Culture Clash!!! When Worlds Collide In A Good Way

Home

by Ronnie Tyler | on August 26th, 2008 | 7 comments

The other day I was on a conference call with a coworker who’s a white guy from upstate New York. Whenever we get on a call together he always has a little saying or greeting that he starts with even though he’s a serious guy. Well the on this day when we first got on a call he was just hammering away with his one liner greetings one after another trying to make me laugh or cheer me up in the morning (I guess I was sounding dry) so something just popped in my head to say back to him… It was something you’ve heard a million times before… I’d heard him mention before he was a Christian so I figured he’d appreciate it… I just answered, “I’m too blessed to be stressed” and boy did this send him rolling on the floor. I guess it was a difference of cultures because he had never heard of this before and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. He treated me like I was Chris Rock at the Improv. Wow, don’t think I would have gotten that same response from a black person.

BMWK is there anyone in the room that never heard too blessed to be stressed before? Do you have a story like this when someone different than you took something as original or so special that you’ve heard or done a million times? Let us know.

About the author

Lamar and Ronnie Tyler are the creators of the award-winning blog BlackandMarriedWithKids.com . They also are behind the Amazon.com bestselling DVDs Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, You Saved Me and their latest documentary Men Ain’t Boys that explores manhood in the African American community. The Tylers are also the proud parents of four children.

Nicole

I’ve heard that saying hundreds of times. I can’t believe he never heard that before.

I had the same thing happen to me. I was talking to some black co-workers about getting old and plastic surgery. I told them that I wasn’t worried cause black don’t crack and they looked at me like I was from another planet. They all told me that they’d never heard that before.
TheDad

@Nicole – WHAT… Nicole I have to ask what state you live in. I need more info on these black folks that never heard that before. Are you sure they weren’t playing.. Unbelievable.
Anna

This post made me smile. I do get drained with serious posts. I can attest that “black don’t crack”. My dad’s skin color is a beautiful brown and although he is 74 he looks like a 50 year old man. I have white skin and not sure how i am going to hold up. But I can say I have never had a cavity. Now I do have a sister that is 38 and i am 41 but ppl think she is my child. I guess i had her when I was 3. LOL. She does look younger than 38 but I also look younger than 41. There are many things that we hope we got dads genes and not moms.
Misbeehavin

I try to remember that saying everytime I get stressed out
Nicole

@THE DAD, I was living in Savannah GA at the time. My co-workers were all from the south. No they weren’t playing they even told another black co-worker who wasn’t with us at the time, he also said that he’d never heard that saying.
http://www.blackandmarriedwithkids.com TheDad

Has anyone seen the episode of the Tom Joyner Sky Show where they ran a little parody commercial that was full of “church sayings”. It was infomercial type so that you’ll know what to say back when someone uses one, that way you can have the last word… it was hillarious LOL
MKT (not Joe)

Cultural? I don’t know, but confusing, yes!

OK, I was at a bar-b-q this weekend and everyone kept calling this one person Joe. So I thought his name was Joe. When I found out his name wasn’t Joe, I thought I had confused him with another person, and I thought his name was Joe. I was horrified to have gotten people mixed up.

As it turns out, NO ONE was named Joe. The men called everyone Joe. It was just a nick name like bro or dude.

Why can’t everyone have their own nickname? This will ensure that I don’t get confused and try to apologize for not remembering your name, when it was never given to me in the first place!…

Even my husband is still laughing at me about this one.