So my good friend asked me what it's like to be black...

[Cali_Democrat]

I've known him for years and he's a good guy and he sincerely wanted to know.

What I told him was that it's almost likely being a foreigner in your own country. Many people look at you in a strange way and you just get the feeling that you don't belong.

That's the feeling I get. What about you guys?

[bravenak]

1. I feel the same way.

Uncomfirtable in my own skin until i get home.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Yup!

Cute kids BTW....

[bravenak]

5. Thank you!

They get it from me.

[Number23]

2. Damn, Cali. You're BLACK??!

I had no freaking idea.

But that does explain almost immediately why half of GD hates damn near everything that comes out of your mouth.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. LOL...yea I'm black.....

hahahaha


you crack me up!!!!!

[JustAnotherGen]

6. Ha!

[URL=http://gifsoup.com/view/4742320/charlie-murphy-laugh.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://gifsoup.com]GIFSoup[/URL]


This exchange between you and Number23 just totally totally turned this into a Happy Monday!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. I didn't know you were black, either. Too funny!

[JustAnotherGen]

7. Being black to me is a meaning

It means to endure.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

8. ...and then people wonder why black Americans tend to be less patriotic than others.

Well, with our civil rights under attack and the fact that it seems that we have to watch how we dress just walking down the street to our homes or else get killed, it's no wonder why many of us don't consider ourselves true Americans.

[Jamaal510]

10. I sometimes get checked out

whenever I happen to be the only Blah person (or one of a few) around in an area, though I usually like to think that all the attention is because I'm good-looking and stylish, and not so much it being because of my race.

Overall, it has been like a mixed bag personally. I'm hardly ever able to truly enjoy online commenting areas such as the ones on YouTube and Yahoo, as a bunch of people there love to call people "n***er" and spread stereotypes. I've found it hard to enjoy most political messaging boards, as people have peddled verbal feces against the Obamas since Day 1 and created a bunch of offensive avatars/pics of them. And even on DU, I've seen a bunch of stuff lately that hasn't sat too well with me in terms of racial matters. In addition, I spent parts of my childhood watching both of my parents being addicted to smoking and drinking, and my father being sent to Santa Rita for DUI.

At the same time, though, whenever people see me in mostly non-Black areas, they know not to mess with me, and I stay safe. So far, I haven't had any problems up here in Humboldt. As someone who will be 24 at the end of this month, whenever I hear about some of the horror stories like what happened with Trayon and with stop-and-frisk and police randomly pulling brothers over, I always feel fortunate that I have never had to experience that stuff yet.

[Cha]

11. Awww, Cali..

[MrScorpio]

12. In this country, it means always being conscious of my own race

Strangely enough, that wasn't the case when I was living abroad and away from other Americans.

[freshwest]

13. I know a lot of African emigrants. They don't feel the same as AAs, but are surprised when they hear

Last edited Sun Jul 20, 2014, 03:17 AM - Edit history (2)

the blatant racism, like the guy who owned the team. It has to be detailed for them to even catch it. Then it's like 'They are talking about me?!'

They regard it as batshit crazy. When they hear more of American history, they still have a hard time grasping it, because coming from nations which were majority black, they did not grow up with the pain of being 'the other.' They didn't think about being black, no more than some whites think about being white.

For them, like whites for many years, it was never an issue, it was their default of humanity. No big deal in their more narrow experience. But anyone outside that bubble, oh, hell yeah it's a big deal. The majority won't let them get away from them.

Some of the emigrants I know came from nations that had never been a colony of any European nation, either. So they never dealt with that.

There are just too many numbskulls in the USA who want to go back the colonial and antebellum days. Or some mutated version of it. They just change the names to make it more palatable for each other.