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From: LCREW@DRACO.RUTGERS.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Subject: Re:  Positive color codes
Message-ID: <9002201519.AA07994@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Date: 20 Feb 90 15:15:00 GMT
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Chris, sugar,

Thanks immensely for clearing the air.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

> Perhaps Brian was a little sensitive wrt Louie's post, but on the other
> hand, I can kind of understand it to. And indeed, the wording could have
> been phrased a bit better. To wit:

>    If you have not had the experience of being able to associate with
>    people from lots of other different ethinic backgrounds, then you have
>    been losing out on a lot of great growth potential

I stand corrected!  Thank you.  I accept your wording as far better, and I
take responsibility for wrongly sending Brian off on a guilt trip.

>    White people tend to get saddle with a lot of sins of ethnocentricity,
>    yet as a Chinese, I know that we are often quite guilty of the same
>    thing.

Unfortunately, yes.  My black husband and I lived in Asia for 4 years.
Frequently in China we were refused service, when all other foreigners were
not.  Frequently bus drivers would wait for us, and then take off just as we
got to the door, saying in Chinese, "Black person."   Frequently throngs of
people would hold their noses as Ernest passed, even when they were not close
enough to smell his Bal a Versaille.

When my closest student became a teacher in a prominent secondary school in
Hong Kong (now he directs of the Contemporary Dance Theatre there), he would
try to change the subject when I asked him whether he addressed racism in his
classes.  Finally I had had enough.

"Why do you ignore me?!" I shouted.

Silence.

"Do these matters not count?!"

Another long silence, then, in a low, slow, intense voice, as only a friend
can muster to educate another friend:  "We have other more important things
to deal with."

"Like what, for instance!?"  I was as nearly hysterical as I'd ever been.

"Like........" Pause, then painfully, "our own God-damned inferiority
complex."

Whew!  Hera, dearest, where are you when we need you the most.  Buddah,
dearest, help!

Luti/Louie