Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Funny Story

Ha ha. According to Richard Wolffe, president Charley McCarthy had to ask Condi Rice to explain what the big deal was over Joe "Robomouth" Biden calling Barack Obama "bright, clean, articulate." That reminds me . . .

A few years back I did a minority needs assessment study for a small city out on the verge of civilization in central Massachusetts. It seems a local night club was turning away Black and Latino patrons, so I went with the head of a local community organization, an African American guy I will call Horace, to discuss this with the owner. He sat us down in a booth and announced, "I'm not a racist. I mean Horace, I don't even think of you as black. You look just like a normal person. You've got a tie and everything."

Horace asked me to explain to the guy what was wrong with that picture. It was surprisingly difficult to get across to him.

Oh yeah -- I also interviewed the Mayor for this study. I sat down in his office and the first thing he said to me was, "What do you call a black kid with a bicycle? A thief!" Ha ha ha.

It's not exactly a miracle that Barack Obama is president -- he looks just like a normal person. But it's close.

2 comments:

kathy a. said...

exactly. it is a miracle, though. racial assumptions are deeply held, and race is still inflammatory. the attacks on judge sotomayor as "racist" should be proof enough of the latter.

roger said...

we know what to call the mayor. several epithets spring to mind.