Jennifer pointed out this infuriating little gem occupying the bottom corner of the front page of a newspaper distributed to students all over China to help them with their English.

“There are mainly three kinds of races in the world—white, yellow, and black. The white people live all over the world—in Europe, America, and East Asia. They have blue eyes and yellow curly hair. The yellow people live in Asia. They have brown eyes and straight black hair. They are of medium build. The black people live in Africa and America. They have black eyes and curly black hair. They are nearly black all over the body except the teeth.

White, yellow or black? Does it matter? No. We live in one world. We are brothers and sisters.”

This is why, in an age of cloning, gene mapping, and genetic modification, I still get asked, “Why aren’t you’re eyes blue?” “Why is your hair naturally curly?” and “How come you all have different colors of hair and we all have the same hair?”

Maybe I should be teaching Punnett Squares in my classes?

I have issues with everything in this ‘article’ except for the last four sentences. I’m not going to delve into this, mostly because I’ve been here so long that sometimes it feels like I hold a million different opinions all at once. So instead, I would be interested to hear your responses or questions.

So please, talk amongst yourselves.