[Assam] white girl, brown guy: Racial profiling?? flag & Dust mites

[umesh sharma]

Hi,
   
  Yesterday was my last day at work (on my student visa) and Antonia said something which might shock even the most hardened.
   
  She said: " Your skin is  brown, peach and black. I am white and pink and peach. We are different types of people."
   
  Shocking !! you must admit. How can anyone say that . How can anyone highlight the differences between different races. Is this a statement from a white supremacist?
  Isn't this blatant racial profiling?
   
  I looked at her self portrait -  two days ago - when  I was cleaning my room :
  (I did it finally today with vacuum cleaner and throwing all the clothes in the sun -Indian style -UV rays to kills bugs etc) since I have been bitten by bugs on arms and legs -and itch all over even at night. Might be dust mites, which I cannot see but crawl all over --like my experiences in India. In India atleast there was no wall to wall carpeting - carpets could be thrown out and beaten in the sun. Here I cannot do that.
   
  Her self portrait is something no Indian girl can make : an oval head slanting, straight shoulder-length red hair (which ends in sharp curls) and bright blue eyes and a wide smiley mouth. No Indian girl can boast of red hair and blue eyes. She can say and did" You are bown, black and peach and I am white, pink and peach."
   
  It would be shocking to most in US - only if she had not called it simply becos thats true and just that. Also , it helps that she is just five (5) years old. Will be joining kindergarten next year.
   
  Actually, I was reading aloud her book (for the first time) at her nap time at 2pm yesterday -when all kids are expected to sleep. He book was "Goose on the Loose" and this goose led to white and black. I was explaining that goose is different from a duck - it is not a female duck and swan is not a male duck -but different kinds of ducks just like different kinds of dogs and cats -some big , some small, some with pointed ears , some with drooping ones.  She got the idea and said what she said. 
   
  I wonder why it is not so simple to White Supremacists and Neo Nazis in US - saw on A&E channel how in Alabama (where Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King first launched their Civil Rights Campaign -to get voting rights for blacks in US etc - in 1960s!! -NOT 1800s ) these guys were openly saying to an Arab American and his hijab covered wife "You might find yourself swinging from a tree one of these days!" Police was sitting pretty - Oh, It is freedom of speech (just like is burning their national flag - In India you would be in jail if you even let it touch the ground) .
   
  Why cannot white and black be just that -- just color --and not a question of who is superior. 
   
  Any comments?
   
  Umesh
   
  PS: Found this interesting approach to social work and faith : 
  www.pastoralcounselling.com 
   


Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740

 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
 		
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