I got the idea to ask this question from a comment I read:

What I have to come realize is that there is something in the black community that folks refuse to talk about, and that the class issue. Due to the fact that the Black Power Movement introduced socialist/Marxist ways of thinking, it is considered taboo to distance yourself from certain kinds of black people. It always angers me when people assume that just because I am black, that I share the same culture and values with ALL black people. That just because we share a heritage we share a total identity. That is as dumb as saying that every white person should be a neo-Nazi because neo-Nazi’s say so.

Not every black person shares culture. This is made more difficult by the fact that these low-lifes in the black community will take credit for individual blacks success even when that individual didn’t even grow up with community indoctrination. It get’s even stickier when you consider that outsiders, who unfortunately have historically held a lot of power over the black image, don’t really know how deep those differences are. They just assume there are good black and bad blacks just like everyone else, but don’t understand that they aren’t even on the same cultural plane.

As far as I am concerned, if you are not practicing my ancestors values and living worthy of your heritage, then you are not my people. And that’s just where I leave it. There is no way on earth that anybody can tell me that I share identity with some welfare queen, having baby after baby for a check and riding and dying for some no-good. No freakin’ way.

I have quite proudly opted out of the black community and I cut up my black card. The interest on it is just too high a price to pay.

This person makes an excellent point. Why can whites, Asians, and Hispanics be classist and separate themselves from their ethnic riff raff, and if black folks do it, they’re called “sell outs?”