The Whitest Christmas...

Although I obviously appear of the Caucasian persuasion, I am actually of Hispanic descent. This always has created a conflict with in me as I try to hold on to what I do know of my culture and yet adhere to the culture that I am most familiar with, which is less of a culture and more of a lifestyle devoid of culture but instead held together by a strict set of principles and policy. But that’s America for you… So I’ve never felt out of place among a group of Caucasian people and I’ve never really felt out of place among a group of Mexican people, though most of the time I clearly look different than most of my Mexican counter parts. I do have blue eyes and that really doesn’t help, but for the most part I am surrounded by people who happen to be Mexican, such as my family and friends. So in short, I’ve never been in a situation where I felt out of place because of who I was ethnically. Most of my friends have often talked about experiences where they were the only person who was clearly of an ethnic background (due to their darker skin tone) and how they felt so out of place and what not but not me. Until now, this last Saturday I accompanied a close friend of mine, lets call her Sandy, I went with Sandy to a small “White Elephant” party that was generally going to consist of her co-workers from a local law firm.
Sandy had often talked about the tense atmosphere that existed at her place of employment due to political differences and very limited minority representation. Sandy is Mexican by the by. I never really had understood her situation, until I stepped into the exceptionally polished home of her mousy coworker and viewed the Stepford like collection of women that sat upon the newly furnished Ethan Allen couches that filled her coworkers home. I was honestly floored by these women who each represented a sort of Victorian age where the women sat around stitching images of kittens into clothes and babbling about the wonderful selection goodies they’d each brought for the occasion. Don’t get me wrong they did seem for the most part like nice people and like every other party in which coworkers all gather together, there was the person who drank to much, the exceptionally outspoken, almost crude person, the quite person who seems nice enough but suspicious all at the same time and the darling host who you love to hate.
My point is that I for the first time felt what many of my friends and family felt, out of place. Even though I looked like I could more or less be white it was like these women were exceptionally white, super white if you will and that I am not and neither is Sandy.
At the end of the evening I had a fully stomach and a smile on my face but it still bugged me that of Sandy’s coworkers she was the only one who was clearly of ethnic decent. Yes, we can argue that everyone has some sort of ethnic background, but I guess I’m generally referring to people of color, browns, blacks, caramels and the likes. This was a room of lawyers for the most part, office assistants and paralegals and I’m proud to see women in general in such highly esteemed positions but perhaps its not enough for just one particular type of women to have risen to such heights. Maybe this is just the Women’s Studies that I’ve been reviewing but how is it that in one office out of what appears to be about 20 women, only one of them is clearly of ethnic decent, in the terms that I speak of, and only one other appears to have some sort of ethnic hint to her but that’s about it. I suppose I could go on an talk about the serious issues in poverty among ethnic families and effects this has on education and lifestyle but I shall not bore you with this, not just yet anyways… what do think… ?