Bad Brown

A facebook thread today inspired this entry. The current Mosque debate, in my opinion, is stirring up fear of American brown people in the media. I am an American brown person - half Goan (which is a mix of Portuguese and Indian) and half white (Scottish/Irish descent - Catholic on both sides). Anyway, here is my "stereotyping" story. This is not a sob story... I was very entertained by my role in all of this.

Someone at Jane Magazine thought that a great story after 911 would be to see how average Americans would react to a person of middle eastern descent in a typically American situation. I got the call and was to be paid $150 to show up at Dodgers Stadium to meet a reporter and photography crew. I didn't really understand the premise of the story until I arrived in the parking lot. Upon hearing the premise, I tried not to laugh in this misguided reporter's face. She was from New York - I don't think she knew how many Latin American citizens (as opposed to the Americans she probably had in mind) she was about to encounter in the stadium. "Let's do this," I said.

I met the photography crew. They were having a hard time making eye contact with me. I was not quite the middle easterner they expected. I loved the awkwardness, and tried to be as charming and funny as possible to make them suffer more.

The reporter was still oblivious. She walked next to me as the bright lights of the cameras went off. We walked through the stadium, and she gauged people's faces and jotted nonsense down in her pad. "A lot of people are staring at you..." she said. Just then a girl ran up to me excitedly. "Are you the singer of Incubus?" she asked me. "Yes," I replied. "Yes I am."

We finally got to our seats. The stadium was relatively empty in that area. The lighting crew set up. Cameras flashed. "So.. why do you think all of these people staring at you?" She asked me. "Because I am here with you and a photography crew?" I offered.

The whole project began to unravel. The reporter was dismayed. The photography crew quit and left. Like a true after-school special cheeseball that I am, I said to the reporter "I hope you learned something here today" ..and added "Can I get that $150?"