Two things are absolutely true....but the intersection of these two truths too easily creates the misunderstanding we encounter in the conversation, above.
There is no such thing as 'too Black for America's voters'. That's pretty simple. You can look like Seal, or Brock Peters...you can look like Sidney Poitier... you can look like Patrick Mahomes. The tonal value of one's skin color will matter not a whit (at least to the vast majority) when it comes time to vote.
But, equally true: we all react -- on a very gut/personal level -- to the thousands of different conscious & sub-conscious cues that we each inevitably emit. The sum of that response becomes our 1st Impression which dictates our 'feeling' for the Other, be they a Presidential Candidate, or the guy who bags our groceries at the grocery store.
So what's this mean?
It means that we humans will tend to like or dislike someone....to be inclined positively or negatively to anyone for a thousand different reasons (most of which we're consciously unaware of) and only one of those countless reasons is color.
None of them exists in isolation, of course. It is only their totality which counts...and it is the totality which predisposes us to vote yea or nay for 'Bob' (if we are voting only in the context of a superficial popularity contest).
If Bob's hair is greasy...if he has a slight odor...if he seems dirty....if his clothes don't particularly fit....if he's hard to understand....if he's fidgety....if he seem full of himself....if he's crude....if he has tattoos or nose piercings....if he's constantly readjusting himself....if he doesn't make eye contact....if he whines....if he curses....if he seems artificial and fake.....if if if if (and each of us has a different set of reactionary triggers)....if the totality of these impressions tends negative, then we don't go to Bob's register when we want our groceries sacked. Nor do we vote for him for President.
But if he sounds like Cary Grant.... if he looks you in the eye like Gary Cooper.... if he's courteous, well-spoken, polite.... if he stands straight, is clean, well-dressed.... absent of tattoos, doesn't smell of marijuana.... if he smiles when he sees you and his smile reaches his eyes and you know it's sincere....well then you wait in line to have Bob check you out. And you hope he wins the election.
Is Bob White? Is Bob Black? It really doesn't matter (good or bad). It's the Total Impression which counts.
So can you be 'too Black', no. But can you be seen as uneducated, puerile, superficial, and pandering if you're Black...or if you're White? Sure you can.
So if Kamala hypes her 'Black-cent' when speaking to a primarily Black audience....if Hillary suddenly sounds like Scarlet O'Hara when speaking to a group in Little Rock.....If Barack all of a sudden 'Get's Rhythm' when walking across the stage in Atlanta and fills his speech with steretoypical Black slang... it's not the so-called 'Blackness' of the behavior which turns people away; it's the pandering & artificiality of the individuals who act that way to win.
Sure -- I talk with my friends differently than I talk with my family..which is different from the way I talk at work....and different also from the way I speak in public or when asked to speak, formally, to public gatherings. These things are natural and generally good. My wife would not want me to speak to her the same way I speak to a roomful of people. But if I dress myself like a Cowboy when speaking to a group in Big D....and like a Green Peace Hippie Backpacker when talking in Boulder or Portland....or with a Bahhhsten Accent when trying to gather votes in the Gahhhhden....then I should not be surprised when I'm dismissed as an artificial, pandering & condescending twit.
It's not that I'm too Black or too White...it's that I'm an a**hole looking to be elected by lying to you.
Here’s the real freaking deal….We cant get out of our own way…. The black community is getting in their own way because for the first time ever NOTHING WAS IN THE WAY…and corralling the community into the ways of productive behavior is hard… No one knows that better than Loury so when the freaking door gets back opened to blaming because of laziness and lack of taking responsibility upon one’s self is hard and no one feels like pushing through, the f’ing word RACISM gets pulled back out, the dust gets swept off it and shined up to look brand new and we get income equality, not more opportunity but old bs for hand outs reparations Suddenly the Indian girls joins a club of all the blacks to straddle the fence and take advantage of both “victims” add to that marrying a white man, not just any white a Jewish white Now she triages the victimization and suddenly the community doesn’t have to take RESPONSIBILITy and goes back to being VICTIMS bc it’s easier than pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and joining the only crowd worth anything the MERITORIOUS gang…. and making that cool.
How we confuse and conflate!
Two things are absolutely true....but the intersection of these two truths too easily creates the misunderstanding we encounter in the conversation, above.
There is no such thing as 'too Black for America's voters'. That's pretty simple. You can look like Seal, or Brock Peters...you can look like Sidney Poitier... you can look like Patrick Mahomes. The tonal value of one's skin color will matter not a whit (at least to the vast majority) when it comes time to vote.
But, equally true: we all react -- on a very gut/personal level -- to the thousands of different conscious & sub-conscious cues that we each inevitably emit. The sum of that response becomes our 1st Impression which dictates our 'feeling' for the Other, be they a Presidential Candidate, or the guy who bags our groceries at the grocery store.
So what's this mean?
It means that we humans will tend to like or dislike someone....to be inclined positively or negatively to anyone for a thousand different reasons (most of which we're consciously unaware of) and only one of those countless reasons is color.
None of them exists in isolation, of course. It is only their totality which counts...and it is the totality which predisposes us to vote yea or nay for 'Bob' (if we are voting only in the context of a superficial popularity contest).
If Bob's hair is greasy...if he has a slight odor...if he seems dirty....if his clothes don't particularly fit....if he's hard to understand....if he's fidgety....if he seem full of himself....if he's crude....if he has tattoos or nose piercings....if he's constantly readjusting himself....if he doesn't make eye contact....if he whines....if he curses....if he seems artificial and fake.....if if if if (and each of us has a different set of reactionary triggers)....if the totality of these impressions tends negative, then we don't go to Bob's register when we want our groceries sacked. Nor do we vote for him for President.
But if he sounds like Cary Grant.... if he looks you in the eye like Gary Cooper.... if he's courteous, well-spoken, polite.... if he stands straight, is clean, well-dressed.... absent of tattoos, doesn't smell of marijuana.... if he smiles when he sees you and his smile reaches his eyes and you know it's sincere....well then you wait in line to have Bob check you out. And you hope he wins the election.
Is Bob White? Is Bob Black? It really doesn't matter (good or bad). It's the Total Impression which counts.
So can you be 'too Black', no. But can you be seen as uneducated, puerile, superficial, and pandering if you're Black...or if you're White? Sure you can.
So if Kamala hypes her 'Black-cent' when speaking to a primarily Black audience....if Hillary suddenly sounds like Scarlet O'Hara when speaking to a group in Little Rock.....If Barack all of a sudden 'Get's Rhythm' when walking across the stage in Atlanta and fills his speech with steretoypical Black slang... it's not the so-called 'Blackness' of the behavior which turns people away; it's the pandering & artificiality of the individuals who act that way to win.
Sure -- I talk with my friends differently than I talk with my family..which is different from the way I talk at work....and different also from the way I speak in public or when asked to speak, formally, to public gatherings. These things are natural and generally good. My wife would not want me to speak to her the same way I speak to a roomful of people. But if I dress myself like a Cowboy when speaking to a group in Big D....and like a Green Peace Hippie Backpacker when talking in Boulder or Portland....or with a Bahhhsten Accent when trying to gather votes in the Gahhhhden....then I should not be surprised when I'm dismissed as an artificial, pandering & condescending twit.
It's not that I'm too Black or too White...it's that I'm an a**hole looking to be elected by lying to you.
Here’s the real freaking deal….We cant get out of our own way…. The black community is getting in their own way because for the first time ever NOTHING WAS IN THE WAY…and corralling the community into the ways of productive behavior is hard… No one knows that better than Loury so when the freaking door gets back opened to blaming because of laziness and lack of taking responsibility upon one’s self is hard and no one feels like pushing through, the f’ing word RACISM gets pulled back out, the dust gets swept off it and shined up to look brand new and we get income equality, not more opportunity but old bs for hand outs reparations Suddenly the Indian girls joins a club of all the blacks to straddle the fence and take advantage of both “victims” add to that marrying a white man, not just any white a Jewish white Now she triages the victimization and suddenly the community doesn’t have to take RESPONSIBILITy and goes back to being VICTIMS bc it’s easier than pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and joining the only crowd worth anything the MERITORIOUS gang…. and making that cool.
Spot on
Holy $hit! You nailed this on the effen head…pardon my “French” but I loved this reply…..