I kept thinking the "talk" article was a parody, because my ads were for re-electing Obama.

No one ever had that talk with me, and I went to a school with 4 black people (2 were special needs kids adopted by a family who adopted many more special needs kids), 1 jewish person, and 10 asians. It was a a country school, not a suburban one. I do sometimes wish I could talk to these kids now about their point of view, because for me growing up, I was completely ignorant of rascism because the population was so small you could not see it, and the only people who seemed to have trouble were the special needs kids (and those kids, white and black had it very, very bad. Even the nice kids were horrible to them)

My mother was an aging pre-hippy, so she was really into "everyone is a person, we don't see color", which has its own problems, but I think it ended up being a good foundation to appreciate issues as an adult, because being open minded and listening to people was also valued. At least it makes one open enough to actually talk to people!

They discussed that article this morning on MSNBC (Up with Chris Hayes) and the short summary was that the man who wrote the article is well known for his racist insanity, so not even close to main stream crazy.

I too grew up in a practically mono-cultural suburb, not counting the significant subset of Catholic kids, many of whom went to the local parish grammar school. There was a slight smattering of Jewish kids, and like one Japanese-American and one Chinese-American.

The first time I met black kids my age was at a YMCA day camp in the summers. Otherwise it would have been not until college!

My gradeschools were so lily white growing up that anyone of another race was more an individual oddity than representative of a whole group. I do remember being very confused and angry when one friend's father made him stop playing with the neighborhood kids in the afternoons because one of us was black.

So back to the more basic - WTF is wrong with people?

No, but they're not bigoted against black people! They're statistically bigoted against statistical black people.

Except the well-adjusted ones, because they're all, like, leprechauns, every one. All the white people want their lucky charms or something. How can we but envy them and their unprecedented good fortune?

In the words of Victor Meldrew, "I'm sorry, what language are you talking in now? It appears to be Bollocks!"

The problem with leaving the travel arrangements to my parents is that the don't consult me. You want to take what will be 90 minutes to go see the family when it is 2 hours until we leave for the wedding & I haven't showered yet because no one told me of this plan? Knock yourself out. I'll see them at the wedding.

Ahhhh parents.

Whatevs, parents!

I grew up as the only minority pretty much. I didn't meet another non-family Japanese person until high school.

When Kat's K. met me, she joked at Kat that she wasn't the only Asian in northern Ohio, but as far as we could tell then we both were! Too bad we didn't meet then!

Anyway, my parents never talked to me about racial issues, other than being startled when I hit dating age and starting bringing home basically a boy of every race.

Otherwise it would have been not until college!

I think it's interesting that people are surprised to meet white and Asian and Indian and Jewish Jamaicans, whereas my jaw just drops at that possibility.

I mean, even when I was one of three black kids at my school in London, I figured they were getting their negro fix elsewhere, because...well, because.

My parents definitely did talk to me about racial issues. They were all up in our grills about diversity and equality and racism from the moment we could read, as our collection of books could attest. If there was a picture book on the slave trade or the civil rights movement in the US, we had it. If there was a picture book of international "fairy tales" in English, we probably had it, considering we were living in Jamaica--my father's UN hookup made things easier.

In the words of Victor Meldrew, "I'm sorry, what language are you talking in now? It appears to be Bollocks!"

I am so using this.

One of the first times I really disagreed with my mom over something fundamental was interracial dating in 7th grade. I asked her what she'd do if I went out with a black boy, and she gaped for a moment before replying, "Well, your father and I would be very disappointed and your grandfather would die of a heart attack." Yeah. Asian-American was fine, apparently, as I later dated a "Chao". Of course, I went on to date women so I showed her. Or something.

I wonder if she still feels that way. I wonder if my dad ever felt that way.

Still? I never got anything like that "talk." That is some serious overt racist bullshit right there.

In the words of Victor Meldrew, "I'm sorry, what language are you talking in now? It appears to be Bollocks!"

In this vein, my new favorite phrase (from Eddie Izzard talking about Hannibal's success being due to the difficulty of communicating in latin): "Quod the fuck?"