How come every time I get TU this comes up again? Sigh... More about me than you want to know below the fold.
I am a racist. I am. I can't help myself.
You want a quick picture of my life? Gilmore Girls.
I'm 1/4 Danish, son of the son of an immigrant (actually quite proud of that), and the rest a melange of English and German. Let's just say I have to wear a lot of sunscreen.
My town owes it's existence to being a place where the better people could get away from them. Used ta was that meant Portuguese and Italians, now, you know what it means.
C'mon, I know you do.
Property value. Education. No looters.
In Star's Hollow we have one Korean family and you'll be happy to know that the Hornbecks have always been good friends with the Kims, even after we left the church. My sister's lawyer and second best friend is a Kim, my buddy Lane recently left for Florida but we hadn't really been close since we graduated elementary school.
But that's OK, I work with this guy from Martinique (well, some place where they have this outrageous french accent). In fact I can think of 6 guys, maybe 7 or 8 if you count the accent, that I've helped to start their own inns.
C'mon, you know what I mean.
Heck, whenever we have a fair or a carnival I'm always the first one at the Italian sausage booth, and that Emeril always cracks me up with his choriso recipes.
You know what I mean?
When I was a young ek I met this guy who spoke Portuguese at summer camp (not a Kim, they speak Korean). Our relationship was so close that my mom Emily hired his mom to clean. She needed the work and we needed the help. He visited me (I didn't have many friends and it's not really hard to understand why) and then I visited him, several times actually- he was a big Jackson 5 fan, way before it was cool.
One visit we went out to play stick ball with his friends. I am hopeless at all athletic things and this was no different. About the 18th inning I was up again and with 2 strikes against me I said-
"There has never been a good Portuguese speaking pitcher in Major League Baseball and there never will be!"
Crickets.
Then I struck out. As I deserved to.
Needless to say that was my last visit. Soon his mom found a better job and we drifted apart.
I imagine that he and his friends are happy to have forgotten me (at least I hope so), but that one moment scarred me for life. I looked in my soul and I did not like what I saw.
I am a racist. I am. I can't help myself.
And if I say "Grr..." or "Umm..." in the future I think you should know-
It takes one to know one.