msbelle, I wish there was anything I could do to help you. it seems like you have the plagues descending on you all at once.

I didn't mean to do an issues/anger post and run. But I hate the "not to be rascist people" The last guy was angry about some funeral procession where there were flags of another country on the cars (it had delayed the buses, which was annoying, but he was mad about the flags. He thought they should have American flags. But he kept changing the country from Puerto Rice to Jamaica to Nigeria. Which are vastly different countries AND one of them is part of America.

I said that we are all really from somewhere else, and I am sure I have seen Irish and Italian flags on cars as well and he shut up.

The sad part is I think he was just trying to make conversation.

I hate the "I don't notice what colour people are" thing too. Fuck you. How can you not? It's fine if you don't care, as long as you do respect it, but how can you convince me you haven't noticed me? Do you not realise I'm female too?

"I don't notice color" is just bullshit white privilege. When your skin isn't white, you don't have the luxury of being color-blind.

Yeah, I had a race conversation with a white daycare kid once who described his own skin as "plain."

Hee! I just found out I'm even more "them" than I thought. My mother, because she's going on and on and for example, on about my father, just told me that my father's father and his family were from the Canary Islands-- they apparently emigrated to Cuba when my grandfather was a very small boy and then my father was born there in Oriente Province.

So I got me a whole mess of "them" in me. I have Cuban, North African, French Jew... so many people to offend in one fell swoop!

I once dated a woman who could not see color. The DMV wouldn't issue her a drivers license.

My mom taught me to be colorblind ( I have grown out of it) I think it was an antidote to "Look at those black/asian/hispanic/jewish people. Aren't they different and not really like people?". My mother is actually one of the least racist people I know, and she seems to enjoy her differences in people.

It seems to have outgrown its usefulness as a term, however.

Normal to me is hispanic. B'more has grown on me, so my hispanic hometown looks awfully pale now. It's funny how your norms get defined. My standards of beauty are decidedly hispanic to this day. And I am not.

Oh man, y'all. I got an offer for a discount on cleaning from a dentist near my office. I really think I may have to try her out. Why?

With more than 68% of American families choosing to perform their own dental cleanings, x-rays, and dangerous dental surgeries in the comfort of their home or a makeshift backyard dental shed, the professional dental landscape is radically changing. Children who grow up performing their own dental work may never enjoy the artistry of a skilled dentist; instead they'll have to endure Pointy Elbow Syndrome, a medical condition associated with misusing consumer-grade dental hammers. But you don't have to suffer: take advantage of a highly skilled, professional dentist for 78% off.

Also this:

This Groupon gets new-to-Lillian customers an x-ray and cleaning from Dr. Lillian Obucina, a former Northwestern University dental professor who lectures for the American Dental Association and Comic Con.

Well, by the same token, I tend to get my dander up when other Latinos/Hispanics use the term "brown" to universally mean Latino/Hispanic and as some standard of measure where others don't measure up. I mean, it's such a self-limiting term to start with.