# Bizarre stereotypes - ''Only black people wear purple"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240 "2013-02-03T18:31:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/21 "2013-02-03T21:32:27Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > I’m aware there’s a stereotype of Asian women as being giggly and submissive, but have been disabused of that notion in that it only applies, if at all, to Japanese women. When I lived in Japan, Japanese women seemed to find this stereotype rather amusing and said basically that a “traditional” Japanese woman isn’t going to want anything to do with a Western man and that any man looking for a traditional Asian wife in Japan was in for a surprise because the sort of Japanese woman who’s interested in Western men is “modern” and “very strong”. Again and again I heard that the main thing that made Western men seem appealing to (some) Japanese women was that Western men actually helped out around the house on occasion. Even a traditional Japanese wife might surprise a Western husband in that she’d expect to have control of the family finances even if her husband is the sole breadwinner. > [@enomaj](#): > > [Comedian Bruce Bruce](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BS_3kMAlmgM/0.jpg) I’ve heard it as “Only Black men can get away with that. White guys would look silly.” See also Eddie Murphy’s red leather suit in Raw. On the subway in, of all places, Munich, I saw a black guy wearing a hot pink and black striped suit. He looked awesome, but I don’t think many white guys would even attempt such a look. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/22 "2013-02-03T21:37:48Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > You know something? This used to be true (I mean, it was true that a lot of us wouldn’t give head, culturally it was frowned upon), and then, all of a sudden, that changed. I would say about 10, 15 years ago, it suddenly became cool. > > But it could still just be a trend. We do have long trends that come and go. For instance, bi-sexuality used to not be a cool thing among black women, then it came in style, and now it has kind of gone out of style again. > > I’m not talking about real bi-sexuality, I’m talking about the fakey, drunk kind. We used to call that, just like giving head, a white girl thing. But then, all of a sudden, we got into it. For the record I would like to throw my support behind these trends. It’s wonderful to see the races come together. > [@White SIFL](#): > > Jewish girls don’t give head. …after marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/23 "2013-02-03T22:00:09Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > On the subway in, of all places, Munich, I saw a black guy wearing a hot pink and black striped suit. He looked awesome, but I don’t think many white guys would even attempt such a look. You don’t know [Don Cherry](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x89z_RHEscU/Tx8_Xjks0hI/AAAAAAAAMS4/RGwuX7WbeLw/s1600/DonCherry.jpg). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/24 "2013-02-03T22:00:20Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I complimented a woman on her purple sweater. She said, ‘‘Thanks, my Mom didn’t like it because she says only black people wear purple.’’ > > WTF? I thought I’d heard everything, but this was new. I can’t even imagine how such a stereotype would get started. Have you heard this? > > Share the bizarre stereotypes you’ve encountered. Obviously her mother has never been to Baltimore and the surrounding areas. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/25 "2013-02-03T22:01:13Z")
I saw an opening band once with a white singer who was playing 80s-influenced pop rock, and he was wearing a purple suit. I have to admit he seemed\* a lot more black, and caused me to think of the music he played as more black, than I would have thought had he not been rocking the purple. \*I didn’t say “looked” because he had pasty-white skin. And played a mix of dance and rock music with 80s stylings: yes, he _did_ open with a cover of David Bowie, why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/26 "2013-02-03T22:10:17Z")
Venture Bros. Monarch: I know he wears an awful lot of purple for a white guy. Because it’s based in truth. I’m sure I’ve seen those Kings of Comedy guys in purple suits and/or ties. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/27 "2013-02-03T22:41:39Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > “Guys should not have long hair cause it makes them look like faggots.” Well, that’s a little harsh. They can also look like girls, hippies, sissies, hobos or, in very rare cases, barbarians. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/28 "2013-02-03T23:16:03Z")
When I lived in St. Louis in the late 1970s, I lived in the narrow band across the middle that was racially integrated (a couple blocks from Laclede Ave.), and dated a black girl from the North of St. Louis, and I constantly noted how black women were the only people you could ever see wearing purple. And they wore it a _lot_. I loved them for it because otherwise the nation was in a serious purple drought. The rest of us learned from their example. As for the reasons for this tendency, my hypothesis was that a rich shade of purple looks excellent alongside a dark complexion. On the other hand, my GF is peaches-and-cream white, and she’s the only one I know who wears purple outfits more than olive-Mediterranean me, and she seriously rocks it like no one else. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/29 "2013-02-03T23:21:34Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > “Black girls don’t like to give head.” I thought it was “black men don’t like to perform cunnilingus”. Anyway, I think this whole “purple=black” thing arose from homies carrying their belongings around in those cloth Crown Royal bags…which _are_ purple. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/30 "2013-02-03T23:25:11Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > You don’t know [Don Cherry](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x89z_RHEscU/Tx8_Xjks0hI/AAAAAAAAMS4/RGwuX7WbeLw/s1600/DonCherry.jpg). 😃 Who is that old cat? 😕 The only Don Cherry I know was a trumpeter, of mixed black and Cherokee ancestry, who was so proud of his Cherokee grandmother he wrote a song about her. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/31 "2013-02-03T23:25:18Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I thought it was “black men don’t like to perform cunnilingus”. > > Anyway, I think this whole “purple=black” thing arose from homies carrying their belongings around in those cloth Crown Royal bags…which _are_ purple. > > 🙂 Wait a minute. Crown Royal is Canadian. What exactly are you trying to insinuate here anyway, eh? Eh? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/32 "2013-02-03T23:34:31Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > As for the reasons for this tendency, my hypothesis was that a rich shade of purple looks excellent alongside a dark complexion. Also that if it had been stereotyped black—which I never heard tell of, I only observed street fashions in St. Louis for a few years and never once saw purple on anyone except black women—or if it was distinctively connected with black style in some way, it would be something good to wear to express black pride. Toward the end of the 1970s, the Afro hairstyle was disappearing. (The northern St. Louis girl I dated had a short Afro and told me of her wish to keep it short because she felt that growing her hair long encouraged her to “become wild” and she was serious about her life.) But there was purple, thank Goddess. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/33 "2013-02-04T00:09:56Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Well, that’s a little harsh. They can also look like girls, hippies, sissies, hobos or, in very rare cases, barbarians. My long hair is an integral part of my gay goth cowboy look. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/34 "2013-02-04T00:50:18Z")
White guys like woman-on-top and black guys like doggystyle. That’s what my boyfriend said. (I almost replied that I know lots of black guys who like the woman on top but then I thought better of it.) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/35 "2013-02-04T01:44:07Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Who is that old cat? 😕 Don Cherry, former coach of the Maple Leafs, long time hockey commentator, and founder of a chain of sports bars. Famous for his loud suits, loud mouth, and not so loud dog. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/36 "2013-02-04T02:04:18Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > White guys like woman-on-top and black guys like doggystyle. That’s what my boyfriend said. (I almost replied that I know lots of black guys who like the woman on top but then I thought better of it.) Ha. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/37 "2013-02-04T02:05:04Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Don Cherry, former coach of the Maple Leafs, long time hockey commentator, and founder of a chain of sports bars. Famous for his loud suits, loud mouth, and not so loud dog. Well, mostly true except he was a Bruins coach, and never a Leafs coach. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/38 "2013-02-04T02:09:02Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > White guys like woman-on-top and black guys like doggystyle. That’s what my boyfriend said. (I almost replied that I know lots of black guys who like the woman on top but then I thought better of it.) White guy here. If I’m at the buffet, I’m trying some of everything, please. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/39 "2013-02-04T02:34:59Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Well, mostly true except he was a Bruins coach, and never a Leafs coach. Oopsie. In my defence, I was 3 years old when he retired from coaching. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240/40 "2013-02-04T02:52:26Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Heee! Speaking of which, every time I come to the Dope I get momentarily hung up by that double-headed woman going down on those ice cream bars… (Meant to Reply to #14.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-stereotypes-only-black-people-wear-purple/649240.md?page=3)