Best Posts in Thread: Black Folk Don't

I think a lot of things "black folks don't" do is they are worried about what other black folks think.

We don't want to be embarrassed. For example, back in 2001, I was all about Dance Dance Revolution. I played the sh!t out of that game. Even know if I stumble across a machine, I have to stick in some quarters.

Well back when it was "sweeping the nation" I remember several black people saying they were too embarrassed to play it or it was for "them Chinese" and "geeks". TF? I was a fully grown man who couldn't care less.

Life is about experienceing different things and sometimes we have to get out of our boxes and comfort zones to grow and learn. There's several things that if I had available to me when younger, I'd be interested in. Gymnastics, ice hockey, rugby, for examples. But it doesn't snow in the south and there's only ice rinks in the larger southern cities, gymnastics is basically the same. Too old for that now but I wouldn't be scared of an adult rugby league. And I at least known how to ice skate... Which is something else "black folks don't".

 

I was raised by my family to believe that there was only one thing that I might not be able to achieve in my lifetime and that was proved untrue by the election of Barack Obama.
The notion that "black folk don't" is to me such a narrow belief.
I have my comfort zones and am set in some of my ways but I've never been inflexible and I may not have always fully enjoyed whatever it was I tried but I've always been and don't ever see myself in the future not afraid to try something different and new.

 

In my neverending quest to find myself I do a lot of looking both online, in books, and everywhere else in between to see where I fit in and one thing that I often hear more often than not is that I can't do something because "black folk don't" but clearly since we are human beings we do.

My question is why do we say that about ourselves, why do we limit the things we can do. Is it a fear thing, not understanding the mechanics of those things, or just no interest.

And sorry if this is in the wrong thread