SO.... I'd finished my last show today and was feeling like I'd done a pretty good job. There was a black couple in the audience, the female half of which I could see smiling through the whole show. I found myself trying not to play just to her or her companion. I duz try to spread my brilliance throughout the crowd (as minimal as my brilliance and the crowd tend to be).
Anyway, I noticed her going into the gift shop on my way out. I finally gave in to the lusty urge to be recognized, so I headed into the store.
As I walked around avoiding eye contact with the young lady (because you just can't be obvious about these things), I noticed an Asian (I believe Chinese, but I couldn't quite tell the language) lady walking around with her child. The little girl stood out to me because she was wearing a dashiki. I saw them again later with the rest of the family. The girl had a brother near her age that was wearing matching dashiki. Perhaps I'm unique here, but there's something about two small Chinese children in dashiki's that I find terribly intriguing. I wondered how they came to have them - if the kids chose them, the parents chose them (they were, after all coordinated). The thing I wondered most about them was if they saw the shirts as being just nice pieces of clothing or if they were a particular signifier of Afro-centered culture - the way I look at them. It was one of those times where the junior sociologist in me wanted to interview the mother. I was fairly tempted to go and ask the mother where she'd gotten the dashikis. Of course, the real question that I'd have been asking was, "why did you choose these shirts,". A valid question I guess, but it seems like it would be hard to ask without giving the impression that I was questioning the validity of them as people not of African descent wearing African (edit: African-themed) garb. Or maybe that's just me...doesn't really matter since I didn't ask her.
And the sister from the show did recognize me as I was walking out of the museum. I timed the eye contact just right...
Anyway, I noticed her going into the gift shop on my way out. I finally gave in to the lusty urge to be recognized, so I headed into the store.
As I walked around avoiding eye contact with the young lady (because you just can't be obvious about these things), I noticed an Asian (I believe Chinese, but I couldn't quite tell the language) lady walking around with her child. The little girl stood out to me because she was wearing a dashiki. I saw them again later with the rest of the family. The girl had a brother near her age that was wearing matching dashiki. Perhaps I'm unique here, but there's something about two small Chinese children in dashiki's that I find terribly intriguing. I wondered how they came to have them - if the kids chose them, the parents chose them (they were, after all coordinated). The thing I wondered most about them was if they saw the shirts as being just nice pieces of clothing or if they were a particular signifier of Afro-centered culture - the way I look at them. It was one of those times where the junior sociologist in me wanted to interview the mother. I was fairly tempted to go and ask the mother where she'd gotten the dashikis. Of course, the real question that I'd have been asking was, "why did you choose these shirts,". A valid question I guess, but it seems like it would be hard to ask without giving the impression that I was questioning the validity of them as people not of African descent wearing African (edit: African-themed) garb. Or maybe that's just me...doesn't really matter since I didn't ask her.
And the sister from the show did recognize me as I was walking out of the museum. I timed the eye contact just right...
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