IBAR

[cahn]

I haven't been ignoring this, and I've thought a good deal about it this week; but I don't feel very comfortable posting about it.



I grew up where race made a HUGE difference. It's hard for me now to figure out how much of it was my environment's culture, and how much of it was my parents' culture, both of which are... umm... distrustful of black people. I could tell you stories... I started to, and then I deleted them, because regardless of specific attitudes I love my family and I love the place I came from, and I can't... well, anyway. But let's just say that my own attitudes have been shaped by my childhood, and let's also say that I am not always proud of my attitudes. (I'm talking about visceral reactions to certain things here. I hope that in terms of more reasoned attitudes I'm better.)

Then I went away to college and thought I'd put all that behind me; even if I personally was messed up, nothing blatant happens in places with lots of international liberals, right? ...Then while I was at Caltech, many years later, a friend of mine, a brilliant chemistry grad student, told me that she had been asked if she was the janitor's wife.

So it is everywhere.

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[ase.livejournal.com]

Then while I was at Caltech, many years later, a friend of mine, a brilliant chemistry grad student, told me that she had been asked if she was the janitor's wife.

So it is everywhere.

This strikes home for me because the chem and bio departments at "my" university have many old white tenured profs, but also a lot of first generation immigrant grad students, or grad students who may plan to return home after getting their degree. (This is really marked in the chem department, which - feminist break - is overwhelmingly guys.) However, the cleaning staff tends to be african-american or some flavor of latino.

So it goes.