The Sassy Sistah is definitely a common trope with black women, and an annoying one at that.
That RPG situation you describe does very much apply to real life. Very intelligent black people who refuse to buy into the ghetto stereotype are still often viewed as such by non-blacks (hence the insistence on 'sassy' because all black women are sassy). There is an understanding that non-blacks will not take them seriously if they act like gangsters, my mother refused to let any of us use that 'ghetto slang.' To her and the rest of our family, 'ghetto slang' was something uneducated people used, and it presented a negative image to be using it. My family is Jamaican, which is a completely different background and culture from black Americans, but I've met other black people who say the same thing. Idiots talk like they're from the ghetto and because they talk like the gangster they get treated as one.
At the same time there are those in the black community who view those who try to stand above the ghetto image as sort of traitors; black people who sold out their heritage and are trying to be white. They're often referred to as being 'bougie.'
It's frustrating, either you act like a thug and get treated like one, or you try to rise above it and have people act like you're a traitor to your heritage on top of others still treating you like a thug because of the stereotype.
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That RPG situation you describe does very much apply to real life. Very intelligent black people who refuse to buy into the ghetto stereotype are still often viewed as such by non-blacks (hence the insistence on 'sassy' because all black women are sassy). There is an understanding that non-blacks will not take them seriously if they act like gangsters, my mother refused to let any of us use that 'ghetto slang.' To her and the rest of our family, 'ghetto slang' was something uneducated people used, and it presented a negative image to be using it. My family is Jamaican, which is a completely different background and culture from black Americans, but I've met other black people who say the same thing. Idiots talk like they're from the ghetto and because they talk like the gangster they get treated as one.
At the same time there are those in the black community who view those who try to stand above the ghetto image as sort of traitors; black people who sold out their heritage and are trying to be white. They're often referred to as being 'bougie.'
It's frustrating, either you act like a thug and get treated like one, or you try to rise above it and have people act like you're a traitor to your heritage on top of others still treating you like a thug because of the stereotype.