permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

Maybe this isn't Permaculture... but to me this is a very interesting 
conversation, since I spent about 25 years of my life in a very multicultural 
environment (Washington DC). If you can stand it, I have a couple more 
thoughts.

In a city where there is no real majority, and well over half the people are 
from somewhere else, you do think a lot about cultural sensitivity. Not in 
theory, but as in "how do I get along comfortably with the people I'm with".

Asking where someone ewas from was a conversation opener. Whether they were 
from Cameroon or from Thailand or from Iran, it gave them the chance to tell 
you a little about themselves. I found people who were offended by the 
question 
to be rare indeed, and left them alone if they seemed uncomfortable.

Generally speaking, I found all the white Americans to be bending over 
backward to be culturally sensitive, liberal, touchy-feely kinds of people. 
Naturally, a lot of the locally grown black folks took shameless advantage of 
them. 
They had a trusting nature, were innocent of the guiles that were second 
nature 
to many people who grew up on the hard streets, and always blamed themselves 
first before blaming others. They were suckers, and it always took them a 
couple of years to toughen up and to wise up to the reality of life in the 
big 
world outside.

Just about the only unabashed racists I ever found, in fact, were black. This 
slice of black society defined the issue in such a way as to only include 
institutional racism... of which they were innocent. So they felt free to 
form 
their own opinions of the Chinese, the Koreans, the Jews, the Africans, the 
West 
Indians and every other minority they found in their community. All were very 
bad people, as an unfortunate circumstance of their birth. None could be 
trusted, and all they wanted was to take your money.

Coincidentally, these minorities were very nearly the only people who owned 
stores in the ghetto. So most people only interacted with them when they were 
in the act of handing over their money to them.

These experiences were what prompted me to respond to the notion that racism 
was a condition that could only be found in white Anglos. I lived and worked 
in a town that was upside down in that respect.

Sorry if I've wandered too far from the soil here. :)

Michael