Be honest, what do you think of when you hear “black people”?

By: | Post date: January 2, 2017 | Comments: 2 Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

Ah, Michael, Michael, Michael…

I see this has become a random word association task, and that it has spawned Be honest: what do you think of when you hear “white people”?

OK. Let’s see where this takes me.

  • African-Americans.
    • Not Africans. Not Jamaicans. Not Australian Aboriginals. If I see a Somali in town (our second-last refugee intake in Australia), I don’t think “black people”, I think “damn those Somalis are tall.”
  • Negative media portrayals
  • Being scared while in the hood in Memphis (correlated)
  • Civil rights struggle
  • All that awesome music. All of it.
  • I know too few black people, offline or on
  • The ones I have met were all awesome
    • Including here
  • Should really get around to reading more Langston Hughes one day
  • Maya Angelou does not seem to be a good poet
  • I keep thinking I’m going to be subconsciously racist around blacks
    • Maybe I am, but I don’t think I’ve allowed anything to get out 🙂
  • I need to know a LOT more about Frederick Douglass

Well, that was my stream of consciousness…

2 Comments

  • John Cowan says:

    Not that it’s a high bar or anything, but Maya Angelou is the best damn unofficial poet laureate we’ve ever had.

    • opoudjis says:

      … It really isn’t a high bar, is it? I haven’t read that much of either, but I’m pretty confident Angelou does not measure up to Hughes, for example.

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