[DL31840]

Perhaps if you pointed out certain African-American celebrities, we could all see an objective example of what you believe you are seeing. Does Oprah Winfrey have this ‘mean’ look? Maybe Michael Jordan or Denzel Washington? How does their expression differ from white people’s on television? Short of a continual harlequin grin, what constitutes a likable look? In my experience, few people walk around always smiling or always scowling or always looking contemptuous or sullen, whether they are black, white or whatever. It seems untrue to say that certain groups have a characteristic expression (especially since expression seems highly correlated with emotional state, itself a highly fluid quality) on the grounds that to do so denies 1) Individual emotional autonomy (so we would all feel the same way at the same time, everywhere) and 2) General and individual receptivity to emotion-causative stimuli (so in effect we would feel the same way all of the time despite changes in stimulus). I don’t believe this has been demonstrated to be true of any group of people.

I’m also unaware of any white consensus on a universal ‘mean black look.’ Perhaps you are projecting your cultural associations and authoring a reality that is fictional and uniquely solipsistic: you don’t want to like something, so you invent something unlikable about the thing, proffer it as objective fact and proceed to dislike it. This is a specious justification that starts from highly questionable, untenable and self-referential premises.

User Detail :  

Name : DL31840, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 26, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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