What's up all!
This is an interesting topic. I'm not sure about this. I see and can relate to both sides of the topic.
Let's start w/ the way some white folks have adopted "black" slang, dance, dress, etc.
I think for me, it annoys me when you see white folks trying to adopt things black folks do and you KNOW that they are doing it cuz they think it's cool or so they can be down or something to that effect.
On the other hand, there are white people that grow up around blacks, go to school w/ all blacks, etc and that's just what they are accustomed to. For example, my first boyfriend was white. However, you would've thought he was a black person cuz of the way he spoke (accent and dialect), the way he dressed, etc. For him, it just seemed to be natural. It wasn't like he was doing it to fit in or look cool. That was how he was 24/7 all becuz of his environment.
I have to agree that I do feel flattered when white people adopt things from our culture and can really try to relate to us and aren't "acting black" cuz they think it's sweet or the like. But when whites try to do what blacks do and it comes out all weird sounding, then I get upset. It's like don't do it/say it, if you are doing/saying it for popularity reasons and cool points. That's not cute.
On another quick note, I don't like it at all when whites use the N word--whether they say it naturally or not. Hell, I don't like it when black people use it! I wouldn't just go around calling people a derogatory term. It's just uncouth to me.
As for these teeny boppers (as I like to call them) such as Nsync, Christina, etc, it's true that they have black choreographers and others that are helping their careers. In fact, Nsync's choreographer came up w/ them when they won one of their VMAs. He's the guy on the Soul Food series. Anyway, I think for them, if that's something that they grew up doing (i.e. dancing and listening to black artists, etc) then naturally, they will probably try to imitate that. It's just like Brandy wanting to imitate Whitney. She went on and on about Whitney being her idol when she got in the biz and you can tell that she tries to imitate her style and such.
I don't know. I personally enjoyed Nsync's performance. They obviously worked hard cuz them boys were on point! I've never seen white people dance that well before. They were on beat and they got their gig on! I feel like hey, they were at least doing it right. But if they were butterflying or whatever and were all off beat, then I'd be like "why try to do it and not do it right?"
sorry this is long. I hope that all made some kind of sense
[This message has been edited by ZChi4Life (edited September 09, 2000).]