perfunctory interactions
Something like 95% of human interactions follow almost perfectly predetermined scripts (with monkeys like me, anyway. Makes you wonder if human-level “intelligence” is just a really complex schema of reactions. The recent crisis would suggest we are little more than delusional sheep. Are we even conscious? Think about it, man).
Lately, the average interaction has been: “So, you’re an American? You know, Obama is the first black president.”
I tend to humor these things, with something to the effect of “Yeah, it’s great. I’m really proud of my country.” After the next (ninety-seventh or so) iteration though, snark will likely overtake patience, and the immediate response is going to be along the lines of: “Wait, WHAT!? No. He’s not black at all. He’s actually Latino-Mexican-Indo-Indian.” Any other suggestions?
“Actually, Tiger Woods was our first back president. And his vice president was that guy from Hootie and the Blowfish, Darius something or another.”
I had some interesting interactions with people regarding Obama’s win. I received phone calls and SMS’ from many South Africans that I’ve met: two conversations stick out in my mind though. The first was with community leader and former municipal government employee, Lucky Gumbi (from a rural community I’ve worked with north of Durban). He’s older, maybe 60, and he called to express (very happy) disbelief that Obama had actually been elected. He was excitedly speaking the “hope” and “change” language. I found myself deeply moved by his words. My second conversation still leaves me a bit baffled: it was with a (black) secretary at work. She came to work and said something like, “Hurray, Obama has been elected.” When I expressed a similar happiness in the election results, she responded, “What, you support a black man?” WHAT? I honestly didn’t know what to say. Was she calling me racist? I thought that she and I were friends… I don’t know. I said, yes, I have a lot of respect for Obama. She nodded. I still don’t understand.
i’d tell them that he’s half-black and his black half is on top, with the white half on the bottom. tell them to look it up on the internet.
[...] . . . while my good friend Tony, a current resident in China on a Fulbright, offers his own take about tokenized reactions to Obama. (He must want to talk about this! He’s an [...]
When Nelly first got big and I’d introduce myself as being from St. Louis, the immediate response was always, “Do you know Nelly?!” My response after a while tended to be something to the effect of, “Know him? He’s my brother!” I think such a comment would be appropriately funny…just a thought though.