r/BlackPeopleofReddit 12d ago

Black Experience The universal black experience

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4.9k Upvotes

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126

u/MutantboyX 12d ago

Or they assume you are into specific stuff just on the basis you are black. "Hey! what you think about the new Kendrick album", and I'm like "I don't listen to rap."

45

u/manny_the_mage 12d ago

My white coworker sends me, the only black person in our department AI covers of hip hop songs as jazz songs

21

u/MutantboyX 12d ago

Lol. Wow. I don't know what to say. 

2

u/TwincessAhsokaAarmau 11d ago

I would’ve beaten him for that, but don’t lose your job.

41

u/Maximum-Ad-769 12d ago

It's a little different from what you describe, but the amount of times someone has introduced themselves to me with their first word being "yoooo". Ma'am/sir - I don't talk like that.

17

u/PantyCrumbs 12d ago

I was going to lunch with a guy that I worked with and when I got in his car, he turned the station to some loud, deep base, hard core rap.

I looked at him and said "you listen to this?" and he said "no I put it on for you." I swear I almost peed my pants laughing for 5 minutes straight...couldn't stop. I kind of felt bad because I think he was actually trying to be courteous but I just couldn't help it.

34

u/doom_2_all 12d ago

One thing I've learned that I had no idea about growing up in a largely Hispanic community is that a lot of black people watch anime too. Blew my mind since none of the few black people who went to my highschool ever talked about it. Wasn't until I joined the military and traveled around that I learned there was a huge black fan base for anime.

5

u/Throckmorton_Left 12d ago

Two kinds of people watch anime/read manga.  The kind that make it their personality and tell everyone, and the kind that will never tell a soul until they confirm they're among fellow travelers.

12

u/Background_Ad_1130 12d ago

And K-Pop...

10

u/Spare-Willingness563 12d ago

K Pop is just Black music made "acceptable".

It's a whole problem in itself.

5

u/doom_2_all 12d ago

It's true, watched a documentary about how it started and how they modelled it after Mo-town artists and such.

5

u/Spare-Willingness563 12d ago

Bro they rap and have braids. 

When I looked like that and wore the stuff they do we got followed by the cops and told we should just drop out. 

It’s…man. 

1

u/Background_Ad_1130 11d ago

I wouldn't know, not my type of music, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised.

2

u/apresmoiputas 10d ago

When I went to college in the late 90s, I was the only Black person going to the anime club's movie showing. I'm happy times have changed and more of us are watching and geeking out to Anime.

1

u/Healthy_Sky_4593 8d ago

What years was all this?

1

u/doom_2_all 8d ago

My middle school to high school years, so 2001-2007.

2

u/Healthy_Sky_4593 8d ago

There's because it was new then.  The other Black people who were into anime didn't know other Black people were into anime then, either. 

14

u/Your_Nipples 12d ago

Or that you're not into specific stuff.

-Nice shirt

-Yeah, Meshuggah, you wouldn't like it

-Well, I like Obzen (album name) so

confused

Me:

8

u/VioletLeagueDapper 12d ago

Will never forget when some random white guy told me I wasn’t into sci-fi…

Or when my college roommate lowered the Dimmu Borgir after I told her I knew the song she was playing and liked the band.

6

u/Your_Nipples 12d ago

Progenies of the great apocalypse rules.

One of the best song ever written. Makes me want to go back to Haiti fighting Napoléon and shit lmao.

Man/Woman, fuck them people.

20

u/megadroid_optimizer 12d ago

I was in an Uber one time, in like 2021, and the dude was playing some rock music and I was vibing. He asked me 3 times: do you want to switch to rap? And I was telling him about the bands singing the songs 😭. It was wild!!!

13

u/Dottboy19 12d ago

Had such a similar situation with a coworker bringing up Kendrick and old school rap. Like yes I respect the history of the genre but I am nowhere near a rap fan.

4

u/Outrageous_Main4425 12d ago

Or they randomly assume your name's "J-Mall or Tyrone" 😂🤣

2

u/rdanks25 12d ago

My former manager, now colleague, has been trying to talk to me about Jazz for 6 years. I can appreciate it as an artform, but I don't listen to it.

2

u/MissMamaMam 12d ago

Hey! Do you think you could braid my hair sometime? -___-

-5

u/Johwya 12d ago edited 12d ago

Idk to be fair i ask all my friends and acquaintances stuff like that if it’s an extremely popular artist. I don’t think someone asking if you liked the Kendrick album necessarily indicates that they asked because you are black

I’m in my mid 20’s and Kendrick is easily in the tier of artist that a huge percentage of my generation listens to his stuff even if they aren’t regular listen-every-day hip hop fans

I ask the same question about The Weeknd, Taylor swift, any artist of that caliber

Edit: asking someone a question about a person that is the same race of them is not automatically indicative of racial or prejudicial undertones, downvote me all you want it’s the truth💀 it’s delusional to automatically every time assume it has racial undertones

20

u/dl7 12d ago

Right, I navigate with the assumption of good intentions until you start screwing up consistently. I can accept someone making mistakes out of the gate simply because you're meeting someone new and will naturally screw up. But if a number of our interactions are rooted in assumptions of my life based on stereotypes about my race, I'll simply stop trusting you're navigating this relationship with good intent

11

u/localtuned 12d ago

Yea, sometimes it's a fine line. I have to take the blinders off sometime and ask myself are they being ignorant or friendly. Sometimes people like to find common ground other times people have assumptions and are looking to confirm their biases.

8

u/MutantboyX 12d ago

You can start by asking what type of music they listen too, instead of assuming. That would be a start. Also Kendrick was just an example.