So I’m having a discussion on a Facebook page about this picture which can be found to the left and I was asked the question by someone who disagreed with the picture that I thought was a pretty good question.  The question was, how does someone act black, colors don’t act a certain way, they don’t talk a certain way, so what do you mean and why do you believe those stereotypes and are you trying to say being black is being unprofessional.  Well, my response in condensed form is below.

The word here isn’t race its culture. I am not talking about self hate I am talking about going from one culture to another and having to make adjustments in order to fit into that culture.  Professionalism standards are different from organization to organization but when you cross from culture to culture they become radically different. Even going from 1 level of an organization to another they become radically different. As much as we don’t like to think about it, yes a large percentage of black people do act a certain way, true we are individuals but don’t get to hyped up on that, as members of a certain culture with like experiences and upbringings and backgrounds, members of a cultural group have a lot of similarities, something else that black people don’t like to recognize which is a form of self hate in my opinion (our love of individuality is another way of saying I’m not like them).

Fact is culturally speaking (which is what I mean when I say black in ALL instances) members of a particular cultural group have an above chance rate at picking out other members of a cultural group by voice alone, they even have an above chance rate of doing it with other cultural groups familiar to them. Culture groups can always identify behaviors and mannerism unique and present in their culture group. Black people typically have a slower rhythm when walking naturally and not in a rush, tend to be more celebratory and social, and so on and so forth. Again this has everything to do with culture, and while there will always be outliers those outliers shouldn’t be used to say there aren’t any cultural norms for black people. That is like saying since Michael Jordan is a millionaire all our talk about being economically disenfranchised is moot.

Yes, blacks are considered unprofessional by the larger American society, that shouldn’t be that hard to believe nor should it matter. The larger American society views anything that doesn’t behave like white america as unprofessional and uncivil.  If we had our own we would be free to operate as we see fit. We also have to address the nature of stereotypes. Not all stereotypes are untrue and not all of them are bad, black people really do like chicken and watermelon, its not untrue or a bad thing, most people like chicken and watermelon. Asians are stereotyped as being geniuses and kung fu masters, neither is true but neither is bad. Truth is colors don’t act a certain way, but culture groups do. In a mechanics shop its not considered unprofessional to be dirty with your ass crack showing and a cigarette hanging out of your mouth, but it is at the corporate office for that mechanic shop. In a lot of black business it isn’t considered unprofessional to blast some old school R&B or hip hop. It is in a lot of white ones. It isn’t unprofessional to speak or behave a certain way in a lot of black businesses (by that I mean use slang and behave similar to the way you would on the streets or in the house with the boys), it is in a lot of white ones.

But this is what we must do to survive because we don’t have our own. But trust that just our presence in their workplace makes them unhappy, studies have shown that to. Blacks report feeling isolated and held down or restricted at work. That is due to the fact that in a lot of situations, I’d be willing to say most, blacks aren’t allowed to be black, they aren’t allow to speak black (use slang), they aren’t allowed to laugh black (loud if you will), they aren’t allow to talk about being black. And to answer your question before you ask, yes white people are allowed to be white as long as its the white that is socially and culturally accepted by the business and the larger society.

http://americanspeech.dukejournals.org/con…/86/2/152.short

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16243483

http://healthland.time.com/2013/12/05/study-black-workers-are-happier-than-whites/