Otto

“I never liked North America, even first trip. It is not most
crowded part of Terra, has a mere billion people. In Bombay they sprawl
on pavements; in Great New York they pack them vertically--not sure
anyone sleeps. Was glad to be in invalid's chair.

Is mixed-up place another way; they care about skin color--by
making point of how they don't care. First trip I was always too light or
too dark, and somehow blamed either way, or was always being expected to
take stand on things I have no opinions on. Bog knows I don't know what
genes I have. One grandmother came from a part of Asia where invaders
passed as regularly as locusts, raping as they went--why not ask her?

Learned to handle it by my second makee-learnee but it left a sour
taste. Think I prefer a place as openly racist as India, where if you
aren't Hindu, you're nobody--except that Parsees look down on Hindus and
vice versa. However I never really had to cope with North America's
reverse-racism when being "Colonel O' Kelly Davis, Hero of Lunar Freedom.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress