First, let me say that Mr. Handy and I are about the same age.

Secondly, let's be clear that the period in question in which he is
reported to have taken the class was a period of great civil strife in
our nation, and the earliest students probably have their roots in the
more militant faction.

Thirdly, let me be clear that I have a very internationally diverse
family in that each of my three siblings and I married outside of our
ethnic makeup, and we hit a number of the Census boxes.

Fourth, let me say that I am quoted on page 700 of the Wall Street
Journals 98 Almanac for my position on the Census and the need for
defining one's racial/ethnic makeup (find it and you'll find my real
name  ;D).

But, with all that said, as an adult, in 1995 or 1996, I took a class
called Minorities in America.  I learned a lot in there.  The
ethnic/racial makeup of the group crossed all the defined groups.

First off, I took the class as a 40 something white female.  I will
tell you that the white students in the class (few in number) were
extremely appalled/shocked when the other ethnic/racial groups spoke
up about their feelings/experiences with Whites.  I will tell you that
it seemed that a) the students had either been extremely sheltered or
had been living on a a River in Egypt and had been in a long state of
denial.

I actually felt sorry for those student and chastised the professor
after class.  They were indignant and afraid for their physical
safety.  You could see that by their facial machinations and the
shades of color they changed.  They were sitting toward the back of
the room and surrounded by people who were very different than they.

I didn't think they'd come back to class because they seemed so
terrified, but, to their credit, they hung in their and had a genuine
consciousness raising.

The Latino professor taught us many things.  First, he said he was
Latino and hated the term Hispanic.  He had many prejudices and they
were clearly evinced.  He did not like White people in the majority
and he very much was not in favor of mixed marriages.  Needless to
say, when it came time for the class to be taught the following
semester, he did not teach it again.  Whether that was by choice or by
school design, I did not know.

But there were other, very eye opening things I got from the class.
He asked us to aggregate by our majority makeup and then to prepare
both a speech and a report on how we wanted to be seen.

It was incredibly insightful to have the various groups with cultures
other than mine speak of their own personal experiences and how they
wished to be perceived.  There were differences among the individual
groups.

The class was an incredible eye opener for me, and I recommend it to
others (you probably have something comparable in your own
neighborhood).

I took the class with the express intention that I would eventually be
going into full-time nonprofit work and, as such, it was necessary to
try to better understand the needs and perceptions of my entire
customer base.

I didn't walk away Asian, Latino, Afro-American, or Mixed, but I
certainly walked away with a better understanding of the thoughts and
belief systems of people different than I.

And some part of my quote in the WSJ Almanac is driven by my
experiences in that class.  The professor wanted the mixed ethnicities
to choose.  That is to put one culture to the forefront to the
denigration of another, and to me, that is very, very wrong.


==
Indigo Nights
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