Interesting. I had a student like that at Morgan State - a youngish black woman who believed that Asians are superior because they work hard and support themselves. Initially I thought she was joking, but she was very serious and quite defensive when other challenged her opinion.
> I once had a very bizarre argument with a dread-locked
> White dude while waiting for an awful play who
> attempted to explain to me why my nice haircut, clean
> shave and decent clothes were a *betrayal* (I wish I
> was making this up) of the *authentic rebel spirit* of
> the Black man.
Yeah. My neighbor who is a teacher in an inner city school tells me the same thing. Although his main complaint is not that much against the kids, but their parents.
> The Russians I met were mostly dissaffected club
> trolls, wannabe (or actual) gangsters and assorted
> other pretend or real nihilists. My view of the
> Russian people, based on this very narrow sub-set, was
> moving in a direction I didn't like.
You were probably right in your assessment. Eastern European immigrants is a pretty scary crowd, and I try to stay away from them as much as possible. Especially the so-called intelligentsia (Joanna an I had a few thoughts on that on that list) whom someone aptly described as having more power than they think they do, but not nearly as much as they would like to have. Basically, a very unhappy crowd because the Soviet government put them on the equal footing with the "proles" and the situation was not corrected when they came to Amerika - au contraire, once again they ended up mostly among the "proles."
In any case, I appreciate your insights which, as usually, are right on the target.
Wojtek