Racial Dialogues Part 2

For part 1, see this story... http://rainstormbrainstorms.blogspot.com/2011/02/hilarity.html

My last period boys' class was lined up outside my room today, when the following conversation took place:

Jorge: "Ms. S, he just called me a *insert racial slur for people of Mexican descent here*!!!"

Me: "WHO just called you that??"

Jorge: "Jesus."

Me: "Jorge... why are you offended by another Mexican calling you a name that makes fun of Mexican people? Just ignore him... that's the stupidest attempt at an insult I've ever heard. If he thinks he's mocking you, then he's actually slurring himself too."

Jorge: "But he called me a *racial slur*!!"

Me: "Jorge... that's like me making fun of Cory [the white kid at the front of the line] for being so white. How can I call him pale when we have the same color of skin? Isn't that silly?"

Jorge and other kids in line: "Haha, yeah, Cory, you're so white! You're white like a saltine cracker [bizarre racial term of affection for the white kids at our school, weirdly enough]."

Cory: "Nah man... I'm white like... SOUR CREAM!"

A few minutes later, Jorge asked me why my cheeks get pink when I laugh (see Racial Dialogues Part 1). I explained that I didn't really know why, but my cheeks frequently turned pink when I laughed, was angry, got nervous, or exercised.

Cory piped up: "Yeah... it happens to all of our kind."

That kid is fun-ny.

I also had a 30 minute conversation after school with one of my boys from Cuba about his "best childhood a boy could ever have" [his own words] in the Cuban countryside where he raised messenger pigeons and hunted birds with a rented-by-the-day BB gun. He moved to America 2 years ago after his dad, who was working in the States, got his Cuban passport permanently revoked for angering the Cuban government.

While we were talking, he was working on some makeup assignments. I explained that he needed to read an article in this science magazine and write a summary about it. He groaned... "Oh Ms. S!! My two least favorite things in the world... READING and WRITING."

Poor Yadiel.