Same here. The beauty of different races has always intrigued us. We had a copy of Leontyne Price's recording of Aida (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000041RW/102-2036410-1102553?v=glance) in the house, and we were very aware that our little black friends at dancing school were "Negroes like Leontyne Price". Some flowers are red, some are white, some people are white, and we, being Indian, were red.
Being Indian is part of our who-we-are in the earth world. We were always intensely aware of it, even though Indians had minimal visibility in 1950s Illinois. We won't disparage Indians as team mascots as long as they're portrayed with distinction and respect, because we grew up with the Fighting Illini (http://www.coasttocoasttickets.com/images/ncaab_illinoisfightingillini.jpg) and there was an Indian on the test pattern on TV (http://www.moderntv.com/modtvweb/special/freegif-bw1.htm) and we were proud -- that was our visibility*, even though we knew the actual Illini weren't really like that.
So yeah, race wasn't puzzling to us. Fighting between the races was, though.
-- *Well, that and Tonto being smarter than the Lone Ranger. Heh.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-04-16 04:57 am (UTC)Being Indian is part of our who-we-are in the earth world. We were always intensely aware of it, even though Indians had minimal visibility in 1950s Illinois. We won't disparage Indians as team mascots as long as they're portrayed with distinction and respect, because we grew up with the Fighting Illini (http://www.coasttocoasttickets.com/images/ncaab_illinoisfightingillini.jpg) and there was an Indian on the test pattern on TV (http://www.moderntv.com/modtvweb/special/freegif-bw1.htm) and we were proud -- that was our visibility*, even though we knew the actual Illini weren't really like that.
So yeah, race wasn't puzzling to us. Fighting between the races was, though.
--
*Well, that and Tonto being smarter than the Lone Ranger. Heh.