Um, okay
Middle-aged white woman to older Asian woman sitting next to her: Were you in the camps?
I want to apologize to you.
I am so embarrassed by what my country did to your people.
Posted on September 26, 2011, in wtf. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Wow – so close, yet so far. She lost it first with the violation of privacy (“Please, tell me about a time in your life that was potentially very difficult and traumatic, because I am entitled to know…”), and then with the pronouns (“my” country….”your people”.) Good intentions gone bad….
Yeah, the first thing I thought was Why the hell would you ask that question in the first place?
The woman answered her very politely, and then I thought about Helen Zia talking about how we have to stop being so fucking polite.