The Head Patting Incident
Let’s talk about the head patting incident. Benji definitely feels the racial connotations behind Martine's head-patting. Regardless of whether Martine is black or white, touching another person on the head without a familial connection or consent is weird and wrong. It is especially weird because Benji isn’t a little kid, he is a teenager. I don’t think Martine means any harm in patting Benji’s head but that’s not the point. Benji is thrown into his memories of elementary school when kids would touch his hair all the time. Black people deal with this too often, it’s a form of disrespect and objectification. If Martine is white, it’s condescending. If Martine is black, it’s still condescending (because of the boss/employee relationship), but less so. However, it’s important to note that there are racial diasporas and subcultural hierarchies within black communities. We didn’t talk too much about this in class, but Afro-Dominican immigrants tend to...
