assumptions of race

[lyorkus at yahoo.com]

It's interesting the way that JKR doesn't use nationality to describe 
characters, but uses shorthand such as simply calling Angelina black 
or saying Lee had dreadlocks (although I did know some students in 
college with dreadlocks who were Jewish and wore their light-brown 
hair in dreadlocks...long story).

In this country, we're so hung up with what to call people: African-
American, Asian-American, etc.  Many times this is just plain wrong.  
My neighbors across the street are from Manchester, England (the mom) 
and the Gambia (the dad) and their son was born here (US).  Only the 
child is technically African-American.  I think the best way to 
describe this family is to say they are of African descent.  What do 
folks say in Britain?  (I should ask my Manchester-born neighbor, I 
suppose.)  I think in books like the Raj Quartet I saw things like 
Anglo-Indian and Anglo-African, but that actually seemed to describe 
people's ethnicity, not that they or their ancestors were born one 
place and they now live in another.  (Plus the Raj Quartet is full of 
derogatory terms for people of color.)

My nephew went to daycare at the local public school and was one of 
the few white children in the class.  His parents didn't think 
anything of it; nor did he.  He still goes to the same school, and 
when he had to do a report for Black History Month in second grade, 
he said he didn't personally know anyone black!  This kid was raised 
so color blind, he considered his friends to be brown, tan, 
coffee...I thought it was great!  After a Herculean effort, my sister 
finally convinced him that his favorite daycare teacher was black and 
he could write about how much he had loved having her for his 
teacher...Sadly, he will never again have the innocence he had before 
having to do that report.  

Rambling done.  Now just waiting for the "race" section to be removed 
from all forms in this country...since we're all part of the human 
race.

--Laurin