Morning poll

[dyvinesweetness]

So the first question is based on what this guy I grew up with posted as his facebook status (and the responses he got before me). The second question I feel has been asked before by other folks, but I've since forgotten everyone's responses. And they might have changed by now anyway.

Answers are not viewable (in case anyone would care)

Poll Sex, Lies and potential videotape

Comments

tangential

[a_f_r_i_k_a_n_a]

i feel you on the lie of omission thing. i do think people have varying opinions on whether or not something is your business.

the talented tenth thing...
i think people use this term kinda broadly now. i haven't read dubois in awhile, but especially while in college i viewed myself as a talented tenth member. not because i had to pull anybody up by the boostraps out of poverty or ignorance, but i recognized that i had a whole lot of opportunities that a lot/most other black people (at least that i knew) didn't have. so i felt like it was my duty as a black person to make some type of personal investment in trying to get some level of social justice for all black people, and that perhaps i was in a better position to be able to do so. i also saw in that, that i was a more "comfortable" type of black person for non-black people, and that i was more able to integrate into "mainstream" society.

now that i'm older, i have lost that paternalist/revolutionary/savior/ complex, like i need to do something that other people can't or something...

but i still do recognize i have had opportunities and access to wealth/stability/education that other people haven't, & that the way i was raised has influenced a lot of my values & tastes...a lot of things i take for granted or think are "normal" aren't to other people & vice versa. there's a level of injustice that my class status in a black city left me more or less inoculated from.

i have no idea what ol girl meant when she made that comment but that's my perspective on it. i never saw myself as some elite (at least not in a positive way) black person, but moreso the "safe" one. the one who other people don't mind succeeding (to a certain extent) because i have "class". not a good thing or a bad thing, not anything that i accomplished, nothing that made me a better person, just a fact of life.

Re: tangential

[dyvinesweetness]

That's an interesting perspective in the term Talented Tenth. And I definitely never heard it used like that. I worked with her, but still didn't know her that well. And frankly what I did know if her would fall right in line with a more bougie interpretation of the term. And the tone of the status update was one of pride and conceit. It seemed more like "yay me" then it did "this is just who I am and I am doing the best for the community because of my position." But eh, still don't know for certain.

Re: tangential

[richirch2]

Maurice used to use that talented tenth term a lot. It thoroughly rubbed me the wrong way because I didn't feel like he defined it like you. I'll be the first to admit though that my situation is fairly unique amongst black Americans, but Talented Tenth has an elitist connotation in my mind.

Re: tangential

[a_f_r_i_k_a_n_a]

see i need to re-read dubois to see how far i've abstracted his term, and to see how he used it...it's definitely elitist but i don't remember it being self-congratulatory.