The assumption here seems to be that white people don't mention race of white people.

It is my experience that in books written by white people, only white people's race isn't mentioned, generally. If that was your question.

Also, in real life, I have found that black people mention either race or shade, but white people mention nothing. It is actually pretty funny to watch someone try to describe a black person without mentioning they are black. But teh black people I know will say "Oh, Katie, she's white, has red hair". "Oh Jessie, the light skinned one, not the dark skinned one.". Meanwhile the white people are all like "Jessie-- she has brown hair and eyes, kinda short..."

I'm not going to lie, I have made a point of describing people of white.

So I was talking to one of my students who is a White woman. She married a Filipino and many of his family flew to Pennsylvania where she is from for the wedding.

She is from a small town with little diversity and apparently many of the townspeople thought her groom and his family were Black! I guess they hadn't met too many Black people either.

I screamed with laughter! I couldn't help myself.

Oh lord.

I think people are not that observant. I grew up in a small town with one black family, and it would seem kind of rude to single out their kids and say OH, you mean the BLACK kids. However, once I met a more diverse population and heard them speaking, I now use white, black, etc as a descriptor because it it actually seems sort of rude not to, like it is somehow this big shameful secret!

Weekend Update skit that didn't make it to air. It's faux!Guy Fieri responding to the review of his restaurant. I guess they taped the rehearsal.

There is serious conversation here. But my digital converter box is daid, my cats are insane, I'm doing laundry, took out the trash, but I AM HOME. Awesome neighbor picked me up, was actually in the house less than an hour after I landed.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say unless it's Halloween or you're Britney Spears, clothes that make people wonder whether or not you're naked are always a mistake.

We're probably moving to Albuquerque. I'm busy having eighteen different feelings about this at once.