I live in small, rural town. I get that. But we are less than an HOUR from St. Louis. You know, the BIG city...with BLACK PEOPLE!?!? I swear I get some students that act as if they've never seen someone of color - black, slightly browner than them...ANYTHING. There are no religions but Christian, there are no orientations but hetero....on and on and on.
Today topped it all tho. I'm teaching Oral Communications. (Ok, get the oral jokes out now....I'll wait.)
Done? Let's proceed. We were talking about stereotypes and how they affect communication. To illustrate, I posted 8 pictures of random people. Couple of old people, one black guy, middle aged white lady, hoosier preggo chick, and one major butch dyke. (Oh yes, I went there!) The assignment was to imagine that you are in NYC and you HAVE to catch the next subway and you can't find your money. You must ask one of these people for $5. I had them rank them in order of who they'd ask first and on down the line and then why.
All was fine and dandy until one group says..."I'd ask the colored man." Wait, WTF did you just say??? I was speechless. Who the fuck says that? I corrected them which then prompted someone else to ask, "So we shouldn't use Negro, either?" That was when my head exploded. The worst part was that there was no embarrassment at all about this. No shame at their straight up racism! I am by far not a politically correct person. Hell, Lisa Lampinelli is a personal favorite of mine....but fucking COLORED??!?!? Is it 1965 and I missed the damned time travel?
I'm feeling a bit disgusted with my surroundings at the moment. Wait til they figure out I'm a big ole dyke.
its all in what you know and how you're raised. if everybody around you calls black people colored, then its really just a matter of not knowing any better. but hey! you get the opportunity to educate and open their eyes to a bigger world. :)
ReplyDeleteOh there's -never- an end to Oral Excommunication jokes
ReplyDeleteAnd, this is something that puzzled the deuce* out of me since I moved to the USA - in different areas, apparently different nomenclatures are acceptable, and all variant ones are deeply racist. Bit of a minefield.
Yes, I agree that racism runs deep in America - especially considering the "melting pot" history of the country. Now, as a Native American, I could see getting a bit pissy about others as we were the first here, but the rest...piss off, dude - you aren't exactly a purebread! lol
ReplyDeleteSeriously, it's just idiotic.
They drop the N word around here like they think they are dropping flower petals or little rays of sunshine. I hate it. People suck around here. Blah, lol!
ReplyDelete