A few remaining stray thoughts on Proom and its aftermath

[omorka]

A number of people have come down with "Prom flu" - all with pretty much the same symptoms. Most people are blaming food poisoning, which I doubt - 36 hours is too long a lead time for food poisoning, and it shouldn't cause a fever, which all of us had. I think someone came to proom shedding virus and managed to infect a whole bunch of us somehow (one good sneeze?).

I probably shouldn't have had solid food yesterday, but I managed a little today, too. Not much. (Partly because someone stole my yogurt.) Still mostly drinking tea and Gatorade.

There were a lot of interracial couples at proom. This is not terribly surprising, given that there is no majority population at our school. (We're approximately 35% Hispanic, 30% black, 15% Asian, and 10% white. Yes, I know those terms all refer to different things. I'll deal with that some other time.) However, the different multiculti pairings that I saw did surprise me a bit:

Asian girl/white guy (common, esp. among my students)
Asian guy/white girl (not as common)
Asian guy/Hispanic girl (several instances)
Asian girl/Hispanic guy (not as common; in one instance, the guy was of mixed ancestry himself)
Asian guy/Black girl (one instance)
Black girl/Hispanic guy (common)
Black guy/Hispanic girl (not as common)
Hispanic guy/White girl (several instances*)

*I'm counting one couple who might have self-identified as Hispanic guy/Native American girl here, too, since I think most people perceive the girl in question as white

No instances of a black/white couple, either way. Lots of Asians dating "outside their race." Does it count as dating outside one's race if a South Asian (India) dates a Southeast Asian (Vietnam)? Why no black guys with Asian girls? There does seem to be some "color clumping," which bothers me a bit. (Do Asians get "colorstruck"?) Ah, well. At least their kids will have nicer skin than I do . . .

One of my students has informed me that it's not about race per se, it's about matched popularity rankings. That doesn't seem to make any sense, either, though - Third and NotJeremy aren't particularly popular. Ah, well.

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

When we were up at MedFair in Norman, OK last year, I saw a surprising number of black man/white woman couples. Now, I'll admit I notice this because it is UNHEARD OF in most of the South, and I lived in the South for a long time. But Russ says it's not unusual at all in the areas around the reservation, because they don't have the Civil War hangovers which are so common in a lot of the US. His take on it is that the white women have gotten tired of dealing with redneck white guys who treat them like shit, and are looking around for alternatives. This is all SWAG, of course, but it does at least sound plausible.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

There are many reasons that I support cross-cultural relationships, but your skin comment reminded me of one of the more obscure ones.

It is my personal belief that Halle Berry is the absolute perfect color for a human being. The faster we can homogenize to a light coffee color, the better.

;)

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

Clearly not in regards to your proom, but one of the women in my photo program is Chinese and living with a black boyfriend (from London). He's travelled a fair amount to Hong Kong, etc, and she jokes that he's more Chinese than she is (being from San Francisco originally, herself.)

36 hours

[shefsatyr.livejournal.com]

Actually 36 to 72 hours is not unrealistic a timeframe for foodborne illnesses. Many take up to 4 days or more to incubate. We tend to only notice the more extreme quick to nail us ones. It's harder to diagnose the ones that take more than a day to make you "sick"
Just my chefly geekdom rearing it's head for a moment.