I. Am. Canadian!
posted Saturday, 8 August 2009
A black guy sporting a very “I am African” red-green-yellow hat (sorry, it probably has a proper name, but I don't know it) approached the desk and said (in an obviously African accent), “Canadian?” I nodded or murmured something affirmative, not understanding exactly why he was asking. He said, in a harder tone, “Excuse me, Canadian?” I said yes and then he blithely carried on with his question about where the hold shelf was as if he hadn’t said anything else. Completely bizarre. What if I’d said, “No, American” or “No, British”? Or, as my husband pointed out, was I supposed to think he was asking for books by Canadian authors? About Canada? About Molson Canadian beer?