Maybe it is because over the last few decades we robbed ourselves of any culture with which to define ourselves, and now we have to pose as goth kids, or wanksters, or just anything that gives us some sort of identity? After all, we have no problem stealing our music, etc., from black culture.

I'm not crazy about it any more than anyone else, but I don't see it as a failing as a need without a solution. Was Elvis a "wigger" when he stole his entire style from the black musicians he grew up around, or Eric Clapton and the rest for building an entire era of "white" music on black americans?

If you don't want people to dishonestly define themselves, they have to have something genuine to associate themselves with. After years and years of trying to erase cultural and ethnic differences, we've succeeded and left ourselves with only a few others to steal from.

Why? Anybody?

Simple. Black = cool, white = uncool. At least that's what the big boys tell me.

Just consider the fact that every time people show disdain for rednecks, trailer trash, and "nascar people" a young person decides to emulate something that society takes more seriously. We open the door for wannabe jihandists, wanksters, goth geese, etc., when we ridicule their own culture and try to tell them they'd better overcome it or they won't do well in life.

I grew up in and around Appalachia, and we were told as children we'd better stop acting like we fell out of a holler and be more like people who are successful in society. So you spend years condemning 'white trash' and promoting "cultural diversity" regarding a few choice cultures, and you'll change the way entire generations think.

Heck, we even have "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" now, don't we? I think I'll go urp up my supper now.

First you were tagged on my embarrassing moments article. Link


Second, I HATE it. I took my son to an all white skating rink and they played Gansta rap the entire time. WHAT???? You don't have to be black to like it I guess..but it still was WEIRD.

And I hated every minute of it.

My ten year old says rap has "soul." Which means it has cuss words he can't say and probably does say when he sings those songs around his friends.

Remember Vanilla Ice? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That was the beginning!

Maybe it is because over the last few decades we robbed ourselves of any culture with which to define ourselves, and now we have to pose as goth kids, or wanksters, or just anything that gives us some sort of identity? After all, we have no problem stealing our music, etc., from black culture.

---Baker

Okay, I think I'll just avoid the ongoing "culture clash" we've been having here just lately. Not today.

Was Elvis a "wigger" when he stole his entire style from the black musicians he grew up around

---Baker

Well, taking your musical styles is one thing. Taking a lifestyle, which is what a lot of wannabes do, is quite another. Elvis was white and he stayed white in tone and dress, even though he sounded black when he sang. Then, later on, he got his own style with the huge pompadour and sideburns, polyester jumpsuits, sequins and capes! Could anyone have pulled that off besides the King? No' bloody loikly!

I dont know why they do it but I will tell ya this...something makes my skin crawl when I see a pretty young white girl open her mouth and spew forth like the most base ghetto queen imaginable. It just makes me shudder, right or wrong.

---LW

Yeah, that's true. They get so much of their language from that culture.

Heck, we even have "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" now, don't we? I think I'll go urp up my supper now.

----Baker

That's a little different. I've only seen the video once or twice, but I didin't notice all that many black faces in the Honkytonk, dressed like Joy for "My Name is Earl" or Daisy Duke. That would have been racist. But put a white kid in oversize pants, a huge basketball jersey and a starched, pristine baseball cap, add a few gold chains, and it's all good.

First you were tagged on my embarrassing moments article.

---Tova

Sorry, dearie; I missed it. Lemme think on it a bit. I try to forget embarrassing moments, so give me a while, but I'll come up with something.

Second, I HATE it. I took my son to an all white skating rink and they played Gansta rap the entire time. WHAT???? You don't have to be black to like it I guess..but it still was WEIRD.

---Tova

I hope it was the Wal-Mart "radio mix" versions, right? Of course, with all the cussing bleeped out or otherwise glossed over, there isn't much else to listen to.

My ten year old says rap has "soul."

---Tova


Like a freakin' 10-year-old knows anything about soul. Reminds me of the time I asked a black kid who worked for me why he liked hardcore rap. He said it "spoke to the urban black in me".

His Dad had an important office job with the local steel mill, where he probably made somewhere well above fifty grand a year. His Mom was a college professor who made a few bucks, herself. They lived in a ritzy neighborhood on a treelined street, nowhere near the ghe-tto. but it spoke to the "urban black" in him. Right.

Remember Vanilla Ice?

---Tova

Another embarrassing thing I try to forget.

"Well, taking your musical styles is one thing. Taking a lifestyle, which is what a lot of wannabes do, is quite another. Elvis was white and he stayed white in tone and dress, even though he sounded black when he sang. Then, later on, he got his own style with the huge pompadour and sideburns, polyester jumpsuits, sequins and capes! Could anyone have pulled that off besides the King? No' bloody loikly!"

Eh, you might want to rethink that. Elvis got his onstage dancing hijinks from the black performers of the time. As for hair styles and sideburns, you might want to look back and the black performers who didn't have the priviledge of getting filmed only from the waist up. If I'm not mistaken James Brown at the very least had done the jumpsuit thing long before Elvis.

I had to laugh on seeing your subtitle. I just get this image of a really trashy current affairs show from the 1960s.

What happens when blacks and whites mingle - we bring you full details of their filthy halfbreed spawn after 9!

Eh, you might want to rethink that. Elvis got his onstage dancing hijinks from the black performers of the time.

---Baker

As I said, taking musical styles is one thing, taking a lifestyle is another.

As for hair styles and sideburns, you might want to look back and the black performers who didn't have the priviledge of getting filmed only from the waist up.

The Duck's Ass (with smaller sideburns) was a common hairstyle in the 50s, of course, but the ridiculously huge sideburns things came out in the 60s and 70s.

If I'm not mistaken James Brown at the very least had done the jumpsuit thing long before Elvis.

---Baker

Well, you might be right there, I don't know. Regardless, he didn't get "tagged" with it the way Elvis did. It became a part of Elvis' "mystique", I guess you could say.

I had to laugh on seeing your subtitle. I just get this image of a really trashy current affairs show from the 1960s. What happens when blacks and whites mingle - we bring you full details of their filthy halfbreed spawn after 9!

---cacto


But that's my problem; the wiggers and wannabes aren't half-breeds! I could better understand, if they were.

Simple. Black = cool, white = uncool. At least that's what the big boys tell me.

---shovelheat

Sorry, I missed this one.

But why, then, is this a fact? What makes blacks "cooler" than whites?
The whites who adopt black attitudes, styles and speech patterns come off looking like idiots. I often feel embarassed for them. Go get your own personality, loser.
Look at the 1-800-CALL-ATT "Poser Patrol" commercials from a couple years ago. A little over the top, maybe, but they were making fun of wannabes with those ads.

With the advent of cultural diversity coupled with white guilt. The papers, magazines ads all telling white kids how evil and rotten their white grand parents were, how the kept the black man down for 400 years, all the pride in who they are have been sucked out of them in the name of political correctness.

But that's my problem; the wiggers and wannabes aren't half-breeds! I could better understand, if they were.

Actually I was laughing at you. Your subtitle and the whole feel of your article is some of the most blatant 'subtle' racism I've seen in at least a week. Black culture is no less American than what you call white culture - shouldn't you be happy about the homogenisation of American culture, particularly in the face of those filthy Mexicans coming in and stealin' your jobs AND threatening your people?

What's that old line... oh yeah, "it's time for black and white to come together and make war on red".

You should be glad, Rightwinger, not unhappy at the rise of a new pan-race American culture.

Spoken like a true Aussie who hasn't got a clue about things American.

I like to think of it as a fresh perspective. Blacks and whites have lived in America together for hundreds of years, most of that time with clear separation. It's about time your cultures started amalgamating together - wasn't that the whole point of the forced integration of schools? So poor blacks could mix with poor whites and they could learn together? Cultural mixing was an inevitable end-result and the decline of white culture relative to black practically a given when you consider the slow destruction of societal ties in most middle class white communities.

At base I think that's the cause - whites think their own culture is weak and pitiful. The whys of that are pretty irrelevent and probably uninteresting. But I also think it's all for the best - there's no point fighting to keep a weak culture going when a stronger one is found. It's better to assimilate the strength of the new one and only keep what you absolutely need of the old.

A possible alternative to some of the answers given here.

When whites act black, they are not ostracized. But a black acting white is liable to end up dead. In other words, there is no risk for the white people, but there is a definite risk for a black to be labeled as acting white.

Your subtitle and the whole feel of your article is some of the most blatant 'subtle' racism I've seen in at least a week.

---cacto

Like I didn't see this coming.

Black culture is no less American than what you call white culture - shouldn't you be happy about the homogenisation of American culture,

---cacto

Not really; I simply find it disquieting that a person would adopt the attitudes, clothing styles and phrasings of someone else as a general lifestyle. They want to hang out, hang out, I don't care. just have enough self-respect and strength of character to be yourself and what you are. Do you think the blacks actually respect the "wigger whites" for being so weak? I doubt it.

particularly in the face of those filthy Mexicans coming in and stealin' your jobs AND threatening your people?

---cacto

Replay LW's response, #14, here.

What's that old line... oh yeah, "it's time for black and white to come together and make war on red".

---cacto

Never heard it; back to LW's response.

You should be glad, Rightwinger, not unhappy at the rise of a new pan-race American culture.

---cacto

Are there lots of white Australians who adopt the styles and culture of your aborigines? How would you see them if they did? Honestly.

It's about time your cultures started amalgamating together - wasn't that the whole point of the forced integration of schools? So poor blacks could mix with poor whites and they could learn together?

---cacto

Damn, I knew I there was SOMETHING I didn't like about integration, racist pig that I am. Ihave no problem with blacks and whites mixing; it's fair, it's just and it's right. Whites simply look stupid, trying so hard to be black.

and the decline of white culture relative to black practically a given when you consider the slow destruction of societal ties in most middle class white communities.

--cacto

And here, I always thought to planned result of integration was supposed to be the strenghthening of BOTH cultures, to the benefit of America, not the sublimation and ultimate destruction of one in favor of the other. Isn't that why we ended segregation in the first place?

At base I think that's the cause - whites think their own culture is weak and pitiful.

---cacto

You might, I don't. For someone who claims not to be a liberal, you sure do sound like one, at least here in America, anyway.

But I also think it's all for the best - there's no point fighting to keep a weak culture going when a stronger one is found. It's better to assimilate the strength of the new one and only keep what you absolutely need of the old.

---cacto

Gotta love that Darwinism, huh? Why is black culture better than white? Sorry, but generally speaking, anywhere blacks take over, the crime goes up, property maintanence and values drop and it becomes a ghetto, whether it started out that way or not. Sounds pretty weak to me.

When whites act black, they are not ostracized. But a black acting white is liable to end up dead. In other words, there is no risk for the white people, but there is a definite risk for a black to be labeled as acting white.

---Dr. Guy

Interesting thoughts. Thanks for posting, Doc.