the state of the world...

I had an interesting experience just now at work. I was helping out a colleague with a problem when a manager walked by and decided to throw in his two cents (more like 1 cent because he has no cents!!! see that? See that play on words? Sense, cents? Get it? Yeahhhhhhhh.....) So basically he is new to the company and though he technically outranks us, when it comes to this job he doesn't know his ass from his elbow (I love that expression!). As he is trying to "help" we are all just looking at him as if lobsters were crawling out of his ears. Finally, he states with authority, "Go ask the Chinese guy. You know?? The little Chinese guy?" And then he proceeded to butcher his name.

Another colleague gets up at this point and is astounded at his stupidity. "He isn't Chinese, he is Vietnamese. Vietnamese!" Its almost as if the manager doesn't hear him.

"So yeah, email the Chinese guy." I look at him and bordering on rude I once again echo that he is not Chinese and his ethnic origins is not the sole way to define him and if that is how he is going to go about it, to at least get his background right! It bothered me quite a bit!

Now I am not huge on being policitcally correct. It took me a while to say firefighter rather than fireman. I still say mailman, because that's what I have delivering my mail. Saying mailcarrier seems demeaning, as if that is the only thing the can do. They are not simply beasts of burden! But I do think that we should be more aware of our world and the diversity that is found in it. Thankfully we have progressed past the point where jobs, wealth, the abillity to vote, and even your future was determined by your sex or the color of your skin (we are moving past that because unfortunately we have yet to overcome all the remaining hurdles.) I used to think that people were being overly sensitive and that we should get over it. However I also think that we have progressed and we have allowed ourselves to come to terms with the hurts and the mistakes of the past.

So I will close with another anecdote. I was at a poetry slam (nothing like tea and crumpets poetry reading) and I was talking to this poet and the conversation came to the fact that I had just become a father. We talked about the difficulties and the joys of raising a child and then he asked me, "Do you have a partner to share the job with you?" I smiled on the inside realizing that in today's world there are so many options to a family's structure. Having a child does not automatically make your married. I could have adopted, I could be divorced, I could be gay... so many options!

I found it fun.