Just Because I’m Black Doesn’t Mean…
Published on 3/16/2009
All too many people make the mistake of assuming that we are limited in scope from our lifestyles to our personal interests. Despite popular belief, Black women epitomize multiplicity in a vast array of forms, which continually defy long held stereotypes. Here’s a look of some of the many factors that blow some of those archaic labels right out of the water.
Just because we’re Black doesn’t mean:
- We can’t enjoy music that plays on non-Black radio stations.
- Issues of animal rights or environmental preservation aren’t of paramount interest to us.
- We don’t watch shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Arrested Development and the Colbert Report.
- We can’t be outdoorsy types.
- One should assume that we are unwed with children.
- We don’t engage in extreme or winter weather sports.
- We don’t love cats.
- Don’t embrace religions other than Islam or Christianity.
- Independent films are off limits.
- That we don’t find men from other nationalities sexy.
- That we’re not interested in traveling to far away places like Fiji, Vietnam, or Bali.
- We are angry, or aggressive, or loose cannons.
- We can’t have rare or arbitrary tastes in fashion, art or music.
- That we are obligated to adore Beyonce.
- We aren’t vegetarians or vegans.
- We don’t have an interest in the fields of technology, science or engineering.
Clutchettes and gentleman please free to add on to the list!
107 Comments – Add Yours
Latest Articles
Most Popular This Week
Recent Comments
-
Ms. Information on
Meagan Good Tells Life & Style She & Her Fiancée Are Waiting For Their Wedding Night
To each his own girl, but what does she want, a proverbial cookie? I don't think it is anyone in the publics business....BUT Megan, don't...
-
Toni on
Meagan Good Tells Life & Style She & Her Fiancée Are Waiting For Their Wedding Night
That's what I'm saying. I'm not too sanctified to say I want a test drive, before I buy the car. Go ahead Megan, if you like it I love it...
-
MiMi on
U.S. Prisons Now Hold More Black Men Than Slavery Ever Did
You are on a less than fifth grade level. Your sentences are all running together. Your grammar is incorrect. There is no period or...
-
Laugh on
Meagan Good Tells Life & Style She & Her Fiancée Are Waiting For Their Wedding Night
Wait, so they been together 6 years? I guess I missed that in the article. I thought she said a year? Anyway it's good to let people know...
just because i’m black, doesn’t mean i wear weave all the time. or do a ghetto girl pose. or follow lil wayne. or have dreds.
Just because I am black doesn’t mean:
-I will purchase a new Gucci bag before I pay bills
-I am fluent in ebonics
-I don’t watch Friends, Grey’s Anatomy or King of Queens
-My favorite television channel is BET
-My ancestors were slaves and/or native americans & I’m waiting for
reparations
-I don’t take in foster children for a check
…doesn’t mean I need to take up my rightful place as the only person who can bring into existance and therefore strengthen the 360 degrees of the Afrikan experience: the political, economic, family and community structures, sources and mediums of mass/group communication, marital, Afrikan love, parental, structured Afrikan childhood experience, cultural, spiritual, Afrikan holistic health, continental.
Thank the heavens someone said, im tired of being in boxes and categories that people put me in because of my nationality and race. I am Jamaican and i DONT like Bob Marley sue me!
The funny thing is that 99% list described me pretty much. I am sick of all the stereotypes.
Just because I am black doesn’t mean that:
1. I am automatically part of what some call the “african-american –hood” culture. Someone can actually be international, mixed with different cultures, and not understand black culture as some define it. I’m Dutch-Caribbean and I was raised to value family, education and to have a sense of pride in being refined.
2. I have to be loud, obnoxious, curse like a sailor, and cannot properly use the full English vernacular. It is so annoying that people insist on sounding ignorant even in professional environment. Stereotypes are so pervasive already, why affirm it even more?
3. That I’m automatically going to dignify your derogatory sleazy come-ons because you think that I haven’t been affirmed in my life.
4. That I don’t read Wired, Forbes, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, Fitness Magazine and my fav Body+ Soul. I LOVE the whole organic and recycling movement!
5. That I don’t like anything “white”– from clothing store preferences, to music, food, to social events. No, I don’t believe the white man is trying to hold you down. Yes, I believe there is still a disgusting undercurrent of racism in this country. Bring understanding instead of division no matter what others are doing.
Here’s more I’ve dealt with… B/C I’m a black chick I…
1. Don’t know Kings of Leon
2. Don’t embrace the depth of other cultures
3. Smell different
4. Don’t like to go swimming b/c it’ll ruin my hair
5. Don’t enjoy to read…Even read books by authors that aren’t black
6. Roll my neck when I’m pissed off
7. Say “ooh child” and “yeah sistah” (I hate it when they write this in movie scripts)
8. Don’t eat sushi
i love this post and the comment comments. can I get group e-hug? lol
I have seen Paid in Full
I watch the Simpsons (Family Guy or that other show)
I cant use proper English
If i wear my hair straight that i have a perm
I spend money on frivolous things
One of my closest friends cant be white
The word “dude” cannot be a frequently used word in my vocab
That i cant absolutely love The Kaine show on 99.5
I have to accept the first man to come my way because of the ratio of black men/black women
I only read books by Zane, Sista Souljah, Omar Tyree, and the likes…
I dont pick up the newspaper and read once in a while
Hell, that i dont read at all
That I dont know much about politics
Lastly, that I shouldn’t wear my hair to work in its “Natural” state….(wtf, has really been addressed to me, altho i still do it)
But I dont like or watch Curb Your Enthusiam.
Arrested Development was just ok. I LOVED Malcolm In The Middle.
Colbert Report is funny!
*hug for whit* =)
Here’s some more (on behalf of my sis and friends):
Because we’re black chicks doesn’t mean:
–that we don’t adore science-fiction/fantasy books, movies, and shows.
–that we don’t play video games.
–that we don’t listen to metal/alt. rock
–that we can sing or are athletic
ummmmm
-that I’m completely comfortable being walked on for the fame and glory of my male counterparts
-that I love and cherish the means by which many of my “leaders” “role models” and people have gotten ahead.
-that I’m one extreme,AFROCENTRIC or the other AFRICAN AMERICAN
-That I’m NOT smarter then the discovery channel.
-that I have “ISSUES”.
-that I haven’t OVERCOME the issues that my community faces.
-a slave, in the mental physical or spiritual worlds, not me.
I think if you look at other “successful” groups of people (socially, economically, politically) they tend to share and cherish the many aspects of their identity, culture and heritage.
What group of people do most of the bullet points at the beginning of the article tend to belong to ?
Just because I’m Black DOESN’T mean that:
1. I’m trying to live in the image of Beyonce’ or Nikki Minaj
2. I can’t attend Florida State University instead of FAMU because it’s not an HBCU
3. I hate reading
a. and if I do read it’s only African American sex novels
4. I couldn’t have taken ballet for more than a few childhood years
5. I don’t enjoy watching “The Office”
6. I idolize Lil Wayne and the rest of Young Money
7. I couldn’t have a father who has always been there and was married to my mother before I was conceived
8. I don’t like rock music; alternative or indie…and I don’t like 80s pop
9. I wear weave or fake nails or fake anything
10. I love watermelon
11. I was raised in the hood and not a nice suburban setting
12. I have seen every Black film based on violence, sex, and drug-dealing
yeap, that sounds about right
This article and comments are leaving me a little uneasy. By saying that “Just beacause I’m Black, doesn’t mean…”, are you also saying that these things you’re not are typically black? I think that it’s pretty insensitive of us to say things like:
Because you’re black:
- You don’t know who my father is
- You have two or more baby daddies
- You like Obama, simply because he’s black and you do not have the intelligence to appreciate what he brings to the table.
- You have a crappy diet and enjoy being overweight and unhealthy.
I could go on and on. Being black encompasses many things. Saying what we’re “not” in this fashion is almost as if you were looking down upon those who “are” these exact same things… Being black can mean having a six figure salary by being an engineer, but unfortunately, it can also mean not knowing who your father is.
Just my two cents!
I agree with Hmmmm and Solgar. We as a people, especially those of us who are privileged or educated, are always trying to define ourselves by distancing ourselves from these stereotypes and images that are put upon us by other people. Rather than embracing that we are very layered community we lambaste those that are less fortunate and empowered by screaming how much we love to do things that “others” do. If someone is making you feel like an anomaly because you watch a program–a program that excludes people that look like you–and you trip over yourself to scream how “like them” you are, there is a problem. Tell that idiot to go kick rocks!
It makes me uneasy to hear all these things, most of them about things that are typically “white” as being not the “norm” in black society.
If you watch a program or partake in an activity that YOU think black don’t like or participate in, who is the one that is making assumptions here?
Who is this article for? I would say that these list are list for “others”. Don’t get me wrong, I hear these off the wall things all the time when I go to Vermont to snowboard or someone sees the Arrested Development dvd in my apartment (it belongs to my bf, I can’t stand that show). But, instead of trying to explain that, despite my blackness, I enjoy these thing, I ask them why its seems at odds that I would like a show or an activity.
One more thing, I am so tired of the fried chicken thing. Every civilization, race, ethnicity, whatever that has had access to a pot, a lipid, and a bird has fried that sucker!
So here’s my list:
Just because I am black…
1. Doesn’t mean anything except that I am human.
Amen to that :)
I have to say Lagina, I love your list! It’s short yet says it all…
@Solgar, Lagina and Hmmm
I definitely understand your viewpoint and appreciate another side of the argument. We as an ethnic group have different societal intricacies. But I’ve found that in this ethnic group, we are one of the only ones to be OK with staying in a struggle and accept the stereotype. I’m international (born and lived abroad for most of my life) and honestly–you might’ve been born poor but we’ll be damned to stay in that state. People look at you like…”WHAT ARE YOU DOING??” All ethnic groups will have some that are just really victims of their circumstances but it’s like they say “it doesn’t matter where you start but where you finish”.
I work with people who just say..I’m fine being on hoodrat status and assume that you are co-signing on all the foolishness involved in that. When you act different–you are looked as walking outside the box, “not being black enough” or a conspirator.
I don’t think most of the commenters meant there lists in ill-will or don’t appreciate their ethnic group. Sometimes your ethnic group makes you feel like an outsider. I appreciate my ethnicity and appreciate the strength that accompanied our survival. Just sometimes I wish we could all let go of past hurts and ignorance and move on into a more pluralistic acceptance of each other.
I see what you’re saying. But at the same time, that is why we need to mentor. if you “made it” and/or have experienced different things, why not share it with others who do not have the same opportunities? You can go snowboarding and watch Arrested Development (I love that show!!) and still be “down with the peeps”. I always tell others to try things before dismissing them. Include one of those “hoodrats” in one activity you partake in… You never know, they might just like it. In my line of work, there is a lot of golfing involved. When I tried it for the first time, I was completely out of my element – the only black women at a 300+ people event – but I played the part! Got all my gear and I looked like a pro! Couldn’t hit the ball but looked like a pro. I’ve tried it, am not crazy about it but don’t hate it either and I can add it to the repertoire of things that I’ve done. I will now take my nieces and nephews golfing and if they like it, they can stick to it, otherwise, they can at least say that they gave it a shot!
My point is, let’s not create additional barriers within our community (or could it be considered as classicism which already exits…) and encourage one another to discover different things!
That we all identify with the ever present “mad black woman” in our media
That we cant be Jews (yea thats right)
That we LOVE Tyler Perry (Im sorry but it’s getting old)
That BET is the only channel we watch.
That we don’t listen to metal
and finally
That we don’t date men of other races, esp. Asian.
i love that so many people here love “curb your enthusiasm”. lol that’s my favorite show!
i agree with most of the listings. i’m always trying to open myself up to new things; right now i’m really interested in russian literature and language.
i hate that we’re supposed to be something, by whose standards? certainly not mine. my mom tells me to ‘act more black.’ because i speak english coherently, a classmate tells me to “speak my race.” and when i didn’t want to partake in cheating on a biology test a few years ago, a classmate told me i must not be black.