SHE’S FOREIGN, ISN’T SHE?
got back into dublin late night. cab drivers in dublin crack me up. there were four of us sharing a cab, with three stops. at the second stop our italian friend got out and as we were pulling away from her apartment building the driver said “she’s foreign, isn’t she?” in the back seat we exchanged glances and rolled our eyes.
“i belive she’s italian,” i responded “but hey, we’re foreign too!” my tone was lighthearted, but also gently probing, curious to see how far the limits of his ignorance stretched.
“both of you?” he stressed, his incredulity revealing his assumptions about my identity. my companion, being white, apparently didn’t look foreign…
“yup.”
“where from?” he asked us.
“the united states.”
“so you’re both from there?”
“that’s right…”
(oh yeah, that’s right!)
September 11th, 2004 at 5:55 pm
True, but the integration in the states is lousy - in the UK the integration (at least in major cities) is really strong, particularly between Black and White.
September 11th, 2004 at 6:41 pm
I’m not sure if I’d agree with you on that Alfie. The UK and the USA are very different places, and I think the UK has had its fair share of terrible immigration policy and bad choices with respect to integration. There are parts of the USA that are very well integrated, and then there are parts that are not. I’ve been to large UK cities, and I haven’t seen anything exceptional over the major US cities.
Anyhow, this post isn’t about the UK is it?