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So it's Monday, and today I'm feeling Rather a bit philosophical. The internet's a wacky place where at any moment, you have the ability to quickly find out who's talking about you. Friday, my ears were ringing and sure enough I came upon the words of Brenton Mumford, and admitted "nice guy" who also happens to be white, and who delivered me perhaps one of the best compliments I've received since coppin' a spot on the net by calling me "the black woman missing in his life". However, more importantly, he candidly shared on a topic few people open up about: cultural tendencies. In his post "Where the Black Women at?", he notes:

"alright, so here it is: i don't have any black women friends anymore
..........

take my experiences at the small state university i attended...there were a handful of black women i was friends with, but only because they also attended the same campus organizations i did...

...a couple of these black women were among my closest friends; attractive, intelligent, thoughtful, kind, outspoken, opinionated, talented, driven, successful, fun, funny, they were everything any guy could want from a friend.

but here's why i miss them (and by extension, why i miss being around black women in general): they would tell you what was what. now, i'm not, by any means, saying that white women are incapable of doing this. and i'm not saying that all black women are outspoken. in fact, i am making a terribly over generalized generalization, and i'm sorry for that, if anyone was offended. but the spirit of my interactions with my friends was different than my interactions with just about anyone else, and there is no way that i can logically say that our cultural and ethnic differences didn't play a role in that.

Read the whole thing if you get a chance. The immediate reaction of having this type of dialogue is for us to tense up at the thought of "gross racial generalizations". Indeed, we do get into murky waters when we start typifying people based on race. If anyone is living proof against the ramifications of that, it's me. However, interestingly enough, one would be surprised as to how some of those "generalizations" actually measure up in real life. Oftentimes, they're spot on. And yes, perhaps I am biased in this whole discussion because after all, I am a black woman, but I am still inclined to say that Brenton is doing more thinking on this subject than the majority of Americans. This is of course the aftermath of a politically correct era.

So although it wasn't intended, Brenton brings up some very broad topics of discussion: the need for the presence of people from varying backgrounds in our lives and the added perspective and value of varying cultures, generalized behavior as it relates to cultural upbringing, the taboo of a society that doesn't allow you to say things like "I miss black women" purely based on their cultural tendencies. The counterpart to this is the negative racial depictions and stereotypes that we give just as much leeway. Discuss if you will. Don't be scared.

Update (9/20): Only one taker? I see. Good to know...