Clones......Where is the individualism?

Me and my boy Dave have two regular drinking events during the week. One is our favorite diaquiri shop where the bartender adds and extra shot of Crown Royal to our picture of beer. The other is the lake on Sunday evenings basically because it's free. While we were sitting out watching everything going on yesterday, we came to one obvious realization....Everybody around us was acting the same way. Now, I know there are trends and fashions that become common with an entire group or certain groups of people. I am not talking about the way they dress, although all those guys can't tell me they are possibly comfortable with their pants hanging down past their knees. I'm talking about speech, music, mannerisms and everything that makes you a unique individual. Personally, I think the majority of them are faking. They are just scared to admit to liking certain things or wanting to do certain things out of fear of getting talked about or being considered strange. I'm not just talking about teenagers either. There are 40 year old men that talk like they are 15 and if it wasn't for the grey hairs in their heads and face, you might think they were that young.
Did it ever occur to anybody that in the last few years black people have become the opposite of everything we are perceived to be? I mean, we are supposed to be the creative, expressive people that push the envelope of art and popular culture. Now, we are simply caricatures of our own stereotypes and we love it. Check the TV, radio, and magazines and you will see the same brother doing the same thing over and over. If you had 25 men ages 20-25 in a room, the only person that would know half of them from the other is their mother. There's just nothing that makes them stand out besides the color of their paint job and the position of their gold teeth. Sisters are no different. Most of them all seem to be talking, walking, acting the same way and liking the same man. We have just become a people full of clones. Just like the Roots said, we are duplicated and imitated clones.
I'm no clone. I don't hide who I am or what I do. My name is Cliff. I am 30 years old from New Orleans. I like Crown Royal, Millers, crabbing trips, strip clubs, the Saints and professional wrestling. Hip hop is my favorite music but I also like Billy Joel, Nirvana , Jimi Hendrix, any old R&B (album collection is on fire!) and even Christina Aquilera. I'm real nostalgic and emotional and songs that remind me of my family make me cry. I like to sing and dance but I am flat footed and usually off key. But, I do it anyway because I don't care if it sounds good or not. That's a condensed explanation of who I am. I am the same way all the time and proud of it. How many of us are depriving ourselves of the enjoyment of being who we are and experiencing what we want to because we are trapped in the cloning cycle.