Thursday, December 21, 2006

More Racial Food For Thought

At this temp job of mine, I work in a small office room with two other people. One of them has a radio which she keeps tuned to a station which is a combination of R&B and a talk format. It bills itself as black people radio. One of the DJs actually said it that way- "You're listening to radio for black folk!"

In the afternoon, they have a talk host on who addresses "black issues."

I had to do some pretty extensive studying of vocal quality and tone when I was in college the first time around.

Based on his voice, I am 99.9% sure that this host is actually a white guy pretending to be black. It's not a matter of his vocabulary or language construction or accent; it's his voice itself.

I feel like I'm listening to some sort of weird vocal blackface thing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So how do you feel about black guys pretending to be white?

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, interesting...


Wanted t wish you a very, very joyous and Merry Christmas from my house to yours!!!

Hugs

Bainwen Gilrana said...

Merry Christmas, Martie! :-)

Anon: If the black guy is genuinely trying to convince people he's really white, then it's more than a little weird. However, if it's the sort of guy who gets accused of pretending to be white, the sort of guy who is called an "oreo" because he doesn't "act black enough," then just let the poor guy be who he is.