[Friendly Inquirer]

I know it sounds racist, but so help me, when I see a car with whitewall tires (rare today) or painted in gold-flake, or with the driver slouched WAAAAYYY down, it is invariably a black person. I know there are cultural differences, but I can’t imagine the origin of such differences. Can anybody explain?

User Detail :  

Name : Friendly Inquirer, Religion : Christian, City : Jacksonville, State : FL, Country : United States, 

[Bill21445]

It got your attention, right? That is a _central_ goal of most media. Yet the person you saw didn’t have to buy a newspaper or radio or TV station to _perpetually_ attract attention. What he does with that attention is a separable issue. (The fact that the driver was likely male is a topic for a different category.)

User Detail :  

Name : Bill21445, City : Houston, State : TX, Country : United States, 

[Keven]

You sound like a white guy. Probably haven’t been around the block very long, have you? Blacks with funny cars and the waaaayyy-down slouch are doing this because they need attention. Congratulations. You just validated the cool gangsta in the gold car.

User Detail :  

Name : Keven, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 40, City : Sacramento, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[Neal]

This really isn’t just a ‘black’ thing. However, in Savannah it is also very prevalent in black youths, as well in all kinds of cars, from lowriders to junkpiles. Driving a car seated very low in the seat, gold-flake paintjobs and whitewall tires has all come from the Latino lowriding culture of the Southwest. Latinos started and evolved this car culture over the past 50 years, and then the lowriding culture became increasingly embraced by blacks in the ’70s and ’80s, and then it spread to everyone else.

User Detail :  

Name : Neal, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 24, City : Savannah, State : GA, Country : United States, Occupation : illustrator, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Kathy]

This is an unusual time for black people in the United States. Although you don’t say so, from your posting I assume you’re white (or at least not black), but don’t feel bad about your observation. I’m black, and it confuses me, and that’s just one of a handful of things that we do that I just don’t get; but here’s my best guess: a culture does not come into existence overnight; it takes generation after generation after generation to develop and grow, like a living thing. And right now the culture of black Americans is somewhere in late-childhood/early-adolescence. So we, as a group, are still figuring ourselves out, and along the way some of us will adopt some odd habits. A little anecdote related to this: I was married to a white man for 7 years, and one day he and I are riding the train when a black woman gets on with this elaborate sculptured hair-do. My husband asked me, ‘why do black women wear their hair like that?’ I replied, ‘I don’t know, those are not my people, I’m not part of that culture.’ He asked what I meant, and I said ‘I don’t know why some black women wear their hair like that any more than you know why some white people feel the need to own 8 hound dogs and marry their sisters… those are not my people.’ He chuckled.

User Detail :  

Name : Kathy, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 29, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Customer Service, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower class, 

[benji]

i am an american mulatto raised on the white side of my family. i neither understand why nothing in the world is more important to black american men than the huge rims on their shitty cars, nor why white men feel this politcally correct pressure to pretend they would actually date black women.

User Detail :  

Name : benji, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Humanist, Age : 30, City : dallas, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : animator/graphic artist, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper class, 

[Bill]

Dear Kathy, There seems to be a huge class gap between African-Americans who are raised well, usually in two-parent households, and those who are raised ‘ghet,’ although there are many exceptions to the ‘rule,’ going both ways. If 70 percent of blacks are born out of wedlock in many urban areas, I just don’t see how the race in this country is going to ‘ghet’ out of adolescence.

User Detail :  

Name : Bill, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 38, City : Rockville, State : MD, Country : United States, Occupation : Entrepreneur, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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