Punta Cana

I'll be spending the month of July in the Domican Republic at the Puntacana Resort & Club thanks to a fellowship from Columbia University's CERC Teacher Training Institute & the Puntacana Ecological Foundation.

About twenty five educators, including myself, will learn from and collaborate with scientists. The course work includes developing an integrated curriculum and doing field work. Hopefully, I'll be on the beach surveying coral reefs!

Really, Really White People

'They' came in a big, pale herd. Everyone of 'them' with ghost-like skin, light eyes, and a preppy look. They all had a way of speaking (along with really corny jokes) that made me want to smack them in the face for no other reason than that they just didn't get it. I found myself judging and scrutinizing every fiber of their Massachusetts, surburbanite beings. The whole package of them felt insulting.


It was as if their stuffiness reflected their close-mindedness. Enough to make a liberal-minded, urbanite want to gag. They wore these stupid uniforms-- you know, the jeans with a polo shirt and a baseball cap. The inflection in their voices and their body language was offensive. Lack of eye contact, poor posture, and unnecessary use of big words, I immediately recognized as a thin veil hiding fear, a lack of depth, and a self-righteousness that needed taken down a notch.

Or was it that at all?

Stereotypes.

Quick judgements.

Once upon a time, I was a white girl growing up in rural Michigan with very little exposure to cultural diversity-- at least before college. My experience outside of a really, really white community consisted of the black people I saw in the mall three times a year at the nearest city center 60 miles away, and the Korean daughter of the only foreign doctor in our town.

There was one multi-racial student in my high school-- Chris Jones had a black father from Flint. Every young girls parents feared that their daughter would date him. Oh, the shame! He had a great personality, was an awesome football player, and was my locker partner during my junior year. He died from a rare blood disease senior year, and then we were back to a bunch of white hicks and a losing football team.

We all need to take off our uniforms.

We all need to look below the surface.