30 January 2007

"Debbie or something"

I just wrote to the Westword food writer about my experience visiting an Indian restaurant he reviewed recently where the owner said to me, dripping with disdain, "You probably named her Debbie or something," and how despite the food being great I don't go there so much.

I feel the same way about returning to that grocery store way the hell down in Little India, in Artesia, in south L.A., where I've gone when visiting my mom. This stout fellow with thinning, greasy hair stopped me when I was with my daughter and said so where did you get her? "I adopted her from India, from Calcutta," I said, pronouncing it the Indian way. "Oh, so you bought her? How much she cost?" I had read about this question in our preparations for adopting a child, but I had never actually fielded it until then. Of course I just insisted that we adopted her and there were adoption fees. This fellow was not interested in the vagaries of nonprofits and international adoption laws, however; and I found I really didn't want to invest too much mental energy in someone who thought white people could just buy brown people and who wanted to know exactly how much buying a tiny brown person would cost.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm very confused by what you write. You start with travel in your backyard. Then switch to Indian Food and adoption of Indian Children. You start talking about buying of litlle brown people by big White People. Let me tell you I recent you calling Indian Brown People. In India there are several races. In Punjab (I am a US Citizen who was born in Punjab, India) the people are Aryan that is almost identical to the Caucaceans. Most Caucaceans. ost caucaceans are pale. Some are red. But most are pale. Punjabis are like pale caucaceans. In south the race is Dravidian. Very Black skinned. But they are not like nigros. No thick lips or kinky hair. That is how it is. But what it has to do with Indian Foods. I hope if this article is being red by Restaurant owners in USA they would rent Pixels. They are only 1 cent per pixel per month. Minimum Pixels 250 Pixels. 25 pixelsx10 pixels. This morning GMA was talking about slavery. Little Girls are abducted by nigro pimpsv and turned into slave prostitutes who are too afraid to run away. GMA was airing the story of one such girl who was enslaved by I believe 1 negro for four years. The girl is now afraid. You can't call a black a negro. That is racism. But blacks act like low down negros that deprive the parents of the company of their children. I hope you are not a negro who would buy a little Brown child to turn into prostitute. What else I can say. You pulled a cord in me that has unnerved me.