I've recently learned that the person I replaced was also black. He had dreadlocks, so my natural hair was a logical progression from his in maintaining my token status and inherent blackness at the school. In my division, I am one of two black faculty members (there are only three in the entire school), and there are no black students. The other black faculty member is the guidance counselor, Gloria.
She and I bonded over being new, being black, being in the Middle School, being outside in all types of weather supervising kids each morning, and other commonalities in our lives. We don't really spend much time together outside of school as she is about 20 years older than I, so our interests differ a bit. However, that has not stopped our colleagues from lumping us together as if we were best friends and inseparable.
The one of the foreign language teachers called me Gloria for the first two or three months of school. Despite the fact that she and I had a conversation about how her son's name was spelled almost exactly like mine and people often mistook him for a girl here due to an unfortunate cultural bias (His name is Michele- Italian for Michael.). We chaperoned a dance together where she called me Gloria all night- in the presence of others who gave us both odd looks when I replied. I corrected her the first few times, but after that there was no point. I teach children, not adults.
After the dance, another colleague close to both of us took her aside and told her of her constant mistake. She was apologetic and ashamed. She spoke to me privately later and said she was sorry. She said because we were both new she confused us at first and never really got it straight. I told her not to worry and that all was forgiven. We moved on and I asked to chaperon a trip she was organizing to France in the spring. She agreed. I went. She knew my name the entire time.
When we got back, I popped into her room to ask a question. She turned, looked at me and said, "Oh, Gloria, I'm so glad you're here!" My face went blank for a second allowing her time to realize her mistake. She never did and continued talking. Had it only been her at school who did this, I would have chalked it up to being a senior moment because she is around 60 years old.
However, it's not just her. I walked into a faculty meeting a few months back and greeted a woman who'd had me over to her house for Thanksgiving dinner this year. She said, "Gloria, are you going to that..." I stopped her and said, "I'm Michelle." She replied, "Oh, that's right, the other Gloria."
Will racism ever cease?
N.B. There is no one else on our campus named Gloria. There are however, two other women named Michelle, both white. No one ever mistakes Gloria for me, or either of them (I asked). Just in case you were wondering (like Roger was) if there really is a slight resemblance between Gloria and I, please refer to the photo of she and I accompanying this post. That's Gloria on the right.
