Small Talk

Hey Tamika,

Remember "back in the day" when it seemed like every time a white person wanted to talk to you they started by talking about the latest book they read by a black person. If they hadn't read a book by a black person they'd bring up the latest popular (ie: Denzel Washington or Will Smith) movie? If you hadn't seen it they'd look at you like you were some kind of inauthentic black person, or...crazy.

It seems like just yesterday my friend Vishal was saying that random people keep wanting to talk to him about Slumdog Millionaire, Kate and Janet say every time they hold hands in public someone taps them on the shoulder and to tell them that they voted against proposition 8, and Juan Carlos says that he had gotten plum sick of hearing about Bill Richardson. I agree, if I heard one more person tell me "aren't you proud of Obama? and all that your people have achieved?" I was going to go postal.

But now, in our post-racism world, people just talk to each other. Wow, it's like a breath of fresh air- they just say hello and ask about work, the weather, or the latest news or sports. It's not so much that people are color blind- I feel very comfortable bringing up race, I mean- they can see that I'm black. It's no secret, but now I get to bring it up on my terms, in my own way. People don't think that the only thing there is to talk about is the latest shallow association they have with people who look like me.

Or do they?