How Are You Remembered?

During welcome week, all of the freshmen were placed into small groups.  My group, consisting of about 10 people, lacked diversity.  It was made up of mostly white people, with just one girl from Argentina, and one Indian boy.  The Indian guy’s name is Suneil, and he is now one of my closest friends.  However, our first interaction would not have indicated in any way that we would become as close as we are now.  Just a day after meeting him, I saw him walking towards our small group’s meeting place.  I jogged to catch up to him, and said, “Hey, it’s Suneil, right?” 

He looked back at me and responded with, “You only remembered my name because I’m the only brown guy in our group, right?”

I just stopped walking and looked at him.  I had absolutely no clue how to respond, and honestly, I was a little offended.  Did he honestly think I only remembered him because of his race?  I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t want him to see the confusion on my face, so I just responded with, “Of course that isn’t the only reason I remembered you name!”

And he just laughed and said, “Okay, if you say so.”

Now that I think about it, he was probably right.  And, the fact that I got so defensive just goes to show that what he said was true.  I didn’t intentionally single him out, but my brain subconsciously categorized him into a folder labelled Indian Boy in Small Group, and because he was the only one in that category, I was able to pull his name right out of my brain quite easily.

People claim to be color-blind.  They claim that they don’t see race.  However, every single person does, whether they want to or not.  Instead of pretending that it’s not there, I think the best thing to do is to acknowledge it, and learn how to deal with it.  I freaked out, and I panicked because Suneil’s comment was something I wasn’t used to hearing, and it directly contradicted the “color-blind” society of today’s world.

 I don’t know if I handled the situation in the best way, and I guess I never will know for sure.  Maybe it would have been better to laugh and admit, “Yeah, maybe you’re right,” instead of pretending I was blind to the color of his skin.  I guess all I’m trying to say is that the color of people’s skin is something we can all see, and there is nothing we can do to change that.  However, we should strive to not let that be a factor in the way we categorize and treat people.  We are all human, and we all deserve to be remembered for reasons other than our appearances, but especially for reasons other than the color of our skin.