This is dedicated to that one black kid…

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

This cartoon is brilliant. :) I’m sure a lot of us can identify!

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Trackbacks & Pings

  1. A Quick Reflection on Being "Black" at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 13 Jul 2007 at 8:10 am

    [...] I have become quite comfortable in my skin, and love hanging with my band of “one black” (or Latino or Asian) kids, I still have not uncovered the answer to Wendi’s question, which I [...]

  2. "I don't care if they're black, white, green or purple" at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 09 Aug 2007 at 7:01 am

    [...] love love this cartoon from The K Chronicles, the same strip that brought us That One Black Kid. Click on it to see the full [...]

Comments

  1. jmn wrote:

    As one of the letter writers commented, this can also be tied to “that one Mexican kid” and “that one Asian kid” etc. Brialliant comic to break down stereotypes!

  2. gatamala wrote:

    I LOVE IT!!!!

    I’ve always wondered when I was used as, “my black friend said that…..”

    My best friend was the “other” one.

  3. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

    Hat tip to Latoya, by the way. :)

  4. jmn wrote:

    Oh yeah, in the context of breaking stereotypes, I can be classified as “that one Asian kid” who is lazy. (I mean, I am posting on racialicious at work…) :)

  5. Kaywil wrote:

    I am posting this ALL OVER my house!!

  6. berrybrowne wrote:

    love it!

    an employer once told me the key to my success was that i wasn’t “overtly black.”

    why is it every white person in america had a black best friend in kindergarten?

  7. LM wrote:

    Nice. What does A. think? :-)

  8. njeri wrote:

    oh my. i’m pretty sure i’ve experienced all but the “measure up to the myth” one, for obvious reasons. i think i have “alien hair” stories for days….

  9. gatamala wrote:

    berrybrowne
    “an employer once told me the key to my success was that i wasn’t “overtly black.””

    I guess you’re one of those covert blacks? Incognegro.

  10. Winn wrote:

    Thank you for sharing this! For those of us who were “that one (fill-in-the-blank) kid”, it is comforting to know we were never the only ones. This one black kid, who grew up listening to The Smiths and The Jesus and Mary Chain, reading Tolkien, and watching Masterpiece Theatre and Britcoms, is proud to be a member of an unsung legion that proves we are not a monolith.

  11. FrancesM wrote:

    Gosh how I relate! I’m posting this cartoon on my locker at work, my fridge at home & sending it to my relatives!
    ~F

  12. Lyonside wrote:

    I gotta post this:

    “The Only Black Guy At The Indie Rock Show” by The Cocker Spaniels
    http://www.cspaniels.com/

    At every single show, I am
    the only one who looks like me;
    the only sign of melanin
    in one big sea of ivory.
    My FUBU shirts and Tommy jeans…
    their bowling shirts and dirty Vans…
    I look just like a thug
    amongst the dressed-down Pavement fans. It shouldn’t even matter
    that I’m the only black guy at the indie-rock show.
    I stand in a crowd and still feel alone.
    *snip*
    There’s more to music than rap and R&B,
    but they say rock is a white man’s game.
    I know Chuck Berry wouldn’t feel the same.

    I wonder if I will live to see the day
    when I see rock bands on BET
    and black girls dance to GBV…
    and I wonder if white folks who like Jay-Z often feel as alienated as me.

  13. kenny wrote:

    The story of my life… As one commenter noted in the letters, it’d be interesting to see this comic when the “one black kid” is reflecting on his experiences with other black kids. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been told that I’m not the typical black kid or “act white”…

  14. Latoya Peterson wrote:

    Thanks for that link Lyonside! – I sent it to some of my rockerish friends. I’m not a show hound like they are, but I have a feeling they would relate…

    And yeah, I personally love the last panel. There are a lot of us “one black kids” or “one ____ kids” for that matter. We need a network…

  15. merq wrote:

    Priceless!!!!!!

    Unfortunately, I know far too many people who think they are “that one ____ kid,” which led to my current mantra (and I’m sure I’ve said it on racialicious at some point):

    “Dude, you’re not special. No matter how ‘different’ you swear you are.”

  16. Tony wrote:

    LOL
    More the “One Multiracial” kid here, but I relate to atleast 5 of them
    The hair one cracked me up, especially back when I had a mohawk. (although I did let people touch it…especially women.)

    I swear I want a full size poster of that to put on my door.

  17. Acanthus wrote:

    Can somebody find me a quote from a black person saying that Wynton Marsalis was “trying to act white” by being one of the best classical trumpeters in the world? I can’t find any, but, man…there must be a ton of them somewhere, huh?

  18. Angela wrote:

    Hehe! I had to put this on my blog too!

  19. Mikhaela Reid wrote:

    FYI, this cartoon is by the amazing Keith Knight, who draws two strips, The K Chronicles (this is one of those) and th(ink) (an editorial cartoon that runs in a lot of black newspapers and began on Africana.com). His website is http://www.kchronicles.com/

  20. TierListE wrote:

    Hey all-

    I’ve just discovered this site and I’ve been on hear for hours; it was a good change from my craptacular day.

    Anyways I agree with the sentiment of the comic completely. Sometimes it felt so alone to be nearly the sole black person in sight. I found it hilarious and creepily true; I want to go and print out a copy to put on my dormroom door when I go back.

    But jeez I’d hate to have been the *only* non-black black, so to speak, so I’m infinitely grateful of not being ’special’. Grr, intelligence in blacks should never be deem ’special’. In highschool we had a tiny unofficial Black Nerd support group. Hahaha, there was like 5 of us in like a 1600 predominately white school.

  21. R wrote:

    If I’m honest, I’ll have to admit that I was never the *only* black kid in school, although it sometimes felt that way. There was a light sprinkling of us.

    The part that really rings true for me is the hair touching. Lol. But no one ever said anything bad about my hair, thankfully.

  22. Anonymous wrote:

    intelligence in blacks should never be deem ’special’

    Say it again!!

    I have to print this out and put it up everywhere!

  23. Wendy wrote:

    “Incognegro”, that’s the funniest damned thing I’ve read/ heard this year.

    I can certainly identify with the hair touching, someone even tried it the other day and I’m 32! I also was really into The Jam, The Clash, G ‘n’R and Aerosmith as a teen, so there was a whole lotta ‘the only black’ going on.

  24. Ahnivah wrote:

    Oh my goodness!!!! I was SO this kid in high school. I can’t count the number of times my white friends reminded me that I wasn’t really “black” because of my love of rock music and predilection for sweater vest (which I, sadly, still wear to this day).

  25. Kristina wrote:

    I am this kid. I go to a predominately white private school in Georgia. People always want to touch my hair. They always say “Oh, it’s so puffy, it’s like a sponge!” I actually relate more to the Indian(from India) kids. All the black kids press their hair and act like I’m not black because I’m smart. They all hate the white kids. I can relate to the Indian kids because at least they know what it’s like to be asked all kinds of stupid questions about their race.

  26. mwhite wrote:

    I was the only black girl growing up in school and it was awful hearing that i act white. especially from white people. all my friends were white coming up. it was kind of tramatizing. growing up like that still affects me today. i cant even fit in with my own people.