Guest editorial

From an e-mail my niece sent who is a student of Interior Design
at the Art Institute in Minneapolis.

Our project for this class is to design a small 3,000 sqf. Home for a
celebrity couple. Our instructor had a list of celebrity couples on
pieces of paper. She called us randomly and whatever piece of paper we
picked that was who we had. At the end, she read off all the couples
she had us to choose from and asked us if anyone was unsatisfied with
our choice. I told her I was. She asked me who would I like, and I
told her none from the list she gave because I didn't read People
magazine or US Weekly. I told her I read Ebony, Jet, Vibe, Source and
get my info from BlackNews.com. She admitted it wasn't very racially
dispersed. I shook my head no. She let me choose my own celebrity
couple, and I chose Russell Simmons and Kimora Lee Simmons. Even though
they are separated, they still live in the same house, and I thought it
would be neat to design a "War of the Roses" home with some black and
Japanese influence. I'm glad the instructor let me pick because I could
care less about all those whities.

The good thing about it is we don't mention the stars by name in a presentation. We say we have a "couple" who is a blah, blah, blah.... You know. I didn't even know who the people were that I had, and she just looked at me incredulously. Like, "How can you NOT know?" Bitch! I can't help but stand out being the only black person in the class. I wouldn't paint myself into a corner at work or anything, but at a school that prides itself in being "non-conformist" they really need to try and go a little outside of the mainstream American box. I have a couple of instructors who do that, always giving projects based on the culture of a remote people, or at least one that's not European. Yesterday in class I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm the only black person, hell even the only minority at work for 9 hrs., then I go to class for another six hrs. and become the only one there. At times I feel like I've spent an entire day alienated. Add to that the fact that I KNOW there are cultures all over the world that have contributed to design. I'm just in class like, "If I have to design around ONE more honky...." They are not teaching students how to deal with clients that may have distinct cultural or ethnic design requirements or needs. That's why when I watch design shows on T.V., almost every single designer that has a black couple designs an African Safari room, or an Asian room for an Asian couple. Minorities are not one-dimensional. Come on! I'm introducing Japanese elements into Russell and Kimora's home only because on her website I found she embraces that culture. If she said she liked French country I would design the room that way.

Speaking of that, I've got to tell you about my frustration in the grocery store. When I was in Virginia, I wanted to make fresh green beans with baby corn spears. Me and Morris are looking all over the damn grocery store and can't find the baby corn. We finally go to Ukrop's and find it in the "Asian" section. Only Asians want baby corn? They do the same thing here in Minnesota. They are trying to be hip by having a Mexican aisle, and Asian aisle, and Italian aisle, and even a Middle Eastern aisle. But why do I have to go to the Italian aisle to buy a can of tomatoes when they should be in the plain old non-descript canned vegetable aisle? Why do I have to go to the Asian aisle to get rice, when the rice used to be on the aisle marked dry goods, rice and beans? You can only get pinto beans in the Mexican aisle. Then they have the nerve to put canned greens and black eyed peas smushed in between the Mexican and Asian sections. They might as well have had that stuff next to the deli with the fried chicken display. You can't find anything in these "oxy-moronic" politically correct yet segregated food aisles. Good grief.