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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!
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I LOVE IT!!!!
I’ve always wondered when I was used as, “my black friend said that…..”
My best friend was the “other” one.
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Hat tip to Latoya, by the way.
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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…)
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I am posting this ALL OVER my house!!
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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?
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Nice. What does A. think?
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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….
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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.
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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.
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Gosh how I relate! I’m posting this cartoon on my locker at work, my fridge at home & sending it to my relatives!
~F -
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. -
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”…
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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…
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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.”
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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.
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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?
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Hehe! I had to put this on my blog too!
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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/
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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.
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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.
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intelligence in blacks should never be deem ’special’
Say it again!!
I have to print this out and put it up everywhere!
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“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.
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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).
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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.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
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