A look at “talking white”, for what it is worth. Chances are your accusers are talking White when they get the chance trying to get ahead when no one else is looking, as long as no one else knows nothing is lost and no one’s feelings get hurt …

I couldn’t talk “Black” if I wanted to it has little to do with my true experiences or where I am really coming from. In fact “talking Black” is far more comprehensive than just my speech, it encapsulates everything from the way I write, how I think, and what my outlook on the world is. A lot of people that talk in the way that most African-Americans are comfortable with and appear to be a lot closer to that true authentic experience of going through life in America’s housing projects not having anything, and coming into ones own, are a lot smarter than the average person gives them credit for.

Sure there are advantages in being able to “talk White”. For one you have had years of practice in situations with Whites and are either as comfortable among them as you are those of your own race, if not more. Whites allow you into their home, take you behind closed doors and show you a different world and teach you things that most Blacks they can’t trust will never get to take advantage of. No dummy it’s rarely any of that I digress, but it sounds cool and makes it seem a lot different than what it really is. It makes it a lot easier to date outside of your race if you “talk White”; well perhaps you can end up with Buffy, Melissa, Susan or Sharon instead of that White girl who wants to be Black with the braids and cornrolls in her hair. Again, no anything but; those girls probably want a thug you’re just another boring African-American looking for an equally boring person to spend some quality time with.

Yet when it is all over and done with you never really chose to “talk White” because it was never really an option with you. This is how you truly are; yes I am really that diverse, yes my opinions are a bit different on the matter it is not an act. Yet it is perceived or suggested that after a long hard day of work we go back home to a life in the ‘hood and kick back and do what we really want to.

Our experiences growing up or even those that changed us or defined us later on in life are rather diverse. You could have two different African-Americans both coming up in those same housing projects going through the same obstacles. Yet still one would be “prim and proper” and accused of “talking White” while the other was “ghetto” and there wasn’t any chance for them to make it. What was once solely the consequences of being in a deprived socioeconomic situation is now merely a situation where perhaps one took advantage of whatever charity they could get. Though poor; their parents had them participate wherever they could as a rich philanthropists money poured resources into neighborhoods, schools and community centers offering programs and resources that never existed before. Typical existence for a city kid that has nothing that can benefit from someone else who has everything that wants to leave their footprint in the city, a legacy, a mark that they were there and are proud of where they are from.

These days you can take advantage of scholarships and work things out in that you may have the chance to go to the Ivy League school of your choice, or at least get a nice degree from a historically black college or university. A lot of the kids that I went to Wilberforce University with “talked White”, but it didn’t necessarily mean that they were upper middle class kids either. Some were, but others were there in the financial aid office trying to get every single scholarship they could get; their parents may have dropped them off at school freshman week, but the rest of that college experience was on their own dime.

Did they always “talk White”, not always. But they knew how to conduct themselves around different people and could get along with the professors at the school well; a lot of teachers at the school weren’t White and we had a lot of teachers from other countries and different cultures. Were there White teachers at the University that were cool and “talked Black”, of course. So often the idea of whether or not your speech is “White” or “Black” is simply a perception, nothing else. If that is all that you know, or what comes natural to you, then it is about as authentically Black as any other experience you could imagine.

As far as I can tell whether I “talk White” or not I still have those patterns in my voice, that tone, that gives it that “Black” feel where you may or may not be so sure. It may come across differently on the phone and you may be able to see that reflected in the way I write, the way I dress, the way I act, but it’s all me. Not so Black, and not so White either, just whatever suits me at that moment. Yet I sort of like my speech, and wouldn’t change it for anything …