Delicious Irony

In my domestic violence training class last fall, we watched a video about cultural and ethnic diversity that showed groups of women talking about their experiences as women of color. In our followup exercise, we had to evaluate the potential needs of a theoretical client based on her race and ethnicity. A middle-aged woman named Suzanne, who is white, commented that she felt uncomfortable with making race-based assumptions about the client.

I got a ride home from her after class. She couldn't stop talking about how eye-opening the video was for her, and how she had learned so much about different people and cultures that she was only marginally aware of before, and how ashamed she was to realize how ignorant she's been her whole life.

At that point she was making a left turn when a cab cut her off. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I never argue with cabs. Most of the time those guys can't even speak English, and I certainly don't speak any Spanish."

(adapted from email, 9/16/2003)