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jdmkleini was speaking with a colleague the other day. She is someone i would really like to get to know better. She has a Phd in physical therapy. Her specialty is shoulder therapy. She asked me to read her dissertation and see what kinds of topics i might come up with for further publication. i learned a lot from reading the dis, we had a good yak about some of my ideas, and maybe something will come from them.
That isn't what interests me about her. She considers herself Indian, but she lived all her life in South Africa. She lived in South Africa from a very young age, or maybe even was born there. That's not even what interests me. She told me when she was with a friend of hers when she was younger. She went to a convention and she and her friend were sitting at a table when an American man sat down with them and began to talk with them.
He didn't want 'anything'. He was at the convention and so were they and he wanted to yak with them about what was going on. And she was nervous.. She is muslim, but she wondered what was wrong with the 'white' man wanting to talk to an Indian muslim woman. And then she wanted to know what was wrong with her, that a white man would find her interesting to talk to.
All of my life i have been different. i have been the dreamer in a family of realists. i am the adventurer in a family of stay-at-homes. i am the reader in a house full of watchers. i got the overdose of intelligence, the others got some talent thrown into their mix. But of all the things i have been i have never been so insecure of my place in the society that i wondered what was wrong with me that a man would want to talk to me.
i live in a foreign country. In this country i am a minority in many ways. i am a single woman. i am a working woman. i am a woman with a high level of education. All of these things are oddities in this culture. Here and in Taiwan, i have never worried about how i would be perceived as regards the color of my skin. No one, anyplace i have ever been has looked at me sideways because of the color of my skin.
i have received prejudice for many things, but never for the color of my skin. She has always felt inferior because of this. Not felt inferior, exactly, but treated as an inferior because of it. She is an intelligent woman. She is an excellent teacher. She is a devout muslim woman. She is a good mother, and wife. And yet, because of the color of her skin, she is treated badly in many places. She is treated badly in the stores, by the philippine workers, she is treated badly in the school by the assinine male students who do whatever they can to intimidate females. She is snubbed by other indians, both men and women. It is a crazy world that allows this kind of thing to happen to such a wonderful person.
i am amazed that she is such a wonderful person after having grown up in this kind of an atmosphere. i am glad she considers me a friend.
That isn't what interests me about her. She considers herself Indian, but she lived all her life in South Africa. She lived in South Africa from a very young age, or maybe even was born there. That's not even what interests me. She told me when she was with a friend of hers when she was younger. She went to a convention and she and her friend were sitting at a table when an American man sat down with them and began to talk with them.
He didn't want 'anything'. He was at the convention and so were they and he wanted to yak with them about what was going on. And she was nervous.. She is muslim, but she wondered what was wrong with the 'white' man wanting to talk to an Indian muslim woman. And then she wanted to know what was wrong with her, that a white man would find her interesting to talk to.
All of my life i have been different. i have been the dreamer in a family of realists. i am the adventurer in a family of stay-at-homes. i am the reader in a house full of watchers. i got the overdose of intelligence, the others got some talent thrown into their mix. But of all the things i have been i have never been so insecure of my place in the society that i wondered what was wrong with me that a man would want to talk to me.
i live in a foreign country. In this country i am a minority in many ways. i am a single woman. i am a working woman. i am a woman with a high level of education. All of these things are oddities in this culture. Here and in Taiwan, i have never worried about how i would be perceived as regards the color of my skin. No one, anyplace i have ever been has looked at me sideways because of the color of my skin.
i have received prejudice for many things, but never for the color of my skin. She has always felt inferior because of this. Not felt inferior, exactly, but treated as an inferior because of it. She is an intelligent woman. She is an excellent teacher. She is a devout muslim woman. She is a good mother, and wife. And yet, because of the color of her skin, she is treated badly in many places. She is treated badly in the stores, by the philippine workers, she is treated badly in the school by the assinine male students who do whatever they can to intimidate females. She is snubbed by other indians, both men and women. It is a crazy world that allows this kind of thing to happen to such a wonderful person.
i am amazed that she is such a wonderful person after having grown up in this kind of an atmosphere. i am glad she considers me a friend.
