Wednesday, February 08, 2006

An Asian is Doing My Taxes

I'm not racist. I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU, for crying out loud. I have a healthy mix of friends of all skin-colors and creeds, and though we don't see eye-to-eye on every matter, I enjoy and respect their points of view. I donate to several anti-bigotry groups, and I've stood in protest outside many courthouses where the proceedings could be deemend racially corrupt. I know I'm not perfect, but I have done my best to eschew the racist programming instilled in me by my forefathers and systemic racial injustice. That's why it is so hard for me to admit that I am having an Asian do my taxes, and I like it.
I didn't pick the Asian tax accountant. I walked into HR Block and told them I wanted to file my taxes through them and they set me up with her. Ms. Lee is her name. And God help me, as I walked over to her desk, an impulse came from the depths of my terrible soul: YES! Somewhere in my subconscious came the notion that this woman would be good at math. I tried to suppress it, but all I had in my mind were images of Asian boys and girls raising their hands eagerly in algebra class, deftly answering every question correctly before returning to their demure solitude. I admire Asian cultures for their uniformity of purpose and advanced abstract reasoning. If I can briefly turn their cultural boon into my own, why not?
You're probably thinking, "Reggie, you racist con of a bitch, not all Asians are good at math." That may be true, but Ms. Lee is great with numbers. She doesn't even have a calculator. I sat down and handed her my receipts and she was able to give me a rough estimate on my refund within twenty seconds. And she did it all in her head! I was stunned. Part of me feels like I am getting away with something, like i'm exploiting Ms. Lee and Asians everywhere for their mathematical fortitude. I was sure to be very obsequious with her, and audibly marveled every time she added numbers of more than three digits together. Did I mention she did this all in her head? I'd ask to check her work, but I wouldn't know what the hell I was looking at. More of a literary person, myself.
At this point, I have resigned myself to the fact that by secretly enjoying that an Asian is doing my taxes, I am a confirmed racist. However, it's not like I am making fun of her or anything. In fact, I commend Ms. Lee and Asians everywhere who are able to use their natural math prowess to help the greater good. If more people embrace this, then maybe complacency will weed out the need to exhalt our Hispanic gardners, or our Irish contractors, or our Jewish accountants. Especially the last one. I mean, everyone knows that Jews make the best lawyers.

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