(no subject)

[benlehman]

I get unaccountably annoyed when people use the phrase "..., who just happens to be [race], ..."

I realize that this is just a dialectical feature of coastal white American English, which is meant to convey "race isn't important to me, but I feel a need to note it anyway." It's a set phrase, and I shouldn't try to parse it for grammatical meaning, like another sentence. But I do, and thus it annoys me.

Does anyone "just happen" to be their race? Did it "just happen" to them? Like they were walking around, happily white just like everyone else, and they tripped and fell in a puddle of Chinese?

Seriously? That happens?

Because most of the people I know get their race from their biological parents, anything but accidentally.

Comments

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Uh, who are you and why are you here?

yrs--
--Ben

[benhimself.livejournal.com]

You made a post about annoying practices regarding race on livejournal. Of COURSE you're going to draw random defenders of the practice out of the woodwork.

[psychotropek.livejournal.com]

He's, in my case, a friend of a friend, and thus may read your page for indie gaming things?

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Thanks.