--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "ispiritkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Separate point ~~ I can often pick out from a distance the > difference between an American black and a foreign black > (esp from Africa). Blacks raised in the U.S. have an internal > tension and defensiveness that foreign-born-and-raised blacks > don't show. That tension shows in their posture and body language. > This is such a sad statement about how their environment affects > them.
Trying my best to stay out of the puerile "nigger" thang, I don't think your generalization is general enough, ispiritkin. It's Americans, period, who move like they've got a permanent stick up their butts and a shitload of fear on their shoulders. Just ask any European, or someone like me who lives here. You can pick out the Americans from 100 feet away, just by the way they walk and move. My phrase for it is that they are not comfortable in their bodies. They don't have an "easy relation- ship" with their bodies; they're always in a fight with them, as if they don't trust them, or as if they don't trust the other bodies around them. It's difficult to explain to someone who lives in the U.S. and doesn't get out of it much, but it's something that becomes remarkably apparent when you travel. Because I have dogs and walk them, I liken it to the difference between healthy, happy dogs and how they relate to other dogs and...uh... less happy, less secure dogs who have to snarl at or distrust all other dogs. It's a really bizarre phenomenon to watch in dogs, and even more bizarre in humans, and I get to watch it all the time, because I live in a tourist town that gets its share of American tourists, even with the dollar in the toilet. So that's my only real point -- that *Americans* period don't look or move as if they are comfortable with themselves, or their selves. But for fun I'll add a personal story to your stories of what it might be like to grow up black in America. I had a friend in the Rama trip who was black. Young, hand- some, well-dressed and well-educated, and a certi- fiable genius with computers and AI software. He made more money in a month than most of the people around him made in a year, and was never the least bit ostentatious about it. His vibe was reserved but friendly and outgoing, once he got to know you. Being white, I never quite understood the reserve until we went postering for an upcoming Rama talk one day on and around a Connecticut college campus. We were both taking time off from our Day Jobs to do this, so we were both wearing business suits. So I got to watch the *reactions* of people when we walked into their offices or places of business (only the ones that had posters already displayed and thus were likely to put up one more) to ask them, as politely as possible, if they'd put up one of ours. I would walk in and the people in the office would be all smiles. Koan (his spiritual name) would walk in and the guys would frown and the women would hide their purses. I learned a lot that day about what it must be like to be black in America. We lost touch when I bailed from the Rama trip, but then I ran into him again years later, after he had been living and consulting in Paris. Because at the time I was considering moving to Paris, I asked him what it was like for him to live there. He tried not to, being a guy and all, but he got a little teary, and then recovered enough to say, "It's the first place I've ever lived in my life where no one looks at me and immediately thinks 'Nigger.'" I've since lived in Paris, and I understand. Being black means nothing in Paris. It isn't a positive and it isn't a negative; it just makes you one more guy or gal on the street.
