| in which i'm not white. |
[Apr. 18th, 2007|12:47 am] |
Work was less stressful than it was yesterday... but it was still pretty stressful. To make up for it, I had the bright idea of doing Rule 6 checks for every single Newbery Medal winner since the prize was instituted. Almost all of them were renewed, but the first and last within the period (the 1924 and 1964 winners) showed some promise. I'll see what I can do about following up with those.
When I got back, I split (from PDF), OCR'd and uploaded a book (sourced from Google Book Search), all in one single day. There was one image which Google Book Search failed to properly scan, but I can do that one by hand at some point; the book isn't particularly rare. I'm rather pleased with myself; this content-providing thing really isn't as hard as I'd thought.
Carin and I went out grocery shopping, where we picked up some discounted roses. They're not practical, but I suppose I can justify the occasional frivolity. And they do smell deliciously like the outdoors, and they'll be pretty for the next week or two hanging about the apartment.
On our way out of the supermarket, one of the clerks noticed that I had purchased a five-pound box of matzah, which is essentially crackers at fifty cents a pound now that Passover is done with. She said something to another clerk to the effect that I look Jewish. I took the time to explain that "Jewish" refers to an ethnicity, a culture and a religion, all of which may or may not overlap in a given individual. She asked me a few questions about religious practice, which I answered because I'm reasonably well-informed, not because I'm Jewish. (I know that the two big changes in Vatican II were (a) mass can be performed in the local language, and (b) we don't hate the Jews, but that doesn't make me Catholic.)
It felt unsettling to suddenly be a representative of my ethnic group--it's certainly unfamiliar. I suppose that's part of what it's like to be non-white, except it's all the damn time. I think the checkout girl was a bit ashamed that I noticed her remark about the huge brick of matzah--she repeated the "I'm not racist; I hate everyone equally" trope, and nobody says that if they're thinking straight.
I didn't feel threatened, and I can't point to anyone doing anything wrong, but the whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth.
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