A while back I was reading a fascinating article over on The Masquerade Crew by JeanNicole Rivers called ‘Are You A Racist Reader?’  JeanNicole made some excellent points and I began to look at how I picture characters when I read.  I have now come to the conclusion that I am a racist reader.  Then I immediately started feeling guilty.

The community I grew up in was not known for its diversity or even its political correctness.  It was predominantly white and racism was pretty much the default attitude for most people, especially the older generations.  There is a family anecdote about how when I was two years old my mother took me shopping in the city and I pointed at an African American man and said: “Mum, why is that man brown?”  Yes, that’s how white my community was.  I never actually had spoken to a ‘brown’ person until I was six or seven, when my father began importing Filipino workers, who we treated as part of the family. Continue reading →