I am touched and yet at the same annoyed with people who are so scared of hurting my feelings or of being labelled politically incorrect if they were to describe me as “the lady with the scarf.” It’s happened so often at work when a nurse will ask a client which vet he/she would prefer to see or which vet did you see last and the poor dears will skirt around the scarf like it doesn’t exist when really it is the most OBVIOUS thing about me.
It’s OK with me to describe me as the dark/olive skinned/scarf lady/gorgeous/Muslim/beautiful one. Because I am.
A colleague is Indian and we’ve had a bit of whinge about it. He usually gets called “the large vet.” He isn’t the vet who immediately comes to mind when someone uses that word. He isn’t extraordinarily tall. He isn’t even fat! “JUST CALL ME THE BROWN MAN!” he laments.
We don’t mind.
Really. Go on – it will save everyone a lot of unnecessary time guessing and we aren’t offended. We’ve been called a whole lot worse, you know.
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HEHE, strange the world is isn’t it. The whole politically correct thing. You should get pics taken of the all the vets in the office like mug shots (black and white) with a clever nick name under each vet, “The Scarf”, “Brownie”, etc etc, and ppl don’t know which vet they saw last, pull out the binder of lamitated pics ppl can browse through….get a laugh out of it the same time
Maybe people think they`d be labelled as imperialists for saying that. I am the only non-white faculty in my department and students usually refer to me as “the one with brown eyes”!
Oh well, you are the pretty vet for me
i used to be the only hijabi at college, but i don’t think i ever got referred to as the ‘one with the scarf’. actually, i don’t know what i was referred to and maybe that is for the best.
no?
“It’s OK with me to describe me as the dark/olive skinned/scarf lady/gorgeous/Muslim/beautiful one. Because I am.”
Brilliant!
I mean…precisely!
LOL!! gorgeous
LOL – brownie. That is such a Canadian word, isn’t it? We usually have name tags on our consult room doors but nobody pays them any attention.
Achelois – most people here don’t know what an imperialist is.
Mona – yes very true. At least they aren’t telling the receptionist they want to see the towel head.
Baraka, Muslim mama and Mona – I know!!
Hey tasmiya glad to see you blogging again. I promise not to clog your comment box this year. (New year resolution). The scarf on the head thing is fine with me too. Once a classmate of my son’s said I looked like I was wearing a table cloth!( I was wearing one old scarf which wasn’t my fave and needless to say I didn’t wear it anymore.)Maybe I should stick to unpattern ones. And I don’t think anyone knows my name for sure . It is always dd’s or ds mum as they are so talented and much popular than me lol.
Umm fi ard – Sorry but I did smile at the tablecloth thing – was very cute! MashaAllah your children and their popularity.