As an Ambassador Scholar we are required to give 4-6 presentations to Rotary Clubs during our stay. Three days after landing in Durban I was up before my host club delivering my first presentation at 7AM in the morning. As graduate students at home, we’re given plenty of opportunities to stroke ourselves, even encouraged to do it. I’m still not quite comfortable with this but I go for it. I followed the recommended format I’d been given at my pre-departure orientation. My name, schooling, family, state, city, service interests, hobbies and work experience peppered with a few examples-what my city is known for, organizations I belong too, my love for rollerblading, my academic research interests…The Rotarians are polite, although I can’t tell whether they are impressed, bored or wondering why all that schooling-I keep asking myself that too. I end my presentation with the wallet fiasco, which is met with laughter and amazement, and open the floor for questions.
The US presidential campaign takes over the remainder of my presentation. The democratic candidacy is of primary interest-Super Tuesday had just passed. Unanimously everyone is rooting for Obama, the club members present this day are Indian, white, male and female. They want to know the pulse of our nation, what US citizens are concerned about, how do we feel about the war, and whether Obama will win? They believe Obama represents a more humane and trustworthy America as it relates to foreign policy. I provide my perspective on the pros and cons of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, we spend less than 2 minutes on the Republican front-runners.
Finally they want to know whom I am voting for, I explain my vote doesn’t come up for a few months and I am giving thoughtful consideration to the race. The assumption is that I am a Democratic, not one person asked my party affiliation. I am asked to call the race who will win the nomination, I say it will be a tight race so we should all keep a close watch. I am careful not to disclose my choice. Again I’m asked as a woman and a black American which candidate do I think best represents me? From a Feminist or even more a Womanist perspective I could have explained that race and gender are so intertwined for me, at home it is even difficult for researchers to dissect the two scientifically. I say both candidates have strengths I admire.
They won’t given up, one last query “Who would you put your money on?” I again manage to sidestep the question, I rattle something off about not being a gambler and as I’m about to be questioned again, one of the Rotarians reminds me my breakfast is getting cold and that I should sit down to eat. We only meet for an hour and my club is careful to be on task and on time.
After we depart, in the car headed to our next location, my landlord and soror, says you handled that well, very diplomatically, very diplomatically. I thank her and query about how she read the audience. She lets me know she was holding her breath when I announced that I was an "adventurous person" not sure what I would say to my audience, (patriarchal traditions are much stronger here, women a bit more passive) but she was able to breathe easy with the wallet story. She tells me she thinks it went well. In the company of a fellow American, in the car on the road, I am off duty.
The US presidential campaign takes over the remainder of my presentation. The democratic candidacy is of primary interest-Super Tuesday had just passed. Unanimously everyone is rooting for Obama, the club members present this day are Indian, white, male and female. They want to know the pulse of our nation, what US citizens are concerned about, how do we feel about the war, and whether Obama will win? They believe Obama represents a more humane and trustworthy America as it relates to foreign policy. I provide my perspective on the pros and cons of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, we spend less than 2 minutes on the Republican front-runners.
Finally they want to know whom I am voting for, I explain my vote doesn’t come up for a few months and I am giving thoughtful consideration to the race. The assumption is that I am a Democratic, not one person asked my party affiliation. I am asked to call the race who will win the nomination, I say it will be a tight race so we should all keep a close watch. I am careful not to disclose my choice. Again I’m asked as a woman and a black American which candidate do I think best represents me? From a Feminist or even more a Womanist perspective I could have explained that race and gender are so intertwined for me, at home it is even difficult for researchers to dissect the two scientifically. I say both candidates have strengths I admire.
They won’t given up, one last query “Who would you put your money on?” I again manage to sidestep the question, I rattle something off about not being a gambler and as I’m about to be questioned again, one of the Rotarians reminds me my breakfast is getting cold and that I should sit down to eat. We only meet for an hour and my club is careful to be on task and on time.
After we depart, in the car headed to our next location, my landlord and soror, says you handled that well, very diplomatically, very diplomatically. I thank her and query about how she read the audience. She lets me know she was holding her breath when I announced that I was an "adventurous person" not sure what I would say to my audience, (patriarchal traditions are much stronger here, women a bit more passive) but she was able to breathe easy with the wallet story. She tells me she thinks it went well. In the company of a fellow American, in the car on the road, I am off duty.
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