Back in the day when you were a child and your parents were scolding you for something you did wrong; did your eyes go down towards the ground or did your eyes make eye contact with the parent that was doing the scolding?
I ask because I notice a lot of times when I’m whatching a Black movie and a (black)child character was getting scolded by their parent; their eyes would always go towards the floor.
This is currious to me because I know when I was a child, it was understood that I was too look them directly in the eye. (I know this because I can recall on several occasions my Mom or Dad would spout off with “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”)
It was either Bill Cosby (black) or Eddie Murphy (black) who had the routine about a parent yelling at the chld, “Look me in the eye when I’m talking to you… [yell, yell, yell]… Don’t you stare at me!”
Went about the same in my house. (Whitey McWhite).
There is a BIG difference between looking down in shame while being scolded, and looking away in disinterest because you don’t wanna hear it. And trust me, the 'rents can tell which is which.
There was a “study”* done back in the 1960s that looked (pardon) into the issue of eye contact in black and white US culture. Supposedly, between blacks, the listener is supposed to look at the speaker. Between whites, the speaker is supposed to look at the listener. (I’m not sure what the non-looker is supposed to be doing eyewise, but apparently staring back is not it.)
Ergo, black person “staring” at white speaker bothers the white speaker. White listener not looking at the black speaker bothers the black speaker. (The latter has happened to me.)
*I’ve was unable to find any cites for this on the Net the last time I needed to reference it. It may have been a less-than-scientific study that is best forgotten about. But since my personal experience matches the study, I think it is still germane.
In my experience, just about everyone averts their eyes to the floor when you’re tearing a chunk out of their ass or otherwise intimidating them. Eye contact between males is assertive, and prolonged eye contact is aggressive. An instinctive response to being chastised would be to avoid eye contact.
I’ve never noticed any racial difference in this behavior.