From today. I can post the stuff in between sometime, but I think this one stands on its own.
Boarding the plane tomorrow evening.
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Cultural Differences in Nigeria.
(Probably should be subtitled, "Did You Have To Go There"?)
I'm mostly kind of oblivious to racial differences. I don't know if that's because I'm just oblivious in general or because of a concerted attitudinal effort on my part in the '60s and '70s to remove visual factors from character evaluation. Probably just oblivious in general.
Example: It doesn't stop me from asking my dear friend [name] advice on taking the gang to a Korean barbecue, but it does stop me from considering her my ethnic Korean friend. She's simply a friend, and an excellent and hilarious one.
And here I am in Nigeria. I haven't really noticed me being in a marked minority here, any more than I thought of myself as minority in Japan or Korea or Mexico (or, for that matter, Bethel). You go to another culture, and you expect to be outnumbered by the people of that culture, right? Which is half the fun of going - it's a different experience.
But every now and then there are reminders.
Walking through a seaside restaurant, out on a jetty, back, along a beach, and then seeing a white girl and thinking, "Oh, she stands out," and your self-awareness kicks in and says, "So do YOU, you moron."
Or you're talking with your new Nigerian friend about food differences, and he says, "You whites," etc., and you know that what he really means (maybe) is "you Westerners," but still, it's jarring.
Or a little more sobering, as you see villagers coming in from their Real Thing Third World lives, after being taken from their unpowered, unplumbed town by speedboat, ferried over rough roads by local bus or taxi, and having their first airplane ride to the Big City, and you think how unsettling it must be for them now with bright lights around, a camera shoved in their face, and white people sitting all around and asking them questions.
Or kind of depressing, when a lady from one of those villages passes you in the kitchen, does a little curtsy, and her eyes are on you, cautious and wary. She's not that way with the other folks in the room. That was painful, especially when considering the historical foundation that's brought about that little legacy behavior.
It's a good lesson in the realities of egalitariansm. So sorry, Tommy, not everyone is created equal - BUT they have a right to BE equal in our human consideration of one another. You believe that, you practice it, and in your own subtle way (like with this post), you preach it, and over a lifetime, you hope it becomes second nature to you.
And then despite all that, there's the backdrop of human nature that every now and then puts a spitball on your temple. As a (mostly) white American male, descended from (mostly) white Western Europeans, who has the luxury of determinedly not considering race and ethnicity, it's a good peek at the perspectives of others, right down to people in my own Pleasantville-ish home town. I don't know that it's an enjoyable lesson, but it's a valuable one that, I hope, gets more rare and less relevant as the years, decades, and centuries march on for our species.
It's been a good experience here. I'm glad I came.
Thank you very much, Sir.
Get home safe and sound.