# Poll: Your reaction to "If Black People Said the Stuff White People Say" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 21, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305 "2014-06-21T17:28:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/21 "2014-06-21T19:42:47Z")
I am white and half-smiled because I recognize the truth in the video. It didn’t really hit my funny bone at all, though. I have heard a couple of these things said to black friends/acquaintances (including a situation when someone tried to touch a black woman’s hair without asking first, which WTF I can’t even) and can easily believe that the rest happen on a regular basis too. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/22 "2014-06-21T19:43:51Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > You need an option in the poll for “I’m white, and I want my two minutes back.” You can’t have your two minutes back. Two whole minutes of your life. Gone forever, like tears in rain. How does that make you feel? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/23 "2014-06-21T20:11:52Z")
Angry at black people. I think I’ll go out and say something stupid to one of them - that’ll make up for it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/24 "2014-06-21T20:40:19Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Why do white people keep saying “I’ve never heard these things.” Why would people say these things to you? Because I have no context or frame of reference to say I find it funny. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/25 "2014-06-21T20:51:26Z")
That was just plain stupid. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/26 "2014-06-21T20:53:16Z")
I’m white and I thought it was stupid, maybe even a little racist, because I don’t have those kind of interactions with any black people I know. Obviously it happens, but it’s a bit out of context for me. So I’m all :dubious: However, the sister video to this is [If Asians Said What White People Say](http://www.buzzfeed.com/abefg/if-asians-said-the-stuff-white-people-say), is hilarious, because I say that shit all the time to Asians. I don’t talk about a black person’s hair or the ghetto or whatever because I’m sensitive to it being racist, and I’m also sensitive that insulting someone on a racial level might lead to violence against me, but I am more… open and forward with Asians and I don’t realize what I’m doing. I don’t feel as threatened. (Sorry, people of the world. ☹ I am a horrible person.) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/27 "2014-06-21T20:56:41Z")
Americans are weird. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/28 "2014-06-21T21:00:56Z")
Let me just put this out there: people are really strange and possessive about hair. Other people’s hair. Aside from people always trying to touch any hair different than medium on women and short on men or telling you what they want your hair to look like, I’ve heard on more than one occasion someone asking a black woman if her “hair was real” or some variation thereof. Or a statement of something they think is fact, like “girl your weave isn’t real anyway” after they go to touch it. Completely rude. I didn’t find the video funny simply because it’s too true to be funny. It just made me think of all the racist, rude people out there that still have no freakin’ clue. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/29 "2014-06-21T21:13:34Z")
When I was 18, in the late 1970’s sometime, I showed up as a freshman to this strange alternative college I had enrolled in, and there was a hip black harlem guy in my dorm. So in the course of our conversation I with perfect naivete said, “How’d _ **you** _ get here?” He replied, “I really don’t know. I was just passing the time, sitting on my stoop eating watermelon and these crazy honkies showed up, pulled me into their car and drove me out here and dumped me.” I was suitably ashamed. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/30 "2014-06-21T21:18:33Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Substitute “smiled” for “laughed” if you didn’t actually LOL. Whew! I didn’t know how to vote because it was more cringeworthy than funny. Could you add the option, “I’m white and I rolled my eyes because I know dumb crackers like that?” Or “I’m white and some black women have smooth, velvety skin and soft, bouncy hair that I want to touch but I have some manners and think before I speak?” Many of those things are said by unmannered louts, but most of them are said by people without internal censors. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/31 "2014-06-21T21:21:14Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Americans are weird. You say that because you live in a country where everybody has an Uzi or a bomb wrapped around them so everybody’s nice. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/32 "2014-06-21T21:35:44Z")
It doesn’t make its point very well because it changes some things that might be cluelessly offensive to being intentionally insulting. There is no way that a person who calls someone’s hair “limp and lifeless” or their skin “pale” is trying to compliment them. If I admire someone’s thick, curly, lively hair, it is perfectly reasonable that they might also admire my straight, sleek, fine hair. The lighter-spectrum version of having lovely dark skin is having lovely fair skin, not being pale. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/33 "2014-06-21T22:01:44Z")
> [@Silvorange](#): > > It doesn’t make its point very well because it changes some things that might be cluelessly offensive to being intentionally insulting. There is no way that a person who calls someone’s hair “limp and lifeless” or their skin “pale” is trying to compliment them. If I admire someone’s thick, curly, lively hair, it is perfectly reasonable that they might also admire my straight, sleek, fine hair. The lighter-spectrum version of having lovely dark skin is having lovely fair skin, not being pale. LOL. Yeah, because white people only say pleasant things to us about our hair. We never hear the term “nappy” used derisively or told our hair looks like a Brillo pad when being generous, or pubes when they’re not. Get out of here with “White people only say nice things about black people’s hair, so this video doesn’t work.” Fuck me. Why do I even come into threads like this? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/34 "2014-06-21T22:05:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Americans are weird. Every culture has its source of weirdness. Ours is race. ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/35 "2014-06-21T22:07:23Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > LOL. Yeah, because white people only say pleasant things to us about our hair. We never hear the term “nappy” used derisively or told our hair looks like a Brillo pad when being generous, or pubes when they’re not. Get out of here with “White people only say nice things about black people’s hair, so this video doesn’t work.” > > Fuck me. Why do I even come into threads like this? Oh, I agree about that. It’s the way they are saying those things in the video, as though they mistakenly think they are being nice. Maybe there are white people who say obviously insulting things like that in such a cheery manner like they are genuinely trying to compliment someone, but it would surprise me. Of course, I have been surprised before. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/36 "2014-06-21T22:11:03Z")
No, we hear stupid shit by people who think they’re being friendly rather often. I’m out of this thread. My patience for this kind of silliness is at zero. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/37 "2014-06-21T22:13:54Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > LOL. Yeah, because white people only say pleasant things to us about our hair. We never hear the term “nappy” used derisively or told our hair looks like a Brillo pad when being generous, or pubes when they’re not. Get out of here with “White people only say nice things about black people’s hair, so this video doesn’t work.” > > Fuck me. Why do I even come into threads like this? Because it’s hard being the only black chick around here. We have to have two black chicks in every thread involving race. That’s the unspoken rule. So I forbid you from leaving, **MOL**. \ How about being asked if I had those “knots” in my hair when I was a little girl, with scornful emphasis on the word “knots”. I hope I wasn’t supposed to take this as a compliment. Because I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/38 "2014-06-21T22:29:53Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > No, we hear stupid shit by people who think they’re being friendly rather often. > > I’m out of this thread. My patience for this kind of silliness is at zero. I’m probably not expressing myself well, because I don’t doubt at all that people say stupid things. I’m sorry for trying your patience. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/39 "2014-06-21T22:31:13Z")
No option for _I’m white and I think it’s stupid, maybe even racist_.\* But then I am white, and yet I cannot comprehend this sort of stupidity - not sure I’ve seen it IRL. However, on second thought, maybe I can, or perhaps it passed under my radar. Seriously, people say this sort of shit? I must be sheltered. But I am actually not sheltered, and I still can’t believe this. Edit: \*Why yes there was such an option, my bad! ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305/40 "2014-06-21T22:31:35Z")
The first time it was really awkward. The second time it was pretty funny, though maybe not Boondocks level. I’m familiar with most of these. I think my favorite one (meaning from the normal direction, not the reversal) comes from The Walking Dead game Kenny (white) Lee (black) are trying to get into a locked door K: “Man, Lee, we really need to get in there. Can’t you pick the lock or somethin’?” L: “What? No! Why would you even think that?” K: “Because, you’re, y’know… urban?” L: “Oh man, you are **not** saying what I think you’re saying!” K: “Man, I’m from Florida, shit just comes out of my mouth sometimes.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-your-reaction-to-if-black-people-said-the-stuff-white-people-say/691305.md?page=3)