Ethnic Avenue – The Street That Crosses All the Others

Posts Tagged ‘Vanilla Ice’

Very few urban (and suburban) characters are more obvious than the White Chocolate. Even though there are several major varieties and intensities—determined mostly by geography—you rarely mistake a White Chocolate for anything else.

As the consummate example of racial incongruence, things started off pretty rough for the White Chocolate Guy when he first emerged in the late 1980s. Early trailblazers, like rapper Vanilla Ice, were the subject of endless ridicule and scorn in those primitive dark ages. These days, White Chocolates live out in the open with the confidence—often a little too much—that they enjoy the same legitimacy as their non-synthetic chocolate counterparts.

Appearance & Dead Giveaways

• Hip-hop attire, from subtle to way-over-the-top: big-ass t-shirt; baseball cap with un-creased bill and un-removed tags; loosened laces on sneakers; oversized, sagging pants; ostentatious jewelry
• Urban lexicon, with simulated accent (e.g., “I ain’t even trying to hear that.”)
• Ethnic strut and physical gestures (holding crotch when walking; overly emotive hands when explaining things; talking more out of one side of his mouth than the other; driving with a sagging lean and a single, outstretched arm centered on the steering wheel)
• “Hard,” tough-guy look and posture
• Engages in racially legitimizing behaviors like: playing basketball, blasting hip-hop music, and “fixing up” his car
• Two-sided “bid-ness” card: shitty job during the day, side-hustle at night (Credit: Reader MAC)