I just remembered an odd occurrence during yesterday’s Rising Tide Conference.
The setup: During the Politics Panel Q&A session, Mark Folse asked the panel what they thought of the theory that Mitch Landrieu lost the last mayoral election because of historic white-New-Orleanian hatred against his father. If you’ve been following along at home, you know by now that Peggy Wilson has a serious aversion to the entire Landrieu dynasty, and about the tirade that ensued.
The issue then worked its way down the panel with Shane Landry’s final statement, “We may soon have an Indian as governor.” As the only blogger of Indian descent present, to introduce some levity and in recognition of the fact that South Asian-Americans are woefully underrepresented in American government, I raised my fist and cried, “Finally!” The audience cracked up while Jeffrey B whirled around and said, “It’s not going to be you!”
Next up was my panel, which I will talk about in the next few days. It went as expected with only a small derailment during the Q&A session (right question for the wrong time).
During the break between my panel and the final one, I walked out of the hall when Peggy Wilson, sitting at a table with Emily Metzgar and Chuck, turned to me, smiled and called, “Hey, Indian woman! Indian woman!” With me coordinating the conference all afternoon, she should know my name by now. Not knowing exactly how to take that, I kept walking.
WTF?!
Did Peggy Wilson say that to me because she:
a) thought it was amusing (joke’s over, lady, don’t push it).
b) assumes that I’m a Jindal supporter (which I’m not).
c) is a tool.
d) Who cares what Peggy Wilson has to say?
e) All of the above.
I think she just couldn’t figure out how to pronounce a big, multi-syllabic word like Macaca. As Bugs Bunny used to say, what a maroon.
I choose ‘C’
f)Maybe she wanted to ask who you thought Jindal would choose as the
great Black leader to save the N.O. public school system.
g) the woman is just a bit “off”
I think the only thing Peggy Wilson noticed about you all day was your dark skin. Why do you people insist on having dark skin? Can’t you see how hard it is to get past that to your name?
She was making reference to the time when she said “We’ll finally have an Indian governor [Jindal]” and you cheered and everybody laughed. I wouldn’t be surprised if she also heard Adrastos call you LIG.
I don’t like her any more than y’all do, but even a racist nut can make a legitimate honest joke some times.
If you read the post above, which provides the back-story, I didn’t cheer, I said, “Finally!” to “an Indian governor” and not Jindal. If Landry had said “Jindal,” I wouldn’t have cheered.
The joke was made by me and it was dead. Perhaps she was trying to make good and funny with me, I don’t know.
Sorry, I missed the first part. I was skimming, I’m real fucking tired. I was sitting right next to you when you said “Finally!”, though, so I’m aware of the backstory.