From: m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K. Dharmasena)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Re: Black or White
Date: 1 Sep 92 22:47:22 GMT


rudis+@cs.cmu.edu (Rujith S deSilva) writes:
> In article <1992Aug28.085714.16774@rdg.dec.com> elan@rdg.dec.com writes:
> >In article <5130@arccs1.fed.FRB.GOV>, m1pkd00@fed.frb.gov (Prasad K.
> >Dharmasena) writes:

> >|> I've heard at numerous occasions a lot of Sri Lankans in the U.S. say
> >|> things like "Is he/she American or black?"

> >You hit the nail on the head!!!

> Gotta agree.  A person can be both black and a U.S. citizen [*].

> >It's the same here in Britain. "Is he/she English or Asian?"...

> I don't think this is quite the same.  A person cannot be both English and
> Asian, so it's a valid question.

You are going off on a tangent on a minor technicality here.  What
Elangco meant when he said "Asian" was that they are Asian by ethnicity
(or to be more precise, "ethnic classification") and English by nationality.
Am I right?  And I meant the same thing when I said "Black."  Their race 
is Black and nationality is American (or to be more technical "United 
Statesian.")

To repeat myself from my last post, for some folks "American" is
synonymous with White.  Actually, some Sri Lankan (or Desi) folks 
are so warped in their thinking that they think *they* are *almost*
white, the minute they get here.  This issue was VERY briefly touched 
in the recent, much raved about movie, "Mississippi Masala."  To 
paraphrase from Denzil Washington's character "when you folks come 
here, ya-all think you are white.  But what you don't know is that 
you are only a few shades away from what right here [pointing to his 
skin]"  Our Desi (South Asian) community, admittedly, thinks that being 
white or fair skinned is better than being a dark skinned person.  
Incidentally, the movie had a golden opportunity to explore this avenue, 
but instead, the producers/directors decided to take cheap shots at 
the FOB Desi community by poking fun at with inside jokes and thereby 
confirming to the stereotype.

This "white/fair is better" notion comes from the way we are brought
up in Sri Lanka.  Care to guess how many dark skinned Sri Lankans have
ID cards that say "Fair" as their complexion?  I'd guess, A LOT.  Isn't
it rather weird (stupid?) for people in a non-white country to hail
white as somehow being better?  Sure, we can start placing the blame 
with the European colonists, but isn't a few generations enough to 
straighten things out for ourselves?  (guess not)

I'm not trying to be Mr. Perfect or Mr. Politically Correct or
something like that.  It's just that some of these things really
do stand out the minute you change you angle of view a tiny bit.  I
was just wondering if others find these things equally annoying. On
the other hand, some of us try to go beyond all these discriminatory
racial and color barriers and call *all* the girls "heeere, chickie!!
chickie!!!" and wonder why they don't come.  (Okay, okay, calm down 
you card carrying feminist types; it's only a joke.  Put that baseball
bat away.  Down boy... <ouch>, I said, down.)


> What's important is why you want the
> information, and what you do with it.

Usually, questions like that are not really questions, but statements.
My typical answer is a grunt and a good profanity under the breath.

> when some government official suggested a test for former West Indians who ha
> become British subjects, viz., which side they would support in a British-Wes
> Indian Test Cricket Match.  Anyone remember this?  Who was the official?

Oh well, I guess this official hasn't seen all the die hard, fanatic
Boston Celtic supporters who's been living in Los Angeles for 10-15
years.  Isn't it nice to see our officials wrestling todays pressing
problems?

> [*] America includes Canada, U.S.A., Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, etc.  Why
> should `American' refer to a resident of only one of the countries in America

Yes, technically, people of United States (of America) are supposed
to be called "United Statesians."  But most of us are either too lazy
or too screwed up to even attempt to pronounce that and so a long time
ago (in a far away galaxy) they settled on the term "American" to 
designate people of United States.  Some things are not always rational 
and logical and blah and blah.  They just are!  There surely isn't any
confusion as to if they mean Mexican or United Statesian when someone
says "them damn Americans," or "disgusting Americanisms."


prasad
++ Most men practice equality like a little boy practicing on the piano, 
   one hour a day and then forget all about it! ++
--
Prasad Dharmasena      Internet: <pkd@fed.FRB.GOV>     UUCP: <uunet!fed!pkd>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka