Saturday, December 8, 2007

Context

“This morning, a white girl went for a run outside wearing shorts.”

In the American context, this sentence sounds like it came from a “Learn to Read” book for a first grader, and there would not be much thought regarding what it is saying. I am currently learning by experience the power of context. In Kenya, this sentence creates a lot of stares when it is put into practice (which I do about 3 times a week).

Step for a moment with me into the context of a Kenyan living in Nairobi. People are on their way to work (most likely) and they see me running by. Some could care less, and yet some stare so hard I wonder if I'm missing a major article of clothing :)

After many runs I've come up with some possible interpretations of this sentence:

White girl: power, money, what is she doing here?
Run: Exercising? Willingly? Doesn't she walk enough?
Outside: Why is she not an athletic club with the other mazungu?
Wearing shorts: What? In this weather? It's not nearly warm enough for shorts.

I cannot say if this is an absolute truth...but after so many runs, and so much staring and several comments, my mind begins to wonder about how I am perceived.

So if we were to flip this scenario around and think about context in the US... What/who do we stare at? What's out of our context? How should we react to it?

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