I'm just returning from work that was not as back breaking as picking cotton, but heavy duty in its own way. Before I list what I consider to be other racial no nos, I would like to comment on some of the posts thus far.

During the 1990s one African American slogan that was widely known was "It's A Black thang. You wouldn't understand." This slogan was directed to White people. It articulated the position that there were nuances of Black culture that were unknown and not understandable to White people and that was good.

I disagree with this position. My view is that "It's a Black thang. You should understand [especially if you desire to understand].

If misunderstandings occur about Black culture, and we [Black people] don't try to explain where we are coming from, then shame on us.

I want to reiterate that I believe that understanding is a multi-lane highway. There are certainly situations where Black people are guilty of misunderstanding the nuances of White culture[s]. However, for the purpose of this thread, I chose to limit my discussion to those things that White people may not understand about Black..excuse me..African American culture.

It would be easy in this thread to get caught up in the meaning and appropriateness of the racial referents "African American" and "Black" that I've used rather than focus on other points raised by this discussion. As a point of information, usually I switch from one of these terms to another. However, in my mind, "African American" is usually more formal than "Black". And yet another formal term for Black people is "people of African descent". [And yes I am referring here to people of [Black] African descent].
And 'people of color' is a term that includes Black people and refers to all those other races and ethnic groups [such as some Latinos/Latinas] who are not White.

But in the context of this thread, I wanted to make the point that I was limiting my comments to a subset of Black people-those who are African American.

I am aware that we [African Americans] are a heterogeneous people. There are Black people living in the United States who first generation are from the Caribbean, Canada, South America, Latin America, West Africa, North Africa, East Africa, South Africa, and elsewhere. There are also African Americans who have Gullah ancestry, and/or are Creole, and/or are Native American, and/or are part White, and/or are part Asian.

I am NOT speaking for all these folks. I am sharing my own views about those things that tick off African Americans given my experience as an African American who was raised in the East and never lived anywhere beyond the Allegheny mountains of Pennsylvania.

Just as I ask you not to fixate about my use of "African American" instead of the more inclusive "Black" in the context of this thread, I ask you to pardon the inconsistency of my using "White" instead of the more formal [and archiac?] European-American or the sometimes used term "Anglo-American".

Of course, if you wanna focus on terminology instead of the points others raise and I have attempted to raise in this thread, do your thing [or "thang" if you prefer].

In my earlier posts to this thread, I chose to focus on the racial no nos that had to do with music. I did so since this thread was prompted by the "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"controversy.

There are other points I want to make about racial competency and music, and will do so once I take a couple of deep breaths and get my second wind.