian of Morehouse College [Atlanta's HBCU for Men]
With that, I will end my participation in this discussion. Peace.
Last edited by StPaulEastSider; 05-15-2009 at 11:25 PM..
This is along the lines of what StPaulEastSider said but this stuff wasn't long ago. Some weeks ago my aunt was talking about something and she mentioned how they integrated the schools up in Rochester when she was in school and I was like "What?!", because I read about that in the history books. It did sort of hit home with me because my mother went to segregated schools in both Orlando, FL and Rochester, NY and I'm one generation removed from that! No telling what my parents had to go through, let alone the grandparents. I can see if some Blacks can lose faith in how things click in this country if they heard all the stories fromthe early generations because this stuff wasn't long ago. My parents didn't talk about anything negative in their school days and I really didn't think about it. I'm a twenty-three year old Atlantan and never had to blame anyone (alright, some teachers) about my faults and don't want to be lumped in with the homeless in Five Points. StPaulEastSider, the kkk (because they don't deserve captilization) is from TN, they were revived on the rock known as Stone Mountain. To the OP, I think you should check out some other areas of the City because it's not good to let the regulars of 5 Points blemish your view of all the Blacks in this city (you said that it's possible or something of that nature).
Logical fallacy my man. This is the U.S why would a Korean complain about how the Japanese treated him in America? As I said I don't think you are endowed with the mental capabilities to understand what you see. See when you try to make analogies that have no base you can't apply intelligent examples because they hold no real commonalities. What you need to wonder about is the average income of Brazilian Americans which are not high no higher than AA's actually, something closer to home easier for you to understand then expand. As of now you look like a plum fool.
You're right, they shouldn't complain about the Japanese in the US. At the same time, Koreans in Korea don't sit and complain either. They work hard. That was the point of the argument. Please don't get upset because my opinions somehow offended you. Like I have said over and over, bring points of argument to defend your side so I can understand your viewpoint. Don't just sit there and get offended, then try to bash me. You will only further feed the stereotype that I am trying not to have.
People are people. Cultures are cultures. I've seen white folks display some real ghetto mess just like I've seen in hispanic, chinese and other races.
Whatever.
We can discuss this issue until the cows come home and most people will remain to embrace their opinions (often warped opinions) of entire races and cultures.
Whatever.
It would be good to learn how to accept people for who they are as long as they are not trying to hurt or destroy you. There is scum in every race just like there are some exceptional, exciting, fascinating and good natured individuals in every race as well.
Understand it.
Accept it and embrace it for this is what makes the world go 'round.
This is the best posting on the thread. I think my whole point somehow got lost (probably because I didn't fully describe the reasons behind my OP). I have many black, white, hispanic, asian, etc friends and I get along with them fine. I have no problem in accepting any type of racial background. I don't act with prejudice.
My main concern was the stereotypes that I developed in my head because of my over exposure to certain types of AA. But thinking about it again, I think the vast majority, if not all people do come up with some type of stereotype in their head for certain racial classes. And I felt bad for some of the stereotypes I came up with. But maybe its just natural. So I wanted to post a discussion to have some of you try to help me change my views.
You're right, they shouldn't complain about the Japanese in the US. At the same time, Koreans in Korea don't sit and complain either. They work hard. That was the point of the argument. Please don't get upset because my opinions somehow offended you. Like I have said over and over, bring points of argument to defend your side so I can understand your viewpoint. Don't just sit there and get offended, then try to bash me. You will only further feed the stereotype that I am trying not to have.
How do you know what Koreans in Japan do? Sounds like another case on you speaking on what you know.
I guess I have to explain this to you though I was hoping I didn't. When an opinion is based upon logical fallacies one can bring points to counter because the original point was baseless.
I'm not worried about dissuading you of your opinions or furthering them. You matter in no way. Unfortunately you have left me with a disdain for the brazilian education system.
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