[Poplife]

Originally posted by Ideal08
Ok, I have serious issues with this. Blacks need one big lesson on basic social graces as determined by WHOM? I have no desire to learn how to act, shuck, or jive for my White counterparts. Nor do I have the desire to carry checks or credit cards based on their PERCEPTIONS (based in racism) of Blacks carrying cash. THAT IS THEIR PROBLEM. So because white people will think that a Black man carrying cash is a drug dealer, he shouldn't carry cash? Gimme a break. Money is green, and it all spends. While I realize that this is a White man's world, I still have no desire to conform to how they THINK I should act at the dinner table and in the store.

Why do you equate having basic manners with being white? Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you part of the same group who had thread after thread talking about prospective who will never get your votes because they:

1. Showed up to rush in ‘club clothes’
2. Chewed and popped gum loudly during the whole event
3. Talked on their cell phones while you are making a speech or
4. Brought their children

But then why I call something tacky all of the sudden, I’m a wanna-be whitewashed elitist. (*lol* And last time I got on my soapbox I was accused of saying everyone with a relaxer wanted to be white and that only real blacks had naptual hair.) Well as you so eloquently put it Ideal08, perhaps they were expected to ‘shuck and jive’ in order to impress you and your sorors enough to vote for them. Or perhaps you expected them to know the basics of which they were not aware. Who do you blame for that? Who are you punishing because of that?

The fact that basic manners are universal still stands. It doesn’t have anything to do with color, class, or what one group thinks. I’m not stupid enough to think that all white people have class and all blacks do not. I never said that. Recently I acquired a job in a white town that makes the Forbes’s list every year. And even though they may have money many of them are white trash. They are nasty to the employee’s, yell loudly when they don’t like something, try and get freebies every time they come in...The list goes on and on. But I don’t care about them. I care about my people. If your parents never told you that in a white dominated society, you have to be better if you want to get by then you missed out on some important information. And I hope that you have learned that we all suffer for what one does. If you don’t mind being cut down because of what someone does before you than you are a nicer person than me.

If I go into a store and get turned away based on the actions of the Black woman who went before me, that is not a store I want to spend my money in anyway.

Oh, really? If that were true you would never shop at any major department store. Which retail chains have had racial discrimination charges filed against them in the last year? Do you know? Besides, half the time you are not aware of how you are being watched and followed. Black people enjoy not knowing. We claim we don’t like to be treated like animals, but we are the first people to drop our dollar in stores that do exactly that.

Threatened with expulsion from her SOCIAL CLUB???? Oh my goodness, keep your shirts on, Hilary might not be able to socialize anymore!!! Oh no, the TRAGEDY!!! Why would you want to hang around with people who will expel you from an organization because you laughed too loud in the dining area?? Yeah, those are exactly the people that I wish to rub elbows with.

No one was asking you if you liked the people she wanted to deal with. My point was: Don’t join if you don’t like the rules. Blatantly disrespecting the policy of a organization/club that you ASKED to join is TRASHY. Hil obviously didn’t understand that and was dealt with accordingly. Society is the same way.

When are we going to stop trying to conform and fit into their world. IT WASN'T MEANT FOR US! PERIOD! So why take a CLASS on social graces to fit into a world that wasn't meant for you? NEWSFLASH: It doesn't make a difference how poised you are, how classy you are, how articulate you are, how intelligent you are, you will STILL be judged by the color of your skin. So have fun in your social graces classes, I, for one, would not be in attendance.

I thought when 9.11 happened many of us realized that we, as humans, are more connected then we though, but obviously some people didn’t get that. Our world may have different components, aspects, and devices, but they all work together in a strange way to make ONE even though it doesn’t seem that way. This is a White-American oriented SOCIETY, not world. Even white people aren’t powerful enough to make their own world.

And, If you believe this world wasn’t meant for you then I suggest you skip my seminar and put your U.S. Passport to use immediately. There are places where you are seen as a female or an AMERICAN first and they don‘t give a damn about your ethnicity. Black women are sought after in some places for marriage, not just sex.

I used to believe that I would always be judged by my skin, but then I woke up realized it really depended on whom I was dealing with and where I was. I now believe to say such a thing means you know what is in everyone else's mind and heart everywhere. I don’t know how people are going to treat me. 9 times out of 10 I have to wait and see and then act correspondingly. Blacks are still treated as a mass by the ‘other’ mass, but as individuals people can really surprise me sometimes.

American white people are unlike any other groups of whites in the world (with the exclusion of the UK). In short, they are freaks. The world is mostly non-white anyway. There are plenty of places where blacks are not so far down the social scale. Many of these places don’t HAVE white people for them to be compared to so once again, it‘s not about always assimilation.