If you're unaware of the "Pastor's daughter" situation, check out www.trinidadexpress.com for the story, and i refer you back to "Ho's in my room (I'm black...can I use the term?)" for my general feelings about that situation. And this is not aimed at the girl or her family...but at the rest of us who gawked, poked and prodded, leaving damn well too much NOT alone. I honestly believed that the Express articles on the 13th and 15th of April were enough - they didn't give more than what happened (props to Nigel Telesford on the pieces...nothing I would have honestly expected from you 6-7 years ago)- the unfortunate fact was that pics supported the articles, those being the catalyst for making this 15-year-old's life clear hell (despite her behaviour, she still is 15...you remember how crazy and awkward those years were - even if you didn't do what she did). Oh, yeah, TV6 (and all other media houses), it wasn't necessary to show the Zen clip on the news while the girl apologized (admittedly, she didn't look 15 on that night!)which is the essential thing...induced by anyone or not, the girl apologized. Let's take it for what it is...and let her and the rest of us (who've probably done worse...only difference being that we're not in the public eye) live our lives.

Now onto "nigger brown"...how in the hell are you going to tell me that a furniture manufacturing company can have as its colour description for a dark brown couch, "Nigger Brown" on the tag? The worst part of this is the fact that a 7-year-old had to point this out to her mother. The excuse given? The manufacturer (in China) said that when the Chinese characters for "dark brown" were input into the computer, the translation software (which, he claims, was an "older version"...like how f@#!in' long ago? 1620?) translated them into those words (Tiger, or Eldrick, or whoever the hell you are these days, I'm hoping you're gonna remove the "Asian" from your "Cablinasian" race-tag...then again, you'd just sound as weird ...forget it). I'm wondering here if we haven't come this far for anyone to use such descriptions of others (and I won't be surprised as to where the Chinese picked this up, being such great assimilators of urban culture). While it once again gives us another opportunity to look inside ourselves to see how others regard us and our behaviour towards each other (unfortunately reflected through the same urban culture we embrace and espouse), I think we should take a little more time to understand each other's cultures, tastes and influences. Only then will incendiary errors like that never occur.