This post evolved from a comment left for Gentleman Savant (GS) in regards to his post “Children, Diversity, and The Stink-Eye.”
Before high school, I grew up in a much more diverse city and then moved to a city with an ethnic distribution probably pretty close to how it is where you live, GS. Almost nobody but whites and a few Hispanics. I remember inviting a friend from my old city to go with me to prom in my new city.
After a few dances, we sat down together for a soda and some M&Ms (or whatever snacks they had provided in the lounge area of the dance) and started talking.
Suddenly, looking genuinely concerned, she leaned closer to me and asked in a hushed voice “Brendan, why aren’t there any black people here?” Finding an opportunity to tease her with a harmless prank while simultaneously offering poignant social criticism (a winning combo!) I quickly replied, at a normal speaking volume, “Oh, they aren’t allowed to come to the dance.”
She was shocked, horrified, and repulsed by my nonchalance until I confessed the gag, explaining that the ethnic distribution of the city was pretty much opposite to what she and I were both used to.
Still, I’ve always felt a little bit nervous about it. Why hasn’t this city diversified in population a bit more? Honestly, there is just no LIFE in a mono-cultural city; no fun and no good food! I probably wont be satisfied until I can find a good local Malay restaurant and a Moroccan teahouse/hookah lounge called “Habibi’s”. And how about a Chinese restaurant that will dare to serve jellyfish or lamb noodle soup instead of lemon chicken and pork fried rice?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: chinese food, ethnic diversity, gag, habibi, high school, hookah, malay food, multi-cultural, prom, rassing
How do you seve jellyfish, anyway? In a soup? Over rice? Perhaps…
On toast?
I love this story. You’re quite the scallywag.
Err, serve, I mean. Not seve. Although I do know how to sieve a jellyfish. That’s easy.
Take 1 jellyfish.
Force through sieve.
Put on toast.
I imagine it’s rather difficult to tell a live jellyfish from a dead one, when it’s out of water. Put it through a sieve, though, and it’s pretty definitely dead.