The Other White Meat
We read a story today which contained the line "He shook hands with white men and black men, red and yellow men." I really don't understand why any recent text would say red or yellow that way, so I skipped it and said "and men of other different colors of skin," but it raised questions from some of my students. After class, one sweet little boy came up and asked me "what color am I? Am I black or white?" He is from Mexico, but I wanted to resist saying "Hispanic" and starting a discussion about that term, which I dislike anyway. So I named the color of his skin and then the color of my skin. Then he and a few students talked about how everyone's skin is a little bit different and it's only what inside that counts. But he was not satisfied. So he asked another question:
"Am I pork?"
"Excuse me?"
"Am I 100% pork?"
"Well, pork is pig meat and you are human meat!" :)
"Oh, but I'm the other white meat."