The Negative Voice
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2001-09-22 - 3:11 a.m.

Positive Stereotyping on the Playfields of Canton

I'm a racist. I didn't think I was, but it's true.

I realized this sad truth when I took Liralyn to the park on Thursday. She saw a little girl about her age and immediately ran over to play with her. As the two little ones began to figure out what they were going to do, I introduced myself to the newcomer's father. He had a name and accent that sounded Indian to me.

The girls had a great time playing together. Liralyn showed off her skills, and the other girl showed Liralyn how to hang from the bars. Liralyn wasn't at all sure about that. After they covered every inch of the climber and got bored with the swings, they ended up playing with the sand together.

I felt sort of awkward just sitting there in silence, so I began to try to think of conversational gambits. For some reason I was having trouble thinking of non-work-related topics. I took a moment to ponder that, and it hit me:

In my head, there's a basic assumption that all Indian men are computer programmers. I've met so many Indians in IT and so few outside the field that I just turned a pattern into a rule. That's a pretty sad level of mental laziness. Still, I hope it won't count against me too badly. Computer programming is a reasonably high-status job, after all. Racism ought to be less harmful if we automatically promote people up.

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