and then someone called me a racist. and stupid.

Today I put the following as my Facebook update:

there are some asian accents that are really hard for me to understand. it makes me irritated and embarrassed at the same time.

And, someone called me racist, and stupid. For reals. So, if you point out differences you are a racist? In this case the differences have to do with phonetics, that some sounds carry meaning in some languages, but not in others. And the fact that I, as an immigrant with an accent, sometimes have a hard time figuring out other people's accents. It has happened to me many times that I've had a native American English speaking friend with me, and they have been able to explain to me what the Asian person was saying. Not difficult for them to figure out, but difficult for me. Racist? I don't think so.

the day(s) I made it to the front page of the huffington post

My colleague at Santa Clara University Barbara Kelley wrote a fun and interesting piece for the Huffington Post about fashion, feminism, and how we communicate with the world around us using what we wear. Barbara was nice enough to include quotes from me alongside quotes from Shira Tarrant, a scholar who actually study these things. A link for the story is here. Was I ecstatic when The HuffPost pulled one of my quotes and used it on the front page two days running? You bet.