August 8, 2000 ~ Colorblind

This evening we had a beautiful sunset in our new home. The sky was a brilliant pink, purple, and deep blue, and the bats had just started to come out, weaving in their somewhat erratic circles against the blazing sky. The fireflies made the field below seem like a magical fairyland.

Morgan was organizing more of our books, placing them in their homes on the shelves for the rest of the year. I tried to do some unpacking myself, but the sky was too beautiful and I was too tired. All day I had had an itch in the back of my throat that warned of an impending cold coming on. I plopped myself down in the bean bag and started to drift off to sleep. I slept lightly for about an hour. Now I'm feeling rather groggy.

I work in the housing office at the college during the summer, and we deal with anything having to do with student housing assignments. We get a lot of calls from incoming students and their parents, wondering what the dorms are like, how to contact their roommates, and other related questions. Today, however, I got a call that set me on edge.

She was the mother of a freshman male. She was nervous about her son coming to school, and wanted to know all about his dorm and roommate. This is normal, and I answer several questions everyday about the same sorts of things. For this call, I knew her son's roommate and dorm rather personally, so I was well equipped to handle the call. I assured her that her son's roommate is one of the nicest people on campus, very quiet, shy, and kind. She was still concerned, however, even though I gave her a complete personality profile, and eventually she asked, "Is he an international student?"

"Yes," I said, telling her the country he is from.

"Oh," she said, "Is he black?"

I paused. "Uh... yes..."

"Oh. Hm." She paused. "We'll see how that works out." Her voice was somewhat subdued and grave, as if having a roommate of a different skin color could be a serious drawback to her son's education.

Maybe I was reading the tone of voice wrong. Maybe she was just surprised, and not upset... Maybe there will be no problem. But it still bothered me greatly that she even asked for the color of his skin.

Why the hell would that matter at all? I had already told her all about his personality and what a wonderful, kind person he is. How would his skin color change that at all? His personality should be the only thing to affect the living situation, not his skin color. I hope her son is not concerned about such superficial things.

If only the world were colorblind.

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