william steig drawing

Marlene Dietrich

Race in Film: Shanghai Express

**I’m a little sick. Please excuse the stuffed nose voice** As evidenced by this very Race in Film series, color is a large part of my life. This is frequently not by choice, as was certainly the case when I was a child. It is 1993. I wear turtlenecks under Champion sweatshirts like on TV. I feel proud about this, my first deliberate sartorial decision. I sit at my desk and quietly enjoy the feeling. The room is hushed. We scrawl on a worksheet. The substitute teacher calls me to her desk. We all look up. “Kartina,” she says. “What are you?” Her eyebrows draw together in the middle. “Are you Eskimo?” She must find out. She must know. Unfortunately […]