<p>I can't count how many times I've been told, "Wow, you're the smartest black person I've ever met!" People probably say things like this without really thinking about it, but do you guys find it kind of offensive? I've never heard someone say "Wow, you're the smartest [insert non-black ethnicity here] I've ever met." Maybe I'm overreacting...any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>I’m actually asian, but I’m sorry people say that kind of stuff :(</p>
<p>i HATE that!</p>
<p>Yeah I hate that! In fact I HATE that’s like “You are the ____ balck guy I know”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, people often don’t understand how what they say sounds to the other person. I do not think people mean to be insulting or hurtful, they just don’t think about what their words imply. My daughter was homeschhooled until high school and recently graduated in the top 1% of her class. At an awards ceremony, as part of her biography, it was announced that she had been homeschooled prior to high school. A teacher came up to me and said that she would have never guessed my daughter had been home schooled. Am I supposed to take that as a compliment? Or is it a backhanded jab at homeschoolers? Same sort of scenario, a compliment that implies a negative stereotype.</p>
<p>fishymom, a negative racial connotation is completely different than the situation you described.</p>
<p>although that is disrespectful because it degrades your daughter’s abilities and your (or whoever home-taught her) abilities.</p>
<p>Some other ones I’ve heard are:</p>
<p>“Wow, for a black person, you’re pretty smart.”
“Are you sure you’re black?”
“You’re one of the few black guys I can keep a five minute conversation with.”</p>
<p>It’s kind of annoying that they see my race instead of seeing me for who I am as a person. In most cases, I know that they have no bad intentions, they’ve just seen lots of people who perpetuate negative stereotypes about blacks, may it be on TV, neighborhoods, etc. For the ones that don’t have negative intent, I’ll turn a blind eye to it, but I do get pretty mad about it when they use things like this in a derogatory way.</p>
<p>people need verbal filters.</p>
<p>yea people say it. its kinda like the “wow you are the dumbest asian i ever me”. i dont think most are saying it in a racist way but more like a joke. but yea it kinda bothers me</p>
<p>The one thing I hate is when the you are the smartest black person or African American person I have ever met is when it turns into you are an oreo, or like an ice-cream sandwich (which is what i’ve been called my whole life).</p>
<p>People are just stupid.</p>
<p>Oh, the infamous “oreo…” But at my school, I’m not just any oreo, I’m the “spring oreo” (black on the outside and yellow on the inside). Really now? Just because I take advanced math classes and play an orchestra instrument, do I have to be singled out and compared to a sandwich cookie? smh…</p>
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<p>Quoted for truth.</p>
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<p>That one never fails to get me going.</p>
<p>i was once told i was a “good” black person. what does that even mean?? lol</p>
<p>What bothers me more is when other black people make me look bad.</p>
<p>@woeishe- I agree. It’s just sad.</p>
<p>Sad to say… but I definitely agree, woeishe. I don’t even mean that I think I’m better than anyone else. It just irks me when some black people, especially at my school, consciously try and fit the stereotype. (Sidenote: I go to a predominantly white school.)</p>
<p>This is why the problem that the OP brought up happens to me personally. I’m looked at at my school as if I’m doing something wrong. People actually question me about why I don’t this or that, like the other black people. </p>
<p><em>sigh</em></p>
<p>It’s worse when something about comes up, and people think you know nothing about black culture. I had a person tell me that “you’re the whitest black guy I know, what would you know about that?” There’s black culture, then there’s the stereotypical crap they show via the media. </p>
<p>The other problem I have with this is that these stereotypes cause people to divide blacks into two groups: the dumb, lazy, nonacademic ones, then the studious, arrogant, uncle toms. Humans are way to complex to just be categorized like that.</p>
<p>I can relate to all of this, especially being from the south. I was at a graduation recently and someone from my old school came up to me and greeted me as the “smartest black man” they knew. While it might seem like a joke to them, to us it is serious. What I hate most, however, is having to explain to people that I was not recruited to play sports at Yale, but that I had applied and been accepted just like the vast majority of candidates. I haven’t seriously played on an athletic team in my life. People just assume, however, that a young black man can only gain admission to an elite school by what he can achieve with his body and not with his mind. Most people refuse to accept the fact that there are many qualified black applicants who earn their spots just like everyone else.</p>
<p>^ Speak the truth!</p>
<p>Seriously, one of the kids in my school started a rant about how the blacks and AA’s of the world would steal his job because of their skin color, and steal “his” scholarship money. Like what the heck? And then when I gave a good example of a young, smart black man who gained all of those and had a GPA that’s higher then most, he said, “well he’s one of the smart black people.”</p>
<p>I swear, after that I went crazy. We had to talk it out with a teacher during a theory of knowledge class, it was sooo bad. smh.</p>
<p>I hope he learnt his lesson.</p>
<p>^Well it’s good that you told him off! That’s the only way people will learn the error of their ways.</p>
<p>I don’t know about you guys, but personally I’ve found that I actually have to work harder to get grades as good as or better than those of my asian and white peers. But it’s not because I’m less intelligent or anything. Rather, I feel like teachers bring some of their stereotypes to the classroom. I’ll never forget an incident early in freshman year when an English teacher pulled me aside after I scored a 100 on a multiple-choice test and straight-up told me “I know you cheated on this test. Where did you get the answers from?” But she didn’t question any of the asians who got 96’s and 98’s on the test. I was shocked because I had consistently made high A’s in her class and I didn’t understand where this sudden accusation was coming from. Apparently I was the first student to have ever gotten a 100 on that particular test, but why was I being accused instead of congratulated? I never have and never will cheat on a test, and I resent the implication that I would :mad:</p>