Sometimes there's a strange positive interactive effect to national and ethnic stereotypes, which I just saw at work in the World Series of Poker. German student George Danzer, standing out in a dashing suit with a red shirt and a scarf that only a German could make masculine (so nobody sees him swallow hard when he's bluffing), was facing a puzzling pre-flop raise and re-raise from Dimitri Nobles. So he cracked a grin and asked with mock earnestness, "Are you from Scandinavia?", invoking the stereotype of Scandinavians as very loose with their chips. With at least $200,000 on the table, Danzer was holding aces so he went all in, upon which Nobles, bluff and bravado both exposed, sheepishly mucked his cards as Danzer assured him, "You are from Scandinavia, you re-raise with nothing and then have to fold."
Here's the thing... Dimitri Nobles is not from Scandinavia, he's from America. And he's black. I'm not saying George Danzer said anything wrong, but that really could have gone over badly, if Nobles thought Danzer was making an ironic comment on his skin color by asking if he was Scandinavian. The whole Nazi thing does add another twinge to racism by Germans, so that wouldn't help either. Fortunately, Nobles is American, so another stereotype came into play. Nobles' response, delivered with a broad American smile, was "Scandinavia? I don't even know where that is, man."
No comments:
Post a Comment