I decided to have us all go to a West African Ensemble on CU campus for a fun outing last night.   I had seen the ad for it on facebook.  All I knew is a professor from Ghana leads the group and they were having a special guest artist from South Africa.

What I didn’t get is that the ensemble was made of up CU students and therefore all white.  All White.  So as the lights came up on the first song, I was sinking in my seat thinking my friends probably think I am stupid that I brought them to this.  (They were gracious.)  Actually it wasn’t bad just not near as good as it could have been.  And it was great these students got to learn about other culutures.  But… it was still white folks wearing African clothing trying to dance and sing like Africans.  Many danced more like me than my friends. 

 

All I could think was: “This is what we look like when we go overseas.   No matter how much we might learn language or culture, we are always still an outsider and look a little stupid.”