Different than what? Is the question you may be asking. We're not sure how to answer that. We mentioned in one of our last posts that we no longer live in Maryland. For the past almost eight months now we've been living in downtown Salt lake City. Still trying to navigate the city socially and professionally, we've met a lot of "interesting" people. A couple months ago we met a guy named Jack who said something to us that we've never heard before. The conversation went something like this:
Jack: Black people smell different.How do you all feel about this conversation? I mean, you never want to label someone as a racist because it's such an emotionally charged word. Was I wrong? Do Black/Asian/Mexican/White/Native American etc etc people have a distinct smell because of the color of their skin?
Gwen: What?
Jack: Like their actual skin. I remember the first time I was close to a black person, I could smell the difference in their skin.
Gwen: People don't have smells based on their race. How do you know it wasn't his/her hair product? Or the food that he/she ate for lunch? Or people just have different smells in general.
Jack: No, all black people have this smell.
Gwen: That's racist.
Jack: No it's not, I'm telling you the facts, Gwen.
Gwen: Okay so is this just a Black people thing? Or does every race have a distinct smell?
Jack: I don't know--
Gwen: For example, you're half Venezuelan and half White. So which race do you smell like?
:::Jack smells his arm, then smells his shirt:::
Jack: I smell like a White person. Can I smell you?
Gwen: No.
What would you have said?
