Richard Jernigan -> RE: Banned Books Week: September 24-30, 2017 (Sep. 29 2017 5:20:52)
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One tiptoes through a linguistic minefield these days. In my youth non-racist white people in Texas (there were some in my immediate family) used the "n-word" freely. They didn't know how offensive it was to black people. They had no black friends, as this was a near-impossibility in the South, and only a very brave or a very foolish black person would have brought it up to a white person. It could quite possibly have been physically dangerous. Once I learned of the weight of the word among black people, I avoided it scrupulously, and given the fraught state of relations between the races, I would have automatically substituted a synonym for any word that could have been misconstrued, such as "niggardly." But I still put my foot wrong from time to time these days, since sensitivities not only change, they seem to multiply. During the past year I told of my Japanese girl friend suggesting in the 1980s that I should buy my clothes at a very expensive store and drive a Mercedes. I explained to my girlfriend that in my capacity as consultant to aerospace engineers, it would have been offensive to flout my income. A young white woman asked, in a challenging tone, "Why is it important to mention the race of your girlfriend?" I explained that there was a bit of background. My girlfriend and I had discussed the Asian concept of "face." I learned that there was more to it than just an outward show of status, and sensitivity to being slighted. It also included assuming the responsibilities attendant to one's social status, as shown by status symbols like clothes and cars. I further explained that my situation differed from that of most Japanese men with a comfortable income. I did not have a set of younger men dependent upon me for guidance and powerful backing. The young white woman nodded, but still seemed to feel that she needed to take offense on behalf of Japanese women. In another incident I had made the casual acquaintance of young couple. He is an assistant professor, but is better known for other intellectual accomplishments. His wife is a strikingly beautiful young woman, who works for a tech start-up. During the past year, amid a company of a half dozen or so, the topic of Halloween costumes came up. I told of being at Norton Air Force base in California during the 1990s. People in California often wear fairly elaborate Halloween costumes to work. At Norton I was in line to be photographed for the badge that let me into secure areas. I noticed that almost all the civilians in the office were in costume, some pretty elaborate, but the service members were in their Air Force "Class A" blues. The young airman who took care of me was a handsome African American. He typed up the form with his back pretty much turned to me, then swiveled around in his chair, and smiled broadly, exposing a flashy set of fake Dracula teeth. As I cracked up, he snapped my badge photo. I wore that goofy looking badge around Norton AFB for a year. As I said, "African American" I noticed a look flash very briefly across the face of the young wife. She is fair skinned and wears her very curly dark hair tightly cropped. I met her a few times before it occurred to me that the strikingly beautiful cast of her delicate facial features might be seen to have a very slight African tinge. She speaks without any discernible accent, and is clearly very well educated and socially adept. With a sinking feeling, I realized I had put my foot in it. As a southerner I was accustomed to the subtle, humorously accomplished and unanswerable one-up stroke of an African American toward a white person. In telling I made it clear I thought the airman's stunt was virtuosic, inoffensive and funny. I had told the story to my African American boss at Kwajalein. He's a few years older than I am, from a small town in northern Alabama. He found it hilarious. Some of the older people in the group last year laughed at the story. They didn't notice the fleeting look it got from the young woman. She was decidedly cool toward me the next few times we met. Of course it was impossible for me to refer to the story without almost certainly making matters worse. Thinking it over I speculated that she might not even have been aware of the social context of the airman's subtle one-upmanship. I had admiringly recounted it. Maybe she simply took offense at what she saw as an un-called for mention of race. A couple of months ago in San Francisco I was with a group of younger people. Most of them worked at tech start-ups in the city. They were talking about a trip to Seattle, where the engineers they worked with were all dressed as lumberjacks. Three or four of the Californians were dressed as Steve Jobs. I said that when I lived in Palo Alto in the 1980s the standard fashion insult in the City was, "He looks like he orders his clothes from the L.L. Bean catalog." From their expressions, I wondered whether any of them knew what the L.L. Bean catalog was. (https://www.llbean.com) I went on to say that in the 1960s and early 1970s the standard men's fashion in Berkeley was boots, bell bottom Levis and embroidered Mexican shirts. One of the young men said, "Do you mean Cuban shirts?" I paused, and probably looked puzzled. He continued, "Maybe you should just say 'Latin American shirts.' Covers a broader area, more likely to hit the target." I had the presence of mind to pull out my iPhone and Google an image like this: The young man said, "I'm Mexican, but I never saw anything like that." I think he meant Mexican American, but I didn't say so. I answered, "I bought all of mine in the public market in Merida, Yucatan or in Oaxaca." RNJ
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