People, isn’t the OP saying that it isn’t the fact that he was on the phone the whole time, but the odd way he was holding it that was the problem? 45 degree angle, held as if he were shaving his sideburns…let’s read for content, folks! And really…have you never been in a big-box store or grocery store where you ended up going up and down the same aisles either behind someone or passing them face-to-face as you each traverse each aisle?
Huh. There was actually a study on race and cell phone usage, but I’m not sure what to make of it, if anything.
Precisely, and thanks. I did not go out of my way to follow this guy, he was just around every corner. Even the checkout gal was asking me what was up with the phone bit after he left. She was black, btw.
Holding the phone flat against his face may make his ear get hot or irritated. I can only go about 10 minutes before I have to shift the phone, myself.
If we’re going to bitch about cell phone users, let’s bitch about the assholes who put their phone on speaker and then just hold it in front of their face. If I weren’t so damn quiet and unassuming, I’d snatch their phones and chuck 'em at the nearest wall for that shit.
I just called a genuine bona-fide young black man and asked him.
His answer? Terrified of honkies.
Every time he goes shopping at Costco he feels like he’s in some whites only club that he somehow accidentally got a membership card for. In the sea of khaki-panted-men-with-lists and indoor-sunglasses-wearing-soccer-moms-drinking-Starbucks, he’s a lone speck of blackness and he feels exposed and vulnerable. He can’t wear his cartoonishly baggy pants because he can’t hold them up while pushing a cart full of bulk foodstuffs and office supplies and they won’t let him strap a 9. His best defense is to make a scary-black-man-don’t-give-a-f face and act like he’s on the phone with other black men who are staged and ready to provide backup if needed.
I thought he was shitting me, but he answered really quickly and I could hear a forklift backing up in the background and he paused his conversation with me several times to act interested in what various sample ladies were saying.
He didn’t want to look like white guys with a bluetooth thingy growing out of their ear, walking around talking into the air.
Why did you indicate his race in the OP?
But the Twain House is in Hartford!
Frankly, I hate holding my cellphone to ear. I prefer to use my bluetooth earpieces.
I laughed and laughed at this. I haven’t laughed so hard at a post in months. Thank you for that. wipes away a tear and salutes
Was it a hot day? I often hold my phone oddly out like that if I have to talk on it at work, trying to prevent oily sweaty face schmutz from getting all over the capacitive screen.
I specifically said it’s something I’ve only seen youngish black guys do. The question, in part, is whether it’s some sort of social/cultural thing.
All the attempts to read racism into it are sad and wrong.
Well if the black lady at the checkout doesn’t know, why the hell do you think any of us will?
Next time you see a youngish black guy doing this, why don’t you ask him?
Maybe it’s caused by the same gene that makes all of them hold their pistols sideways.
And in the title, no less.
White people hold their phones like this, but black people hold their phones like this.
I think it’s some kind of gang sign.
You’re absolutely right, Hap.
No more fucking questions on the board unless you already know the answer!
I read the following joke on the dope, and this seems like a good place to share it. Do you know who likes waatermelon and fried chicken? Everybody!
My suggestion is to ask a youngish black man why they do it, specifically one who you saw perform such a contortion.
That being said, the reason you’re getting all this shit is because this was a really weird thing to ask, but more importantly, it was presented in a really, really, really weird way.
Can we add an item to the SDMB “Rules, Guidelines, Etiquette” thread about thinking twice before starting a “Why do black people do this?” thread?