The Official "Ask A Brotha" Thread

[chamber-music]

You find more white middle class western kids embracing Afro-Pop and Afro-Beat than you do Black kids.

All those bands like Vampire Weekend, Little Comets, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Good The Bad And The Queen, TV On The Radio,Talking Heads, Foals and Fools Gold who name check people like Kela Futi who despite being one of the most famous African musicans and having a successful Broadway play and movie in the pipeline is still unknown to most Black folks in the west.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Dear Brotha,

I'm always confused by the blatant imitation of hip-hop music around the world. Now, I understand that since it's such a big genre in music today, it is surely to be imitated elsewhere as well. But when the genre is found in Bangladesh, with South-Asian kids pretending to be black (not just because of the music genre, but in terms of attitude as well) I get this idea that the whole "You're Cool if You're White" thing that pervades in post-colonial countries is being reshaped into "You're Cool if You're Black" and that it's still as racist as the first. I understand it in the United States, where the culture does exist, but that isn't so in Bangladesh, where these kids are soaking it up as just another influence of WESTERN culture instead of African Culture. What's the deal with that?

Rap music glorifies street life which young people see as a genuine form of rebellion from the status quo and as a macho display of true power.

I think whether ethnic people teens identify with blacks more or whites more depends who captures their imagination more. If the street life seems more interesting they'll identify with blacks. If the rock and roll and Hollywood scene seems more impressive they'll choose to identify with whites.

 

[AndThePickles]

My brotha... I'm down there because she said you didn't want to go there.

Haha, I always wonder who else has heard that stereotype

 

[Erzengel]

I have. And also the thing about swimming.

 

[knowsbleed]

I don't understand the swimming stereotype. Its just water... :confuzzled:

I have noticed one thing. A lot of my black friends don't like trying different kinds of food. They stick to what they know and are not the least bit interested in trying something that they might deem... strange, otherwise known as... foods from other ethnicities. Now, I do have white friends who also do the same... but I notice it more from my black friends. Perhaps because I have more black friends than white. Perhaps I have no idea what I'm talking about. Perhaps I'm hungry.

 

[roach]

I have. And also the thing about swimming.

I grew up in New England and being less than a few hours from the beach we all learned how to swim...plus my mom was a certified life guard. Yes I am black.
We moved to rural North Carolina and during a hot summer a bunch of us went to the local lake. When my brother and I dove into the water and swam like fishes everyone stopped to stare at us. Some of the other black people who were there didn't want to go in to where the water was above their waist and had trouble putting their heads under water.
During my Navy bootcamp days we had to go to the pool and jump off the high platform into the water...to simulate having to jump off a ship into water. You either had to jump off the platform or sit on the bleachers for remedial swim training. Of my bootcamp class of 150 with about half being black I was the only black person to go off the platform...the whole time the lifeguards kept asking me if I was gonna change my mind. I guess they had a few black people pretend to act like they knew how to swim only to half drown in the pool.

sorry for the wall of text....but there are black people...and in significant amounts that don't know how to swim

 

[E-Man]

I have 3 questions....

According to science and multiple religious believe systems man originated in north africa, wouldn't his make all humans of African decent and we can claim it as such?

Also I have never met or seen a truely "black" person or "White" person for that fact, shouldn't society including "black" people stop perpetuating this mentality already it's 2012 also your'e varied shades of brown for petes sake, even my 2 year old knows your not "black" the same he knows he's not "white".

To follow up on number 1 and 2 as a "black" man have you ever contemplated these questions or wanted this mentality chaged?

1. It's been long since accepted that humans originated from Africa. At first it was seen as crazy talk for obvious reasons, but the evidence has been there and accepted for a long time.

2. I don't get what you're saying here about being truly black or white. You mean in skin tone or the way people act? The classification for a Negro is usually a person with direct ties to African descent, and to simplify it basically one of the various shades of skin tone of black people. There is that whole one drop rule and all that crazy stuff, but it is what it is. I just think of black people as indigenous people in Africa, immigrants in other countries from African nations, and people descended from slaves in the Americas. I've known some people to debate it like crazy what actually makes a black person, but I don't care enough to really go any further than that. Race really shouldn't be a factor anyway, and when people go too deep about it I find that they have a lot of racial agendas that I'm not too fond of.

3. I think I contemplate race more often than I would like. I don't treat anyone any different based on their race, and I like to think of race as the last way I'd describe a person. It's hard to do that when I see song wrongs done to black people, and also some of the ignorance that I see too often from black people.

I don't understand the swimming stereotype. Its just water... :confuzzled:

I have noticed one thing. A lot of my black friends don't like trying different kinds of food. They stick to what they know and are not the least bit interested in trying something that they might deem... strange, otherwise known as... foods from other ethnicities. Now, I do have white friends who also do the same... but I notice it more from my black friends. Perhaps because I have more black friends than white. Perhaps I have no idea what I'm talking about. Perhaps I'm hungry.

Here in the south people eat pig feet and intestines. I would imagine that people who eat that stuff would eat anything, but that's not always the case. How the hell can you eat smelly pig intestines and then not try something? Once you eat chitlins you've passed the point of no return. You don't get much lower than that.

 

[Patty]

It's "The Man" trying to keep us down!

Fair enough.

 

[enterthemadness]

Dear Brotha,

If I'm playing frisbee, can I say "word to your moooother!!" when I launch it like a rocket?

Also, one time while playing ultimate frisbee in highschool, I was jogging backwards and dove while going backwards...catching the frisbee. Highlight reel. And in that same game I ran up to the WR and stole it for the INT. Hung in the air, I had time to catch up to him and jumped up in his face.

In. his. face. INT. Like Champ Bailey. Imma a baller.

 

[terry78]

I don't understand the swimming stereotype. Its just water... :confuzzled:

I have noticed one thing. A lot of my black friends don't like trying different kinds of food. They stick to what they know and are not the least bit interested in trying something that they might deem... strange, otherwise known as... foods from other ethnicities. Now, I do have white friends who also do the same... but I notice it more from my black friends. Perhaps because I have more black friends than white. Perhaps I have no idea what I'm talking about. Perhaps I'm hungry.

A lot of us as black people have our comfort zones. We ain't trying anything new or crazy...that's what them hippie white kids do.

 

[chamber-music]

I can swim although I'm not that into Swimming. When I was a kid I was never like "I really want to go swimming".

I can Ski as well which is another thing people say black people aren't crazy on. The only reason I can Ski is because I grew up with a dry ski slop 5 minutes from my house.

 

[Manic]

If I'm playing frisbee, can I say "word to your moooother!!" when I launch it like a rocket?

It is never a good time to say that. Never ever.

I can swim although I'm not that into Swimming. When I was a kid I was never like "I really want to go swimming".

I can Ski as well which is another thing people say black people aren't crazy on. The only reason I can Ski is because I grew up with a dry ski slop 5 minutes from my house.

My mom paid for me to take swimming lessons when I was only 4 years old. I took to the water like a duck. Imagine my surprise when, years later, I discovered there's a stereotype that black people don't swim.

I don't ski, but that's because I've touched snow exactly once in my life. I went sledding down a slope, the snow hit me in the face when I hit the bottom, and I decided I was done with snow that day.

 

[chamber-music]

It hardly ever snowed where I lived growing up so when it started snowing for really in London the past couple of years I was excited and then the country stopped working, I slipped over walking, I couldn't drive my car and metled snow tuned to ice and messed up my guttering and realised snow sucked ass.

 

[Pink Ranger]

If I'm playing frisbee, can I say "word to your moooother!!" when I launch it like a rocket?

You can, if you're playing frisbee in 1989.

 

[THE MR. TERRIFIC]

I can swim and don't mind trying new things. Many of my friends are the same way. I think it depends on the person and the area in which you live.

 

[kane9321]

White girls or Asians girls.

Which is more of a black man's kryptonite?

DA white woment:

 

[kane9321]

Hey whats up with this "fake eyelash crap" going on with the sistas nowadays. It started lastyear.. I see it everywhere i go in the bay area. It looks terrible

 

[chamber-music]

I hate the Ghetto hooker nails the most

 

[terry78]

I won't front, some of the ghetto fabulous attire is kinda hot.

 

[Nave 'Torment']

Dear Brotha,

Can I, as a non-Black, non-White, non-American stud, answer some of these questions if I'm objective enough? (Not saying I'm gonna, just that if it's okay about it).

Q2:

Is it offensive if a non-black writer writes about black-people?

 

[Nave 'Torment']

Not quite sure what you meant here. You think hip-hop is African culture?

That's the impression we have here,

 

[chamber-music]

Dear Brotha,

Q2:

Is it offensive if a non-black writer writes about black-people?

Its not offensive.

I think it only becomes offensive when non-black writers write a black character and instead of writing a person who happens to be black they write some sort of sterotype ethnic meme character that doesn't come across as a real human being.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Dear Brotha,

Can I, as a non-Black, non-White, non-American stud, answer some of these questions if I'm objective enough? (Not saying I'm gonna, just that if it's okay about it).

Hey man, if that's a rule, I've already broken it. But I'm not a stud by any means.

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

The brothas and sistas, those jacked up butts. Where did those strong glutes originate from?

 

[DoomsdayApex]

The brothas and sistas, those jacked up butts. Where did those strong glutes originate from?

Us Latins have asked the same question for hundreds of years. I'm currently in the lab desperately seeking answers.

Oh wait... genetics.