Oh Ghee!
It is amazing how people can be insensitive without really trying.
Picture this:
Non-East-Indian-looking superior sees two East-Indian-looking junior office workers and decides to comment on her past experiences while working with a local health programme.
Superior says: I am sorry ladies but Indo-Trinidadians, by far, have the most health problems. It is all that roti and ghee every day!
She may have been trying to offer constructive advice, but I took affront to her assumptions (prefacing apologies aside) about my race (in T&T, who knows who is what) and my dietary habits. Just because I fit the so-called physical profile of a particular racial group does not mean that I belong to that group or engage in all the (stereo)typically associated behaviour and even if I did…
Note, the junior officers offered no direct response. Sometimes you realise if you have nothing good to say or no tactful way of putting it forward, it is best to keep your thoughts to yourself (especially when the person you are directing comments to may be responsible for writing up your personal assessment).
Mango
In any case, genetics can play a huge role in the development of certain diseases. But I really was not prepared to give a basic bio lesson to someone who would be better served by one in sensitivity-training.
She was right in one regard. I do eat a lot of unhealthy crap, just not roti (on a daily basis) and mystical-propertied ghee. Suppose rising food prices will change that soon enough. The money I spend on fried chicken would best be put towards saving for any potential encounters with private health-care service providers.
WOW, i just love it when superior white people attribute health problems to “ethnic” food…because roti and ghee is faaar more dangerous than steak and potatoes.