Remembering Memphis

On this day, Martin Luther King was shot to death just outside his hotel in Memphis Tennessee. The more things change, the more they stay the same. There is still rampant racism; most is just underground or institutionalized in far more insidious ways. By some accounts, the ‘whites’ will be in the minority by 2025. Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the American population.

‘Whites’ is quite a bit of a misnomer. I’m not sure where the pink-skinned variety of the species got that name.

I had a lot of fun when I entered school. They asked me my race, and I answered, “Usually the mile.”

“No, we mean you’re ancestry.”

I replied, “Well, I, since as a species, we originated somewhere in Africa. I suppose you could call me African American.”

“No, a little more recent than that.” She replied.

“Well, both parents were born in Ohio. So, I’d be a Native American.”

“Mr. Williams, please.”

“What can I say?”

Smiling she said, “We’re going to go with ‘Caucasian’ okay?”

I pretended to get a little upset, “No. I’m one-quarter Welsh, and the rest is a German-Irish mix, I have no Russian blood in me.”

She erased the spot slowly; “Welsh, now you’re just making these things up." looking up, with no trace of humor, she then said, "Where is this ‘Welshland?’ supposed to be?”

“You’re kidding me, right?” I knew college had been easing up on it’s standards, but there’s a lot of foreign students that go here. “Wales is a little country west of England, and south of Ireland”

She was a bit put out by that time, so she relented, “Well then what should we put down?”

“You could cross out the ‘Pacific’ and call me European Islander.”

“We can’t do that” she frowned, the machine reader would pick it up as an error.”

“Oh,” I said, there were only a few other options on the form, and I was getting tired of annoying the pretty lady in the smartly dressed suit.

“How about we just put down ‘Other’” she said, exhausted.

Years later, I worked a temporary assignment for an educational institution and realized that the only people who pick “Other” are ‘whites’, people of mixed-heritage simply select all that apply.

Funny thing is, I had a few teachers from places like Cape Town, and Johannesburg; and they give me this funny look whenever I point out that they are the only real African Americans in school