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Surprised by Racism
Aug. 19th, 2008 10:32 amEvery once in a while, chilling in ultra-liberal Seattle, something just floors me, utterly and completely.
I ran into an old co-worker on the bus this morning. She was my first boss at the University. And we were chatting about what was going on in our lives, and how we dodged a bullet by getting out of having to transfer to Children's Hospital when our old department went. We had been laughing about the coporate blame culture that permeated all of our interactions with Children's staff when we had to deal with them, and all of a sudden she said something that just completely floored me.
"I couldn't work somewhere where all the signs are in Spanish and English. That's disgusting. This is America."
I faltered, but said, that since Children's is a charity hospital, that they were pretty obviously trying to make themselves more friendly to the largest immigrant population in the area, the people most likely to need their services. Her follow up response kind of took me aback as well.
"It's not like those people who come up here can read."
*head meet desk*
You know, I'd like to say I jumped up and read her the riot act. But I didn't. I pretty much just sat there in dumb amazement. I mean, she is older, but still...
I just don't understand when otherwise intelligent, rational people evince such amazingly irrational, stupid thought processes. Do you know what I mean? It's like a decent, relatively well-mannered person, who came in behaving very nicely, suddenly dropped trou and took a shit on your coffee table.
And I realize that my viewing racism like this is a luxury I have because of my super, pale honkey-ness. But still... I expected this shit in Eastern Washington (and was frequently surprised when it didn't happen), but in Seattle?
I've never understood racism, as in, I've never understood how anyone could fall into that mindset. It's just so... dumb. I mean, I do understand the underlying pathologies intellectually, but practically...? Maybe my folks did a better job with us than I usually give them credit for.
I ran into an old co-worker on the bus this morning. She was my first boss at the University. And we were chatting about what was going on in our lives, and how we dodged a bullet by getting out of having to transfer to Children's Hospital when our old department went. We had been laughing about the coporate blame culture that permeated all of our interactions with Children's staff when we had to deal with them, and all of a sudden she said something that just completely floored me.
"I couldn't work somewhere where all the signs are in Spanish and English. That's disgusting. This is America."
I faltered, but said, that since Children's is a charity hospital, that they were pretty obviously trying to make themselves more friendly to the largest immigrant population in the area, the people most likely to need their services. Her follow up response kind of took me aback as well.
"It's not like those people who come up here can read."
*head meet desk*
You know, I'd like to say I jumped up and read her the riot act. But I didn't. I pretty much just sat there in dumb amazement. I mean, she is older, but still...
I just don't understand when otherwise intelligent, rational people evince such amazingly irrational, stupid thought processes. Do you know what I mean? It's like a decent, relatively well-mannered person, who came in behaving very nicely, suddenly dropped trou and took a shit on your coffee table.
And I realize that my viewing racism like this is a luxury I have because of my super, pale honkey-ness. But still... I expected this shit in Eastern Washington (and was frequently surprised when it didn't happen), but in Seattle?
I've never understood racism, as in, I've never understood how anyone could fall into that mindset. It's just so... dumb. I mean, I do understand the underlying pathologies intellectually, but practically...? Maybe my folks did a better job with us than I usually give them credit for.
