... There are three races in the world: the white race, the yellow race, and the black race. One of the ways they differ is their hair. The white race has wavy hair. The yellow race has straight hair. The black race has curly hair....
An almost verbatim excerpt from my elementary school reading textbook, published by the Korean Department of Education. Since I rarely ever saw non-Koreans, this fascinating passage was one of my favorites, and I wonder if I will ever forget it. So imagine my surprise when I first met Indians at Sope Creek Elementary. They weren't white, yellow, or black! What do you call them? What about white girls with straight hair?
I guess it was their attempt at introducing the concept of racial diversity to children in a homogeneous country in the simplest way possible. At least we weren't being taught that some races were superior than others. But still, how backward things were just about 15 years ago!
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