03/25/07
When I was very young, I was fascinated by other peoples, such as Indians and Mongolians and the like, and read as much as I could about them. This led me into the strange problems associated with classification by race.
In a conversation with my uncle and cousins, one evening when I was about nine, I used the term "Mongoloid."
For my trouble I got a lecture from my uncle about tolerance. He thought I was talking about what nowadays we call people featuring Down Syndrome. I appreciated the lecture, though it also annoyed me to think that my uncle thought that I was a nasty name-caller. I was simply using the anthropological term (not in itself without problems or controversy) for the skeletal and facial features of many people who live in Asia.
I don't think my uncle understood that a 9-year-old could be interested in physical anthropology, and was actually fairly well read on the subject. He thought it more likely that I was speaking ill of disabled kids.
Funny thing was, it was he who demonstrated prejudice!
But no great matter. I never harbored ill will towards him, and was even rather happy that he felt compelled to lecture me on tolerance. Tolerance and good will seemed like a good idea to me even at nine.
I was beyond tolerance at that point, however: surrounded by white people, I found people of other color and other character fascinating. White people were, comparatively, boring.
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