Exoticize This

So I went out for drinks with my roommate and friends last night. Pretty fun night. Good drinks. Good dancing. Good conversation.

Across the smoking patio (I don't smoke, by the way) I notice three older white men, oogling and staring at every person of color walking by. I mean, like molester oogling. My friends and I notice. We're like: gross, don't look at us, we're not uneducated, looking to be a houseboy, or looking to be taken care of by an old white guy. NOT EVEN CLOSE!

So I get up to go to the bathroom. I have to pass them. They oogle some more. I try not to pay attention. Give my best snob, attitude look. Being real L.A. I feel a warm, dry, hairy hand and wrist brush up against my arm. One of the old white men. Gross. He smiles. Hands me a cheaply produced flier for a party he's hosting at his house Valentine's weekend.

It's called (don't make me gag): Latinos Fiesta De Amor

It's hosted by the three old white men. And it's for people who want to "have a chance to look for a hot Latin lover!"

OK. So some people, I'm sure, don't mind being exoticized, likened to an object, or seen as merely a sex object.

I'm not one of them.

So to all the old white men out there who think every black and brown person is looking for a sugar daddy or mama, wanting to be taken care of, or aspiring to be a quiet, stay-at-home houseboy/housewife... think again.

We have educations, goals, careers, money, connections, and we can take care of ourselves. We appreciate people of our own ethnicities and can appreciate other people's ethnicities, but not just because of their skin color or their perceived "hotness," but because we just might have similar values, goals, and interests.

Exoticize this...

fs