My kids describe skin and hair color in all sorts of detail, for all races pretty much, but I think they are still slowly processing the concept of racial identification. If my daughter describes someone as a "black guy" he's probably WEARING black, in the same way the red guy is wearing red and the blue guy is wearing blue.

Apparently there were people who advocated just writing off the whole region, move the residents out and let it go to ruin.

Hey, I read that Batman series of comics.

I see both generational and regional differences around race with my kids. But I grew up in the sixties and in South Florida, and I do remember driving through the south and seeing racially segregated water fountains and such when I was young.

But for Emmett and Matilda they just grew up with a very different framework for thinking about race. Mostly they're sort of shocked and puzzled by the more virulent shades of racism. Also, it's a little anomalous for Emmett because since he's growing up in the East Bay he sees more interracial marriages than almost anywhere else in the country.

I think every black kid Emmett's ever played with on a baseball team was biracial. Racial distinctions seem a bit more arbitary in that environment. Maybe it's a bit like Hawaiian Hapa culture? I'm not sure. But it's not much like growing up in Florida in the 70s.

I guess the main thing I see for them is that race is not a marker of Other, but just of distinction. Especially around the Bay Area where it's not just Black/White, but also a wide variety of Asian, and Hispanic and Indian and Middle Eastern.

Like, Matilda was totally excited to have her teacher Ms. Ekta bling her out with a bindi for Diwali. It's different and interesting but not completely exoticized because you're around it so much more.

When all the ice cream you know is vanilla, strawberry is exotic. But when you're surrounded by mango and tutti-frutti and chocolate mocha almond ripple, what's a little guava but just another flavor?

Hey, I read that Batman series of comics.

No Man's Land!

No Man's Land!

I remember the issue with the public access TV guy who was still broadcasting, and the one with Superman realizing there really wasn't anything he could do to make a real difference.

I was just hunting for the Jamaican racial demographics, and I think most interestingly of all, the racial breakdown is not currently in the main Wikipedia article, nor in the "Demographics of Jamaica" article. Where, you'd think...nope, only in Peoples¹.

The general proportions in the main article indicate that we self-identify by nationality where I guess they're implying Americans would say they're mixed--it's not one of Wikipedia's clearest sentences, over-citation to boot. But, when presented with the option of African-Jamaican or anything more granular than 1 adjective, it's the answer I'd have predicted.

Completely unrelatedly I looked up at my TiVo and noticed nothing was recording, , so I had to see how bad Mondays were and...2 Broke Girls again. It's amazing how blatant they are about substituting sexual references (at least 2 erections so far and one mention of anal sex that sounded like a callback (um, NPI, just in case). But some of it is so awkward that I can't even diagram it. I mean, you go to first break on "Yeah, definitely anal" and your second shot is "I'm very good at manipulating the young boys--I once got a ten year old I was babysitting to buy me pop tarts with his allowance." There's a laugh track and everything but...nope, I poke at it, but I don't see where it goes.

Then again--I think I did see a Streisand movie called The Guilt Trip" which has clearly had an entendre surgically removed.

Oh, wait! More sexual references without context. Then an completely incomprehensible bit of Amish emoting and a cat.

And Community has 13 more episodes to live. I just...life is majorly unjust.

I have been in scenarios where saying "Okay, but when you're standing here, where you're standing is white." will not get me beat up, but I was pretty much walking a fine line there. Because race is so much more subjective and less rigourously definable than, say, sex, I'm totally fascinated with what any of it feels like, but of course I will never know, and can't compare it to me, because I can't tell part of my psyche from the rest of it either.

Yeah, that makes sense (although it took me a couple times through, and I must disclaim that gender--note difference in terminology--is as fraught, albeit mostly for a smaller population). I will totally cop to white girl baggage, and am afraid that I am totally unequipped to comment on the representativeness of anyone's experience because I am regularly reminded that my perspectives are pretty damn unusual for people with my demographics.

All I know is that the other day on twitter when I bemoaned "white chocolate" as being gross, a number of my black (male) tweeps immediately let me know that that was their nickname for me.

I was flattered and honored, but now I can only think of myself as a waxy gross piece of indelible chemical tasting crap.

Hah! I agree about the actual substance, but now can only picture you as a secret DJ, coming to us on the radio with slow jams and love songs...and baseball...