30th
Black People stuff as it relates to the405
word1) I’m always super psyched when I fit in with Black People because i went to this predominantly white school since I was 5 so I was always playing catch-up with black culture. Example: handshakes: with white people it’s straight forward. Handshake. With black people it’s like, bap, pound, flutter, clap, slide. And it changes all the time. And you not sure when it ends, or like, am I missing a bit? And if i am I left them hanging…that shit is still confusing. I was called an oreo SO many times towards the end of middle school (when other black students started coming in.) So I love moments that make me feel real black.
2.) Being a black atheist is weird. Black people take that for granted, they assume all black people are Christian. For some it’s like a requisite to being black. But it’s not! Atheist I am, Black I am!
3.) No I am not good at basketball!
4.) I once posted on tumblr that I hadn’t found black literature that I found really spoke to me as a person. Like there was stuff that was good, but it didn’t resonate like I was told it should. Well I have found that book. It is called Sag Harbor (by Colson Whitehead) and the book is pretty much about me. Not literally of course, but I have so much empathy for the protagonist. The author attended my high school 20 or so years ago, so that may contribute to the empathy I have for the character.
5.) I don’t like Michael Steele.
6.) I hate BET
7.) I’ve learned that there are just certain black people you should KNOW and if you don’t you don’t say ANYTHING or else you’ll get dirty looks. Cornel West, Dubois, Ben Carson, Toni Morrison. I did not know who a bunch of those people were for the longest time. I STILL don’t know what’s Cornel West’s claim to fame. But you think I tell people that? (Tumblr discounted) Aw hell no.
8.) I don’t watch Like It Is. I think it’s irrelevant now, and the host is living in the past discussing the heydey of civil rights struggles. I feel the same way about Jesse Jackson.
9.) Barack Obama is not the president of black America, he is the president of ALL of America.
10.) I don’t think it’s a good thing to be from the hood. Sorry gangsta rappers. Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkie’s in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far
‘Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my carPeace!


