Recently a friend introduced me to one of her friends who is Jamaican. He moved here when he was young, and frequently goes back to Jamaica. She asked him to tell me a story that he had told her from when he was young. About half way through the story, my friend stopped him and said to him, what's wrong with you? You're from Jamaica, talk like it. You're talking too white.
He looked at her and replied by saying, what are you talking about. I'm speaking english, how do you talk white? She told him to put more emphasis into his accent.
This made me think of the movie Crash when an actor in the movie was told to speak more black, which just confused the actor like in this situation. It's bad enough that there are stereotypes as to how people of a certain race behave and dress, but also how they must speak. To me it's like saying, youre lesser than others of your race or not even a member at all, if you don't speak like the rest of them, or fit the overall stereotype of that race.
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That's the problem with today. People expect others to act like the stereotype and when they don't, they get annoyed. When people don't talk like they "should", people get caught of gaurd. The only way to keep this from happening is to realize that not everyone from a certain place speaks the same. Once people understand and accept this fact, stereotypes will start to fade away.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of people saying "you're not talking black, or you're a white black person." I guess I don't really understand this whole concept, I don't see how someone can "talk black" or be a "white black person". There is no right way to talk or dress, if you look around everybody speaks and dresses differently from one another, there are no two people alike.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the saying you talk to white so your not black our vise versa isn't wright, i say this becuase the way people talk has to do with there social upbringing and the people they are surrounded. Case in point is people picking up we are from minnasooooota.
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