The world of TikTok has created in me a new question for study.
We know that black folk (American) have become such fantastic cooks because of the multitudinous scenarios that played out between emancipation, segregation, cooking and cleaning for white families at the expense of their own families, etc. (Go watch or read The Help if you need some context)
What I want to do is a proper sociological study of (and there's no real way to do it because it would be a timelapses study over decades) if the population of young black folk that are now adults in the US (millennials and der gen Z) are so germaphobic as a direct correlation to their grannies having been cleaners for white folk in the 60s and 70s.
But as I said the time is passed, so. I'm so curious because I thought my couple black friends were just... Super picky and clean, kinda germaphobic... But now I'm seeing generational trends and I'm wondering if it's a new thing or if it's a trait passed down generationally.
If you're a young black person and your matriarchal head(s) were cleaners or housekeepers for white folk in the 60s and 70s, did you inherit a certain need for extreme cleaning and being utterly convinced that no one outside of YOU has proper health and housekeeping standards? If you were taught this behavior, do you know why? Who taught that person? What is the root of the cause in your family?
Then I want to branch out to other nationalities, enthicities, and races.
I am white. My family is from Detroit and flint, Michigan (two incredibly minority-bound and extremely povertous cities left behind after the car companies left Michigan. Think "we still don't have clean drinking water" Flint) and my family, particularly my dad, fever-cleans like he thinks stripping the sealant off the baseboards will prevent a single hair from invading his living space. Like he doesn't work a customer-facing job. He cleans like this every Saturday and cleans his kitchen like this daily.
I don't always clean like that because I have a heavy past in food service, a science degree, ADHD paralysis, and depression, all of which tell me that expending my energy like that I'd a lot of work for very little actual reward.
What's your story? Can I hear?