Pigeons in the Holes 0
In a long and thoughtful post, Professor Rupert Nacoste considers the interplay between law and culture and, in particular, the poisonous side-effects of pigeon-holing people by race and heritage. Here’s an anecdote from his piece; follow the link for the rest.
“Hi my name is J-M and I want to be a psychologist like my mom and that means I need to be in middle school and high school here…”
After a long pause, Ms. L replied, “Where did you move from Miss M?” (She mispronounced my name). So I replied, “Its M and Tampa, but before that I lived in 29 Palms, California and before that was Virginia, and I was actually born in North Carolina but I don’t remember it.”
“Well you’ve certainly moved around a lot”, she said, “You have such beautiful olive skin, where is your family from?”
“Up-state New York!” I replied without hesitation.
“I mean what are you? Mexican? Indian?… your ethnicity? Your last name is different from normal…” She trailed off.
I could feel my face turning red and I stuttered that I was…”
Remember, this is an interaction between a teacher and a seventh-grade student; an adult and a thirteen-year-old. Indeed, when it comes to the possibility of being taken over by neo-diversity anxiety “who are the ‘we’ and who are the ‘they’”, there are no innocent.
