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Sounding White
"I always thought that black was a race and not a lifestyle."
By Nia Williams
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Racial stereotypes exist. There’s no denying that. But for many, these stereotypes can be used as a negative way of grouping individuals into certain physical and societal characteristics. Youth Radio’s Nia Williams challenges the popular image of what it means to be black.
What color is my skin? Is it black or is it white? Can you tell just by listening to my voice? One day I called my friend and she didn’t know who I was. When I said “It’s me, Nia,” she told me that I sounded like a white person and that’s why she didn’t know who I was. It bothered me to no end that I had to speak a certain way to be “black.” I always thought that black was a race and not a lifestyle. The music I listen to, the way I talk and the school I go to provoke people to call me an “oreo”: black on the outside, white on the inside.
The hip hop industry has marketed a stereotype about who a black person should be. According to that stereotype I have to talk like I don’t have an education, I have to be loose with men and I have to refer to my own people in negative terms. For awhile after my friend told me that I sounded white on the phone, I tried to mimic the way I heard the rappers talk on TV so that I could “talk black,” but I realized that it wasn’t me. I should not have to hide who I truly am just so people won’t think I’m an oreo. Just because people like Snoop Dog celebrate things like gang activity and drugs does not mean that it's black people are supposed to act. In my opinion if you are born black then you are black and you don’t have to act a certain way to prove it.
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