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3.28.2005



but my clothes remain wrinkled

call it bitter arrogance, but i did once say to a friend that only people of color living in america can experience true irony like no other white person can. before you start throwing sharpened pencils at my "reverse racist" self (i use quotes because i don't believe in reverse racism, especially for a person of color--aim! throw!), "read" me out.

what could be more ironic than seeing white miss usa contestants prancing around onstage in "chief feathers" in a society where the dominating white culture spent generations trying to obliterate your people. but hey! we may not have successfully killed off all native americans, but now we can sell trail of tears jewelry at the phoenix airport. there's nothing more lovely than genocide as a fashion accessory.

everyone... i mean EVERYONE's so into yoga these days, but not too many white americans are losing sleep over all the desi people that got carted off to INS detention centers after 9-11. i guess as long as desi people leave the en vogue kurtas for this spring's fashion season...

then there's my work situation. we recently moved our offices to the LA "artist's district," where we share office space with this guy (really nice guy... but he hasn't got a clue) who manufactures and sells bourgeois breath mints with "rainforest" something or other written on the packaging. he recently came back from a trade show with this orientalist furniture. my officemate asked him what the furniture was for:

"oh... it was for our display. we had this asian theme going. it was really neat."

my friend just replied with a flat, "oh." i had to bite my lip from laughing my ass off. i guess it's already an odd mix when you mix for-profit new age industry with two social justice organizations run by people of color and throw them together in the same office space.

am i even using the term "irony" appropriately, here? i'm too lazy to look it up. aw, hell. quoting alanis morrissette (i never thought i'd ever quote her trite lyrics), "isn't it ironic, doncha think?" how 'bout getting off of these antibiotics?

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