A Long Way to Go

Never a dull moment at the Copy Center.

We had a man come in today to work on one of our Xerox machines, and he had some interesting things to say. He was working on the printer and I was putting some brochures throught he folding machine (one of the coolest things that you can do at the Copy Center). He asked me how in the world I could be wearing a jacket, and he was sweating. I told him that I thought that the work he was doing was a little more difficult than what I was doing.

• "I guess it's just my large, superior male mind..." At first I just laughed it off, thinking that he was just joking. But then when I turned back to what I was doing, I realized that he hadn't been joking, and I started to get a little angry. The way that women are viewed and talked about as inferior is a new arena of thought for me, and this is one of the first times that I've really gotten angry about a comment that someone made to me. But, as my criticism of this is new, I was able to let it go.

But then another wind of ignorance came blowing through.

• "Anthropology. That's an interesting subject.... Maybe you could explain to me why those people blow themselves up." I don't know much about Islam, but I tried to explain to him what I did know. So when I told him that I thought that it was really a small sect that believed that if they died a martyr they would automatically go to heaven, he proceeded to tell me that he didn't believe that. "It's a part of their culture." And when I explained that I had heard that most people didn't actually agree with it, he responded with "Well, those are the people you call 'secular Muslims.'" Really? I never knew...

Yet another wind of ignorance. He asked me how many languages I could speak, and I told him that I had taken Spanish in high school, one semester of Chinese...and that's when he stopped me. After talking about how hard Chinese must be, he asked another question:

• "Now, what is that language like? I mean, is it caveman-like?"

Wow. That is definitely NOT something that you say to an anthropology major...or to anyone who has any interest or love of culture at all. And, unfortunately, I don't think that his views are in the minority.

Yet another reminder that America has a long way to go. And for the first time in my life, I think I'm willing to stick around and be a part of helping us along.