# Black people and stereotypes **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 6, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964 "2003-09-06T18:35:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sinful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Sinful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinful)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/1 "2003-09-06T18:35:31Z")
I do not want to offend anyone in this thread, but rather I want to discuss something that I see more and more requently. We all have seen the stereotypes of black people out there. The movies “Malibu’s Most Wanted” “Don’t Be A Menace” etc etc, all played on black stereotypes in our culture. We can all name a few common stereotypes right now too: They dress like rappers. Talk the loudest in movie theaters. Commit a large % of crime the stereotypes go on. Anyways, the one thing I have noticed is that these stereotypes seem to be true. And the worst part is that they are perpetrating their OWN stereotypes. Almost all the balack guys on campus walk around in giant gold chains, wearing basketball jerseys with bandanas tied in a HUGE knot on thier head, and in the movie theaters they seriously won’t shut up about the scene we just saw 20 minutes ago, and have to tell all thier friends on their cell phones, BLARE their rap down the halls so you can hear it down the street, and hog all the basketball courts. I hate stereotypes and try and avoid them as much as possible, but I just don’t understand why someone would perpetrate thier own stereotype? I’m a big nerd. If you know me, then you would know I’m a nerd, but I am not the stereotypical nerd. I am not pale, nor scrawny, I do not wet my pants when a girl talks to me, and I don’t come out of the Dungeons and Dragons movie screeching about how a Level 1 mage can cast a Level 4 Fireball spell. The old saying goes :“All stereotypes are based in truth” ---
**Author:** ![Ptahlis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a8b319/32.png) [@Ptahlis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ptahlis)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/2 "2003-09-06T18:55:56Z")
Well, I don’t think anyone says that a given stereotype is _never_ true, just that you can’t necessarily accurately judge any individual member of a group based on the stereotypes surrounding the group they’re in. Stereotypes don’t often arrive from thin air, with no relationship to reality. The urban-thug-rapper image seems to be the dominant “type” in popular black culture today, so I’m not surprised you see a lot of it. If you look at the white kids in the neighborhood you’ll probably see a lot of the same (\*ugly) clothes and hear a lot of the same (\*bad) music blaring from their cars as well. - IMHO of course. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/3 "2003-09-06T19:08:43Z")
Yeah, that Condi Rice and that Colin Powell. Jus’ a-screamin’ an’ a-rappin’. They bad. Don’t get me started on Morgan Freeman and that Portier guy. And then there’s the Chairman, Chief Executive and President of Merrill Lynch, [Stan O’Neal](http://www.ml.com/about/org_structure_ml/oneal.htm). Looks like a baaaad dude to me. Maybe if you look to adults for role models… ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/4 "2003-09-06T19:12:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sinful \* > **I do not want to offend anyone in this thread, but** This is all I had to read, to know you’d be saying something really stupid. How did I know that? Because all the other threads that start out this way are stupid. Oh. Is that a stereotype? Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/5 "2003-09-06T20:03:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sinful \* > \*\*I hate stereotypes and try and avoid them as much as possible, but I just don’t understand why someone would perpetrate thier own stereotype? \*\* I behave the way I do because I choose to. Someone else’s stereotypes about “people like me” have no importance. I ignore them. You seem to be saying that if someone’s actions fit some stereotype they should change their actions? Why? To please whom? Julie ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/6 "2003-09-06T20:09:02Z")
I bet you fufill stereotypes about white people. I bet you can’t dance very well. I bet you own a pair of raggedy docksiders and khaki cutoffs. I bet you’ve worn the combination of the above during the cold of winter. I bet you either really love heavy metal or country music. I bet you like mayonaisse. I bet a collard green has never touched your lips. I bet you look your nose down on people who wear big baggy jeans and bandanas tied around their head. I bet you live in the suburbs. I bet you live in a middle class household. I bet you don’t have any black friends. I bet you don’t know what “Dark-n-Lovely” is or what it does or how it smells. I bet you’re a big nerd like all white people. And I bet I’m probably wrong on some or maybe even most of these assumptions. But the truth of the matter is that you’re fulfilling stereotypes. So the answer to your question of why black people fulfill stereotypes: they’ll stop perpetuating them when _you_ stop perpetuating yours. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/7 "2003-09-06T20:33:05Z")
## quote: ## Originally posted by Sinful I hate stereotypes and try and avoid them as much as possible, but I just don’t understand why someone would perpetrate thier own stereotype? That’s just silly. Lots of young people (white, black, eskimo, russian) “dress like rappers”. Just like lots of young people dress like “sluts” or “pimps” ala Britney and her gang. I’ve seen this silly “thug” stereotype batted around by some people. I’ve never been able to understand how they’re observant enough to see the clothing and silly walk and “gangsta” talk. But they can’t see that lots of times it’s just kids in “a phase” just like tons of kids in the 80s had big blue mohawks (though usual disclaimer applies, I’m sure there are people who have adopted this “style” for life, or who might truly BE thugs etc). ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/8 "2003-09-06T20:46:39Z")
**monstro** , I couldn’t resist…😃 > [@](#): > > I bet you fufill stereotypes about white people. 1.) I bet you can’t dance very well. I can. (but probably not the hip hoppy stuff, NOT because I’m white though, because I’m too damaged [recent crushed fibula] and have ancient knees). 2.) I bet you own a pair of raggedy docksiders and khaki cutoffs. Do jeans or old sweats count? 🙂 3.) I bet you’ve worn the combination of the above during the cold of winter. LOL, not THIS chilly willy 4.) I bet you either really love heavy metal or country music. You got me there, I adore metal, but only the “good old stuff”. 5.) I bet you like mayonaisse. LOL, um yes but only on sandwiches, does THAT count? 6.) I bet a collard green has never touched your lips. Nope, but I’ve tried okra and it is ICK EEEEE 5.) I bet you look your nose down on people who wear big baggy jeans and bandanas tied around their head. No, I just always wonder how they can stand the seam of the jeans’ crotch around their knees, and I also wonder if they aren’t aware that the style looks a bit like a toddler with a full diaper. 6.) I bet you live in the suburbs. Sigh, I wish, I live in the “wilds” of Alaska ugh. 7.) I bet you live in a middle class household. guilty 8.) I bet you don’t have any black friends. Not any young baggie jeans/bandana wearing ones. All of my black friends are old fogies like me 🙂 9.) I bet you don’t know what “Dark-n-Lovely” is or what it does or how it smells. SURE I do!!!, I used to fuel 747s and I used it on my hair every shift to protect my hair against fuel spills (it smells good). 10.) I bet you’re a big nerd like all white people. Define nerd 🙂 (I probably am one ) 11.) And I bet I’m probably wrong on some or maybe even most of these assumptions. I don’t know (giggling) for me you were right on the money about half of them! > [@](#): > > But the truth of the matter is that you’re fulfilling stereotypes. So the answer to your question of why black people fulfill stereotypes: they’ll stop perpetuating them when you stop perpetuating yours. Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/9 "2003-09-06T21:16:18Z")
There’s a difference between a (harmful) stereotype and a trend. Establishing that members of a particular ethnic or cultural group or culture dress in a particular way is no surprise. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/10 "2003-09-06T21:25:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monstro \* > **I bet you fufill stereotypes about white people.** Let’s see… > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you can’t dance very well. \*\* No. Was chucked out of ballet class at the age of four and things have not improved. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you own a pair of raggedy docksiders and khaki cutoffs. \*\* 1. What are docksiders? and 2. No > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you’ve worn the combination of the above during the cold of winter. \*\* No (see above) > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you either really love heavy metal or country music. \*\* Neither. Pop. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you like mayonaisse. \*\* No, it’s a bit gloopy. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet a collard green has never touched your lips. \*\* Not sure - what is a collard green? > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you look your nose down on people who wear big baggy jeans and bandanas tied around their head. \*\* Who? A (female) friend of mine sometimes wears a gipsy-style scarf, but I’ve been to gutless to tell her it looks foolish. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you live in the suburbs. \*\* Not really. Back in the UK, more of a village. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you live in a middle class household. \*\* I did. Now I live in a desert slum of my own making. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you don’t have any black friends. \*\* Pretty much every shade of non-white from ebony to a light Levantine tan. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you don’t know what “Dark-n-Lovely” is or what it does or how it smells. \*\* No. I know what “Fair and Lovely” is though. It’s skin bleach that Arab and Asian women use. I’d kill for their melanin, life’s never fair. > [@](#): > > \*\*I bet you’re a big nerd like all white people. \*\* Possibly. Three laptops and a wireless LAN. And an Xbox. And I’m crap at sport. > [@](#): > > \*\*And I bet I’m probably wrong on some or maybe even most of these assumptions. \*\* Most. I think I must be a British White Stereotype, not an American one. Ask about the stiffness of my upper lip, and my bulldog spirit, and you’ll probably pin me down… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/11 "2003-09-06T21:57:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monstro \* > \*\*I bet you fufill stereotypes about white people. > (Damn, I like this game, lemme play.) > > I bet you can’t dance very well. > (I’ve actually won a few dance contests) > > I bet you own a pair of raggedy docksiders and khaki cutoffs. (WTF are those, sorry big miss) > > I bet you’ve worn the combination of the above during the cold of winter. > (obviously not) > > I bet you either really love heavy metal or country music. > (I listen to both, wouldn’t say I love’em, I’m a blues man myself) > > I bet you like mayonaisse. > (On some things just not too much) > > I bet a collard green has never touched your lips. > (Love collards but not mustard or turnip, esp. w/ corn bread, purple hull peas, mashed potatoes and gravy w/ fried chicken or deer steak) > > I bet you look your nose down on people who wear big baggy jeans and bandanas tied around their head. > (I keep a bandana w/ me at all times and don’t want no tightassed jeans) > > I bet you live in the suburbs. > (Out in the woods in the middle of a pine thicket) > > I bet you live in a middle class household. > (not real sure what that means but I kinda doubt it) > > I bet you don’t have any black friends. > (Some of my best friends are black, MoF I was at a party the other night, maybe 200 folks there 4 were white) > > I bet you don’t know what “Dark-n-Lovely” is or what it does or how it smells. > (I thought it was hair treatment) > > I bet you’re a big nerd like all white people. > (Nerd? Did you actually use the “N” word…who’s calling who a nerd 😉 > > And I bet I’m probably wrong on some or maybe even most of these assumptions. > (I bet you are too) > > But the truth of the matter is that you’re fulfilling stereotypes. So the answer to your question of why black people fulfill stereotypes: they’ll stop perpetuating them when _you_ stop perpetuating yours. \*\* Yep, I guess I fit right in…somewhere 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/12 "2003-09-06T21:59:12Z")
Sorry about the quote above. I missed my coding apparently. My answers are in the parenthesis. No PC geek here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/13 "2003-09-06T23:26:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monstro \* > **I bet you fufill stereotypes about white people.** > We’ll see. > > **I bet you can’t dance very well.** > True! > > **I bet you own a pair of raggedy docksiders and khaki cutoffs.** > False. Not even sure what the first thing is. > > **I bet you’ve worn the combination of the above during the cold of winter.** > False. > > **I bet you either really love heavy metal or country music.** > False. Bleggggh. > > **I bet you like mayonaisse.** > False. Bleggggh. > > **I bet a collard green has never touched your lips.** > False (I live in the South, for chissakes!). Again, bleggggh. > > **I bet you look your nose down on people who wear big baggy jeans and bandanas tied around their head.** > True, but that’s because I’m tall. Oh, you meant it _figuratively_… > > **I bet you live in the suburbs.** > False. > > **I bet you live in a middle class household.** > False. I live in _two_ middle class households. 😃 > > **I bet you don’t have any black friends.** > False. > > **I bet you don’t know what “Dark-n-Lovely” is or what it does or how it smells.** > False. See above. > > **I bet you’re a big nerd like all white people.** > Big nerd–true, like all white people–false. Some of my best friends are cool and white. > > And I bet I’m probably wrong on some or maybe even most of these assumptions. > \*\* Yay! This is so much fun. Now **Sinful** needs to write an OP on “Men and sterotypes” so **Monstre** can come up with a fun (if unintentional) poll on female sterotypes. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/14 "2003-09-06T23:31:48Z")
How did a thread entitled, “Black People and Stereotypes” come to have a White People Stereotype Conformity Questionaire in it? Here’s a dirty little secret regarding much of the conformity to stereotypes – at least in terms of fashion, public behavior and groupthink – among many young blacks: much of it is peer pressure. In urban areas there is such an anathema to being perceived as ‘acting white’ that young black people bend over backwards to embrace perceived black cultural traits, many of them negative. The streets are crawling with wiggers, and a lot of them are black. In historically black colleges, the usual introspection of youth to “find themselves” can have your mild-mannered glasses wearing slightly overweight son from the ‘burbs of Decatur, GA ditching the rims, bulking up like Biggie and cussing like Ol’ Dirty in South Central drive-by by Christmas break his freshman year. Personally, I blame the media. I just hope black hip-hop counterculture gets eaten up soon. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/15 "2003-09-06T23:41:34Z")
Don’t nobody up in here know what [“docksiders”](http://amos.catalogcity.com/cc.class/cc?pcd=3363448&ccsyn=22) is? I ain’t misspronouncing the word, is I? \ ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/16 "2003-09-06T23:50:10Z")
where the hell did ‘oh white people must like mayonaise’ crapola come from? I can’t stand the stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_of\_the\_CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Earl\_of\_the\_CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_the_CC)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/17 "2003-09-07T00:01:44Z")
I wonder about that myself. All I could come up with is that Mayonaisse is white. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/18 "2003-09-07T00:16:41Z")
I think I cracked it, Mayonaisse is white, bland and has no taste, oh wow, so funny I forget to laugh. Come see me when some good cracks at stereotyping appear. Urgh. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/19 "2003-09-07T00:23:40Z")
OOOOOoooooohhhhhhhh… **those** are Docksiders… I’m not taking the test… but I doubt that was the point of posting it… I don’t consider dressing like rappers to be a stereotype… it’s just a style. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964/20 "2003-09-07T00:43:43Z")
I hope no one thought my post back there was actually serious. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-and-stereotypes/199964.md?page=2)