And many blacks less sensitive? I don’t know any other way to ask this. I hope I don’t offend any white people nor any black people.
When I hear noise complaints, it’s usually from whites and sometimes Asians. But, I can hear the most loud and obnoxious noises and most black people don’t even seem to notice.
I’m very curious about this (my) observation.
Not to come across as racist either but in my experience quite a few blacks are quite loud and obnoxious as well…maybe they just do not notice it?
Because the lack that bone in their ears, that whites and asians have; you know the one that <b>they</b> have in their ankles, that prevents them from swiming…you know the one I mean.
Not to come across as racist either but in my experience quite a few whites are ignorant and arrogant as well…maybe they just do not notice it?
I’m a black guy. I hate loud noises. I also hate it when anyone has a car stereo blasting at ultra level. (I don’t like rap too much either, I prefer, um, Kate Bush really)
I hate it when other black people do it, because they’ll always say its got to be racist when you (I mean you as a white person) get upset about it…and i don’t like it when other black people play the racist card to weasel out of situations where they’re acting like buttheads. As my mother used to tell me, “Be black and be proud, but act with dignity and respect others." To quote Chris Rock, I love black people but i hates niggas”. (I wouldn’t say that in public if you aren’t black…you could get hurt. 
On the flipside, I have seen a lot of white kids blaring music (usually rap) at insane levels. I don’t care that they’re listening to it…I care that they’re driving me nuts. Its an attention thing. But then I’ve always felt that if you have to announce to the world that you’re cool, then you’re not really all that cool.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
But lacking it makes them better at running, right??
OP, what do you mean by “noise complaints”? Official calls into the cops? Or just casual remarks? I think anyone tends to be taken aback by loud displays of things they themselves aren’t into. I was pissed when white students complained about the noises black students were making on campus, when they are noises I would enjoy since they were the sounds pledges on line would make. They are exiciting to me but someone else thought they were caterwauling. :rolleyes:
There is not one black person living on my street yet there’s tons of loud music blaring from car stereos (usually rap) at most hours of the day. That, along with loud gas-powered toys and 4-wheelers.
I, a white person, have yet to voice a complaint. And all of my white neighbors (some of them elderly) must not be complaining either because the noise hasn’t stopped.
I think your logic may be flawed…
There is an idea floating around out there that the English invented the idea of privacy within the home (cite: *Inside the Victorian Home * by Judith Flanders), and English people–and one assumes the culture they brought over–are unusually sensitive, compared with other European nationalities, about invasion of the home, be it smells, noises, or people.
Now. American culture (I guess we’re talking about America) is strongly tied to English culture, especially in Suburbia where people are supposed to be “nice,” where “nice” is very much tied up in the idea of being private and respecting other people’s privacy. My guess is that the people who have an investment in Suburbia–which is, in bulk, white adults–tend to be hyper-sensitive about what those around them are doing. The kids absolutely don’t care–they don’t own it and don’t have any power over it, so they’ll blast their music.
That’s one theory anyway. I have no investment in my neighborhood except that I have to live in it till my lease expires, and I still loathe those ornery kids with their darn ornery music. GO TO BED ALREADY!
…This thread is funny.
My husband makes fun of me, but I hate all noise (except the stereo cranked up to listen to MY tunes, and that happens about once a year around here). I hate: lawnmowers, weed wackers, bush trimmers, chainsaws, motorcycles, ATVs, loud boom boxes (never noticed which color the folks are that blare them–just hate 'em), loud car engines, radios, car sound systems, trucks, jackhammers, repair trucks, sirens,snowblowers, snowplows, garbage trucks- do you want me to go on? yep-I’m white, but I see no correlation between noise aversion and race. Sorry, but there it is. IMO, my noise aversion comes from working in an ICU for
10+ years, where 24 different alarms in each room could go off at any given time (and did).
I like the sound of wind, even when it’s howling, birds-even at 0430, waves, raccoons mating (under our porch), leaves, and trains, far in the distance.
Sorry, what was the question again? I couldn’t hear you.
(lame, I know…) 
Maybe it’s not that black people don’t notice the noise. Maybe it’s that they complain less.
Diamonds02, I’d only suggest avoiding the issue entirely and just quit farting so loudly in your cubicle.
I don’t know if your premise is true or not, but I do have some anecdotal answers to your “question”.
I used to live near a McDonalds/Chevron Gas station and quickmart. Right across the street as a matter of fact. For some bizarre reason, this was THE hangout for kids in my area. Since the MickeyDs/Chevron is located in a rather nice area of town we got a lot of the rich kids from “Hillside” in their ‘spensive cars with "bouncin’ stereos".
Many were the nights when I’d put on my “you kids turn that crap down” hat on and storm over to the station to put an end to booming base at 1am.
I’ll tell you what, along race lines, here is what my experience mainly consisted of. (oh, I’m white and female). Rich white hillside kids? Jerks, usually copped a “do you know who I am” attitude, but generally would pipe down at the mention of calling the police (mommy and daddy might take away their car keys).
Black kids? Still noisy, but WAY more polite when confronted, now being kids, no telling what jerks they turned into after I left, but face to face they behaved better than the white kids.
I have found that it seems to be WAY more of an age thing, rather than a black/white thing. I don’t notice people of my age group black or white behaving that way, but lots of kids black and white do.
Lack of consideration for others has nothing to do with the color of one’s skin.
Are you me? I have a real thing about unnecessary noise. Occasionally I’ll get so worked up and twitchy about it that my daughter will ask me if I’m perhaps rabid. Mine also comes from work, primarily from my overwhelming hatred of the sound of a ringing phone. The only thing I *don’t * mind is music, be it mine or someone else’s. As long as it’s not country or opera, turn it up as loud as you like.
I’ve never noticed a correlation between race and noiseiness/noise aversion. I’ve often noticed a correlation with age, though.
This may be related, and I may be eligible to join your club.
I’ve noticed that Black people will sit on the subway opposite from each other (when there are adjacent seats available) and SHOUT their conversation, so that everyone in the subway car hears every mundane syllable they utter.
I marvel at this. Do they think their trivialities are so interesting that everyone profits from this exposure? Are they being deliberately rude? Do they not realize how loud they are talking, or how easily they could have a (nearly) private conversation simply by sitting next to each other?
And actually there are times when I hear people (mostly Black subway riders) sitting in adjacent seats and virtually screaming their conversations to each other.
I think there’s something cultural going on here that I’m unaware of.
Mom trained to be a teacher; the last time she had a job was before I was born, though, so she basically dumped all her training on 3 kids instead of 40 (ugh!)
She says that one of the things that had been drilled into them was that boys and girls are different only in their anatomy and should be treated the same and so forth. But myself and my female cousins were terrified of loud mechanical noises when we were babies (including the total tomboy who took first communion in jeans because she refused to wear a skirt); otoh our male siblings/cousins found BROOM BRRRRROMMM terribly exciting and nifty.
So, she concluded that “the same but not… quite”.
We’re all light brown, uh, white
I work in a downtown mall, and I’ve noticed that some people, women especially, have no problem with shouting to their friends across three levels of the mall, or carrying on loud personal conversations and arguments that can be heard inside every store. Especially if the is “flirting with boys” going on. Their personal dramas get transmitted to everyone at this end of the mall, and if the acoustics were different, the rest of the mall as well. When confronted by security to tone it down, they get belligerent, and after security walks away, they get louder and more demonstrative to compensate for being chastised. Invariably, when we look out to see who is making all the racket, it’s a black girl. The only time I can ever remember a white girl making that much noise was when she was with a group of black guys. Even when I work in malls that are predominantly visited by whites, if there is someone working out her personal drama with her friends, and shouting and running, it’s not the white girls.
Now in a place where noise is more common, I see no differences. Concerts, large crowds, outdoor festivals. But in my mall, is seems to be predominantly blacks making the unneccssary (to an adults ears!) noise.
I had this loud-talking friend (BeelzeBob) who was living with a family in the desert. I hung out with them one weekend. Everyone was loud! The volume on the TV was high, and they talked above it. (And they talked through whatever was on. Sort of annoying when they insist you have to see a movie, and then chatter all the way through it.) I began to think they were all deaf. And they talked over one another. And chewed with their mouths open and spoke with their mouths full. Not a pleasant weekend for me.
I don’t think it’s a function of race. I think that some people are just loud due to their upbringing. If one has been brought up to not be loud, one notices it when he is near people for whom loudness is normal.
I know this is about black and white, but may I submit an anecdote about Asians?
I used to work in a cubicle farm made up of a bunch of whites, a couple of Pakistanis, a couple of black people, and two Asian women. The loudest people were the Asian women. Not all the time, but when they got talking to each other, man, it was loud. One would be talking about a javascript or something, and the other would interrupt and start talking over her, slightly louder. The other would do the same. Lather, rinse, repeat, and you’ve got two Asian women shouting at each other about coding. But they weren’t mad. That was just the way they talked to each other. They never talked to anyone else this way. I am led to believe that the shouting interrupt is a cultural thing. It seems incredibly rude to me, but never seemed to bother them, so I just put my headphones on.
Incidentally, the handful of black people in our office were typically very quiet and kept to themselves. Marlin laughed really loud, but then, so does my best friend, who is the Whitest Woman in America.