This is an excerpt from a long post I just created at G-lish. Start reading here, but I urge you to read the whole post over there.
"Over the almost two years since Godwin and I have entered a relationship we’ve experienced the blunt (or sharp, depending on your sensitivities) side of others’ perceptions regarding our relationship.
Upon meeting us many people automatically assume that he’s a “good for nothing” and must certainly be “uneducated”.
There certainly are men who latch on to foreign women to benefit financially and possibly travel abroad. We describe this in detail under Sex and Dating in our Ghana guide, but there are also others who enter a relationship for genuine love and companionship. They are few, but they exist.
In January we traveled to Accra to visit a hospital about a serious health concern. I was facing the doctor and Godwin sat behind me on the couch as I described my symptoms when the doctor interrupted me, several times, and diagnosed the problem in less than five minutes.
I had just traveled 18 hours from Bolgatanga, costing over 100 Cedis if you factor in the trip each way for both of us, and another 200 if you factor in us having to stay for an extended period of time for tests, and another 250 in tests, and another 50 in the next consultation, and about 50 in drugs, and we paid 80 Cedis for that consultation. For five minutes. To be interrupted. For five minutes listening time. I was less than impressed.
He is not alone. His attitude is a symptom of something much greater: a presumptuousness among professionals, especially in medicine, that they are infallible and above reproach by mere virtue of their qualifications.
I waited until he stopped talking so I could continue. I attempted to describe other symptoms when he interrupted me again. I wondered what kind of university he went to that didn’t teach basic listening skills.
This time he turned to Godwin and asked, “Can you spell ‘best’?”
I think my jaw hit Australia.
“Can you spell ‘best’?” He was serious. In retrospect, I wish I replied, “He can only spell ‘moron’ but what can you do?” It’s not the first time that such blatant assumptions have been made about him in my presence. I didn’t say anything; he didn’t speak.
The founder of the Virgin empire, of which Virgin Airlines is a subsidiary, cannot read and write—he’s dyslexic. That’s right. He cannot read and write. I wish he, Sir Richard Branson, was sitting beside me when the doctor asked to spell ‘best’. He could have said “no, but I own Virgin Airlines.” Because Sir Richard is white, however, the doctor probably would have made the assumption that he is “educated” as in, he could spell “best”—which is no measure of education, anyway. Ironic.
Yet, because Godwin was a black man with a white woman, he assumed he was “uneducated” and treated him with supreme arrogance."
"Over the almost two years since Godwin and I have entered a relationship we’ve experienced the blunt (or sharp, depending on your sensitivities) side of others’ perceptions regarding our relationship.
Upon meeting us many people automatically assume that he’s a “good for nothing” and must certainly be “uneducated”.
There certainly are men who latch on to foreign women to benefit financially and possibly travel abroad. We describe this in detail under Sex and Dating in our Ghana guide, but there are also others who enter a relationship for genuine love and companionship. They are few, but they exist.
In January we traveled to Accra to visit a hospital about a serious health concern. I was facing the doctor and Godwin sat behind me on the couch as I described my symptoms when the doctor interrupted me, several times, and diagnosed the problem in less than five minutes.
I had just traveled 18 hours from Bolgatanga, costing over 100 Cedis if you factor in the trip each way for both of us, and another 200 if you factor in us having to stay for an extended period of time for tests, and another 250 in tests, and another 50 in the next consultation, and about 50 in drugs, and we paid 80 Cedis for that consultation. For five minutes. To be interrupted. For five minutes listening time. I was less than impressed.
He is not alone. His attitude is a symptom of something much greater: a presumptuousness among professionals, especially in medicine, that they are infallible and above reproach by mere virtue of their qualifications.
I waited until he stopped talking so I could continue. I attempted to describe other symptoms when he interrupted me again. I wondered what kind of university he went to that didn’t teach basic listening skills.
This time he turned to Godwin and asked, “Can you spell ‘best’?”
I think my jaw hit Australia.
“Can you spell ‘best’?” He was serious. In retrospect, I wish I replied, “He can only spell ‘moron’ but what can you do?” It’s not the first time that such blatant assumptions have been made about him in my presence. I didn’t say anything; he didn’t speak.
The founder of the Virgin empire, of which Virgin Airlines is a subsidiary, cannot read and write—he’s dyslexic. That’s right. He cannot read and write. I wish he, Sir Richard Branson, was sitting beside me when the doctor asked to spell ‘best’. He could have said “no, but I own Virgin Airlines.” Because Sir Richard is white, however, the doctor probably would have made the assumption that he is “educated” as in, he could spell “best”—which is no measure of education, anyway. Ironic.
Yet, because Godwin was a black man with a white woman, he assumed he was “uneducated” and treated him with supreme arrogance."
This is only a short half of the post. You can keep reading the whole, colourful story at eXtraordinary People, Perception, Attitude and Change