Cultural Strangelove: or How to stop worrying bout your color and realise that you're 'tha bomb!
Color & Culture
Color or Culture
Does the fact that you have skin of a certain color automatically gain you entrance to the culture that is associated with that color?
Or is it necessary to live within a culture to truly belong?
Does color matter anymore in these times when we have all become underdog and oppressor? Hmmm? That's an awful lot of question there?
Maybe it's best to start with a story...
1992
Sydney, Australia
A young man (this young man) from New York stumbles off a Qantas trans-hemispheric jet after 36 hours of flying hell.
Filled with joy because he is about to be reunited with his Australian wife, from whom he has been separated for the past six months!
I rush across the melting tarmac, barely noticing the heat or the brightness of the sun.
*Incidentally the summer sun in Australia was & is bright enough to burn the retinas right out of your head!
Into the airport building, through the customs maze, present this, get that stamped and out into the airport proper.
Dear readers...please understand me!
I never judge anyone on the basis of race or color but... as I walked out into that airport i could not help but think...
"I have never seen so many Caucasians in one place in my life!"
An uninterrupted sea of white faces and I a small brown speck among them.
My Australian mates never understand why I would feel uneasy in that situation.
To most "Aussies" I represent the "American culture" which of course is true and how I've always wanted to be seen, but still...
As we travelled through the city to "Aunty Doe's" house which was quite a distance, over the bridge to the northern beaches and still no dark faces.
I felt really exposed, solitary, and very uneasy about those feelings.
Uneasy because from the moment I'd arrived it was like I was voted "queen for a day"! Everything was comin’ up roses!
Not one bad thing happened!
I had my wife back, the sun shone everyday, we were two seconds from the most beautiful beach & ocean I could imagine and "aunty Doe" was one truly switched on octogenarian, a constant source of positive stimulus!
All that and it still took me nearly two weeks before I ventured out onto the streets alone!
Coming soon. Part 2
Out onto Sidney's streets
Color & Culture
Color or Culture
Does the fact that you have skin of a certain color automatically gain you entrance to the culture that is associated with that color?
Or is it necessary to live within a culture to truly belong?
Does color matter anymore in these times when we have all become underdog and oppressor? Hmmm? That's an awful lot of question there?
Maybe it's best to start with a story...
1992
Sydney, Australia
A young man (this young man) from New York stumbles off a Qantas trans-hemispheric jet after 36 hours of flying hell.
Filled with joy because he is about to be reunited with his Australian wife, from whom he has been separated for the past six months!
I rush across the melting tarmac, barely noticing the heat or the brightness of the sun.
*Incidentally the summer sun in Australia was & is bright enough to burn the retinas right out of your head!
Into the airport building, through the customs maze, present this, get that stamped and out into the airport proper.
Dear readers...please understand me!
I never judge anyone on the basis of race or color but... as I walked out into that airport i could not help but think...
"I have never seen so many Caucasians in one place in my life!"
An uninterrupted sea of white faces and I a small brown speck among them.
My Australian mates never understand why I would feel uneasy in that situation.
To most "Aussies" I represent the "American culture" which of course is true and how I've always wanted to be seen, but still...
As we travelled through the city to "Aunty Doe's" house which was quite a distance, over the bridge to the northern beaches and still no dark faces.
I felt really exposed, solitary, and very uneasy about those feelings.
Uneasy because from the moment I'd arrived it was like I was voted "queen for a day"! Everything was comin’ up roses!
Not one bad thing happened!
I had my wife back, the sun shone everyday, we were two seconds from the most beautiful beach & ocean I could imagine and "aunty Doe" was one truly switched on octogenarian, a constant source of positive stimulus!
All that and it still took me nearly two weeks before I ventured out onto the streets alone!
Coming soon. Part 2
Out onto Sidney's streets