Can black American's make any decisions in life that aren't politicized? I'm not trying to sound irreverent; I guess I'm just pondering what minutiae of my life I might be "called out" on, had I not been born white.

Your punctuation, for one. Your spelling, for another. I'm just guessing. (and joking.)

Do white people say, "oh snap" yet, or is that done?

lordamitey mudede, everybody's not black enough or too white or some shit with you. just let people be.

There also seems to be this obsession with black men who are with white women. Like they should be ashamed. Can't people just be with whomever they want without getting yelled at? (or snidely commented on, whatever)

Charles, when you bait a hook, there's a chance you're gonna land a fish.

But I assume you knew that when you asked your "blackity black black white black, what is up with that?" question, didn't you?

soooo, after these 4 categories, what else is there?

Is there just 'normal black?' what's that like? I wanna know...and yes, I too also wanna know what category this Vin person is in.

I'm one of the proud and the few and while my main squeeze (a white woman coincidently) wasn't with me, I did check out bands like erase errata, go like hell, and thee emergency. I agree with b&w--so the f*ck what as far as who I date!

I also have to say that it is a big problem in our (black) community as far as black people rejecting and making fun of "individual" black people who don't fit a cookie cutter in terms of how to act, talk, and what music to listen to--calling them oreo, etc.

My coworker is black and she doesn't make any decision that isn't fueled by anything other than simple whim or personal preference. And she's friendly with anyone regardless of race.

Yay for Gomez and his nice black coworker?!? Glad to hear they are still out there. Cookie for your observations. I don’t know about summing up all black people at Bumbershoot into those four categories, but I was there and I am black and I date white guys, not exclusively, but I do. Is anyone really still a valley girl; white or black? To stay on subject; I went with my friend who is white and I did notice while watching the Kanye West concert, the showing of nearly all white hands in the crowd. I even commented aloud. All the hands in the crowd down on the field went up simultaneously while swaying with music and it made me say, “Look at all of the white hands.” My friend just thought it would be a cool pic however. This did make me wonder why there weren’t more black people there??? However, I wonder this about a lot of places in or near downtown Seattle. My two cents is, the only reason I went to Bumbershoot is because I got free passes and a VIP pass to bypass the dumb line you had to wait in once you got there, after you already bought your day pass or whatever, to see the main stage shows and risk the chance of them being all passed out unless you got there when the gates first opened. I like Kanye West and I heard he was coming to Bumbershoot but I thought, a hot cesspool of large crowds at the Seattle Center just to see Kanye; no thanks. My perception of Bumbershoot was barefoot hippies smoking weed on grassy knolls. Most of my white friends didn’t even want to go. I went, it was hot with large crowds and too many teenagers smoking bowls and clove cigarettes. I feel I got my moneys worth being that it cost me relatively nothing. I won’t be back unless Coldplay is there. Maybe I am a valley girl…

Who the hell wants a ghetto pass anyway? The ghetto sucks ass, yo.

When I went college, they took away my trailer park pass, and don't miss it.

Who the hell wants a ghetto pass anyway? The ghetto sucks ass, yo.

When I went college, they took away my trailer park pass, and I don't miss it.

Charles, we love you man, but this is bullshit racist stuff. {Oh my God, imagine that! A black brother being called racist! That is not possible. Oh, the humanity!} Seriously my brother, we will never be equals until we can forget the color and just be. Until it does not matter that a black man is with a white woman and a white man is with a black woman because they are just two people that love each other. We will never get there until we are color blind.

Black on black disinterest must be stopped!

kanye west is rap music for white college kids. it's watered down, boring ass backpacker rap. that explains why there weren't (m)any black folks there.

Was the crowd at Tribe any different? I thought Not A Valley's description of the Kanye crowd could have been written for the Tribe show's.

It's only Black and White because people keep breaking it down that way. It's ok to like what you like, the perennial problem is being ok with being that in front of everyone else, whatever card they might be flashing you.

Seattle is very racist. Northern white european males claiim to have black friends. The Stranger is the only publication that is not racist or sexist. Charles is a local treasure.

How 20th Century of you. Noone cares - we're all mixed if you go deep enough.

tl;dr, NaVGBIDWG

Hey Charles! I'm Vin and I'll take door number 3:

* Weird counterculture black guys who bring their weird counterculture black girlfriends / boyfriends / wives / husbands / whatever with them.

AFAIK my Ghetto Pass hasn't expired and I don't sport dreads. And, just for the ladies, I'm an Aquarius ;)

... and who wants to be color blind? What ever happend to "Viva la Difference"!

Karlikurod4