The Inner Archie

The community where I live has been, over the years until recently, mostly "white."

(I like to say -- this state is so homogeneous, not only is everybody white, everybody's blonde...!)

Then we began to get immigrant workers coming in to work in certain industries: Hispanic people, and Asian people -- Karen and Maung, etc.

Up on the bulletin boards at work we have a sheet announcing a two-day-long Community Cultural Fair taking place next month.

Programs include, among others, "From Burma to Thailand to U.S."; "Hispanic Cultural Panel"; "Refugees in our community"; "Get to Know Your Biases."

I love that last one.
Not laughing at it, or putting it down -- it's a great idea and I'm sure it will have excellent positive influence.

I just have to smile (OK--laugh) when I think of "Get to Know Your Biases."

"Ah, yes -- may we now get in touch with our inner Archie Bunker!"

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Regarding that program title, a man I work with who's from Puerto Rico said, when it comes to bias, "That goes both ways."

"What do you mean?"

He said, "When I was at the agency signing up to come over here to work, I thought everyone here was Amish."

????????????????????????????????!!!!

He said the agency person told him people here were very conservative, didn't drink, etc., etc. Somehow, in his mind, or in the agency's explanation, that became -- the people there are Amish.

Hmmm. O-kay.
(To my knowledge, we don't have any Amish people in our state, or any "dry" towns.)

That's the "Information Age" for ya.

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