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Young, gifted and black

Posted by ESC on June 12, 2003

In Reply to: It's a Black thang posted by ESC on June 12, 2003

: : : Trying to get together a list of as many sayings about black people as possible, Such as Black don't Crack, Black is Beautiful.... any additions would be appreciated.

: : Once you've had black, you don't look back... well, you *did* ask...

: It's a Black thang - A reference to any cultural or social practice, behavior, or attitude unique to or stemming from the African American experience.

: Blacker than thou - A signifying expression used to refer to an African American who thinks he/she set the standard for Blackness and disses other African Americans for not acting or thinking "Black enough."

: The Blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice - An old proverb resurfacing in hip hop. A variation: The Blacker the college, the sweeter the knowledge.

: (All of the above from: Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner by Geneva Smitherman (Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, N.Y., 1994.)

To be young, gifted and black - "Though it be a thrilling and marvellous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic - to be young, gifted and black." Lorrain Hansberry, American dramatist, 1930-65. (From "Oxford Dictionary of Quotations," Fifth Edition, edited by Elizabeth Knowles (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2001).

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