Pygmy Latinos, dwarves and elves On my recent trip to San Francisco my friend from Finland had the hardest time figuring out the racial diversity. Living in the great white state of Imbler-I didn't feel comfortable tutoring her on the ins & outs of Japanese vs. Chinese (though my other friend was quite embarrassed when Ms. Finland kept asking within earshot of Asian tourists whether they were Japanese or Chinese as if they weren't there). One group in particular that confused her were the diminutive folk from Latin America who were ubiquitous at the middle-brow restaurants we liked to frequent (funny we read in Zagat about "old world charm" at an Italian cafe to find out all the service were Quechua from Peru!). Especially those of clear autochthonous heritage. My other friend (who shall remain politically incorrect and nameless-you know who you are!) termed them "pygmy Latinos." Ms. Finland's inability to process their physical appearance was so extreme that she was a bit confused as to the gender of some of them (one happened to have a mustache-I don't know if she thought that lack of facial hair in females was a European trait or what). Now we here in the United States are often attacked as being ignorant of geography and diversity, and yet it was quite clear that Ms. Nordic Secular Social Democrat was as innocent of other races as a wealthy Boer girl in 1920s South Africa whose only interaction with non-whites were in a master-servant context. I am not implying that Ms. Finland was racist-simply incredibly naive. Even my friend who's from America-and she has spent time in places as far afield as China, Finland and Italy-told she could couldn't but help imagine the pygmy Latinos dancing in the tall grass prairies of the Andes in native garb with a flute in hand. Where am I going with this bizarre narration? Elves and dwarves are on everyone's minds today because of the release of The Fellowship of the Rings-and Crater Lake National Park in Imbler looked like the edge of Barad-dur this last weekend because of the fires. It strikes me as apropos that the non-human beings come out of Scandinavian mythology. Scandinavians are racially homogenous enough that perhaps the odd Sami (Lapp) might have been confused for a dwarf or a tall Asiatic looking Kievan trader as an Elf. Though Americans are ignorant, gun-toting, beer-swilling and unabashedly fat, our everyday experience of racial diversity I think makes us forget how real the perception of the Other is to people from more racially monochromatic regions. In the United States I am simply "other" rather than "Other." Thank gods.