of People of Color as "others" in the West regardless of birthrights. At the time I was in India, and reading her book. She had gotten married the day before a co-worker of mine, and my other co-workers seemed dissapointed she had married a "Westerner."

When my friend called me on it, I reevaluated my "memory" of the conversations about the book in India - my co-worker told me she had married a "Westerner," in part because they did not want to say "White guy" to my face. I never would have realized that in India, because the racial dynamics were obviously different there. In the case randomWalks held my immediate reaction - my memory - of the situation so I could reevaluate it later in a different context.

March9, 2001

The All-Star Newspaper links to

March 8, 2001

Here was a woman who

Here was a woman who no longer could recognize her own children; a woman who had no idea who her husband had been; no clue where she was, what her name was, what year it was -- and yet, knew what she had been taught at a very early age to call black people. Once she was no longer capable of resisting this demon, tucked away like a ticking time bomb in the far corners of her mind, it reasserted itself and exploded with a vengeance. She could not remember how to feed herself, for God's sake. She could not go to the bathroom by herself. She could not recognize a glass of water for what it