--- TurquoiseB wrote: > > --- "ispiritkin" 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; <snip>
Oh, I do agree -- even the difference between Americans and Canadians in general is striking, but is not quite as striking as in the black race (to my eye). > 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. <snip> > 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. > > <snip> 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. I don't get out much, so my observations are limited to the midwest mostly. But I talked about this with a black neighbor who has lived in and visited various places in the U.S. and Canada. Strangely enough, he had the same thing to say about South Dakota as your friend did about Paris -- that people in South Dakota (the Black Hills specifically) didn't look at him as black, they just treated him like the next tourist in line who wanted to buy a ticket. People didn't look up from their dinners at restaurants and stare. And they didn't get all nicey-nice, either, like some people do when they are uncomfortable. When he found out I was from North Dakota, he said my attitude fit right in with what he had experienced up in those northern hinterlands. Maybe the similarity has opposite geneses in the two environments. There are so FEW blacks in the Dakotas that most folks there haven't had much to assess, positive or negative. In Paris, there are so many different kinds of people and so many of each kind, that folks have a chance to make lots of assessments, both positive and negative, and all those assessments tend to equal out regarding race. After all that, a person has to use subtler distinctions to judge, because humans always have to find distinctions to judge with. ;)
