Ethnic ambiguity= ethnic spying
Nov. 30th, 2005 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
One of the weird things about being a mixed race person is that you are sort of incognito most of the time. We have hired a bunch of new employees at Chapters, including a mixed race girl named Anjali. When I saw her, and heard her name, I realized that she was Eurasian, and I politely asked her if she was mixed. She revealed that she was Indian and German. As I always feel weird asking people about their ethnicity, I apologized to her, and she shrugged it off saying, "You know, it's always the mixed dogs that are smarter and more loyal."
I had to laugh at that one.
One of the other new employees that we've hired is a makeup artist, and she gave me a lot of interesting tips for trying to cover the black circles under my eyes. We started talking about how there are more foundation choices available and she said, "I think it has to do with people mixing- people are starting to realize that not everyone is pink." I said, "That's how I came about."
Another girl with blondish hair and blue eyes piped up, "Me too. My mom is native."
I said, "Wow, you must hear all sort of offensive comments from people who don't realize you are native."
She acknowledged that she did.
As an ambiguous racially mixed person, you do get to hear all sorts of weird comments and prejudices that people might not spout out if they knew your ethnicity. One of my ex-boyfriends was half Chinese and a woman said to him, "Not all of us are as lucky as you and don't have to pay tax." She was revealing her racist beliefs about First Nations people, who are exempt from one of the taxes in Saskatchewan. Yep, that was just lovely.
I had to laugh at that one.
One of the other new employees that we've hired is a makeup artist, and she gave me a lot of interesting tips for trying to cover the black circles under my eyes. We started talking about how there are more foundation choices available and she said, "I think it has to do with people mixing- people are starting to realize that not everyone is pink." I said, "That's how I came about."
Another girl with blondish hair and blue eyes piped up, "Me too. My mom is native."
I said, "Wow, you must hear all sort of offensive comments from people who don't realize you are native."
She acknowledged that she did.
As an ambiguous racially mixed person, you do get to hear all sorts of weird comments and prejudices that people might not spout out if they knew your ethnicity. One of my ex-boyfriends was half Chinese and a woman said to him, "Not all of us are as lucky as you and don't have to pay tax." She was revealing her racist beliefs about First Nations people, who are exempt from one of the taxes in Saskatchewan. Yep, that was just lovely.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 02:22 am (UTC)HAH!
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Date: 2005-12-01 05:17 am (UTC)I think the ambiguous race mixing is why raciscm will eventually fall to the wayside. Who said that all we have to do is keep fuckin' until we're all the same colour? Awesome.