The Secret Language of White People
Eddie Murphy once did a skit in Saturday Night Live where he dressed as a white man. Everywhere he goes, people treat him like a king. He gets on the bus, and when the last black person gets off the bus and the passengers are all white, everyone breaks out into a spontaneous, whites-only party.

That's funny stuff, but it's not too far from the truth, at least not that I've seen in my life as a pale pasty white girl. There is a hidden language of white people that they don't use when other minorities are around. Usually, it's not overt racism, but little things like assuming that of the 2 men who towed Andrea's car, it was the black ("colored," the woman actually said to me) man who screwed it up. Using her own secret language of white people I said no, it was the "skeevy lookin' white guy."

But what is it about being white and around other white people that makes people think it's okay to single out the minority person as the wrongdoer, or to talk about "chinks" in MY HOME (which I share with an Asian person), or tell me an unfunny joke about some non-white ethnic group?

It's not the kind of bond that I'm looking for with people. Can't we start somewhere less obvious (and more interesting) than the color of our skin?