I was watching CNN, and there was a segment about Oprah’s interview with Jay Leno. I looked at Oprah and thought, “Wow, I wonder where she got such a great tan.” It took my brain a few seconds to remember that Oprah is black.
Have I actually achieved some sort of post-racial view of the world . . . or more likely, was this a senior moment?
Probably neither. This kind of thing happens to the best of us. I had this conversation with my SO about 2 months ago.
pbbth: Hey, look at this picture! It is labeled Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong but Neil Armstrong isn’t in it. How weird is that?
SO: Yes he is. That’s him right there. points
pbbth: No, it isn’t. Neil Armstrong is black.
SO: What the hell are you talking about?
pbbth: Wait, isn’t Neil Armstrong black?
SO: Um, no. Why would you think he is black?
pbbth: thinks for a moment You know, I’ve never seen a picture of him before outside of the “spacesuit on the moon moment” and I think my mind just decided he was black for some reason when I was a kid.
SO: You’re weird, you know that right?
Did you also think Neil Armstrong played trumpet?
No, I knew there was a Louis Armstrong and a Neil Armstrong and that they were two different people. I just thought they were both black.
When I was little, I thought Thomas Jefferson was black, probably because of The Jeffersons.
Boy was I wrong!
The Jeffersons had an episode about that.
Its the Colbert effect.
I had the same sort of reaction when the current mayor of Cleveland was elected. I had no idea he was black until after the election and people started referring to him as a Black mayor…
Years ago my former husband and I went to a party at the home of friends, who were black. We were the only white people who were there. He went off with the guys and I hung out with the girls. An hour later he walked in the room and the first thing I thought was, “Dear God he looks so sickly WHITE!”
Sort of the same thing?
In all fairness, his parents were racially mixed. The only way I knew for sure was that he had grown up in a very Black neighborhood. Whichever of his parents was white, must have been the only one within a couple of miles.
I thought he did, that’s Louis Armstrong, he up here, on the moon, laughing down, at us.