by Christopher Kendalls

Created on: May 15, 2008   Last Updated: September 20, 2010

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 who talk in the way most African-Americans are comfortable with and appear to be a lot closer to that true authentic experience of going through life in America not having anything, and coming into one's 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 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 world and teach you things that most Blacks they can't trust will never get to take advantage of. It makes it a lot easier to date outside your race if you "talk White," and 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 cornrows in her hair.

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 do.

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 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 a 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 philanthropist's money poured resources into neighborhoods, schools, and community centers offering programs and resources that never existed before.

These days you can take advantage of scholarships and work things out so that you may have the chance to go to the Ivy League school of your choice, or

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