RACISM DIGS A HOLE TO CHINA “Most Chinese people with whom I speak on the issue of race say that they ‘have nothing against black people.’ But many of my friends and students do seem to ’buy in’ to some of the stereotypes of black people that have always existed. For example, a student recently told me that she ‘is a little scared of black people’ because they are big and strong. Others have said that their black English teachers were always kind but they often smelled bad. Still other students have said they have never really met a black person so they have no opinion of them. A few have even asked me about whether or not there are more black people involved in crime in the U.S. than white people.”

It’s the slept-on Times piece I can’t stop telling people about. A Dublin-born woman named Caroline Duggan has started an Irish dance troupe at PS 59 in the South Bronx, a school where 98 percent of the population is black or Hispanic. The kids, most of whom were attuned only to hip hop dancing or the merengue prior to Duggan’s arrival, absolutely love it.

I love the story. Is it because it’s yet another piece of evidence proving cultural norms can be transcended and reworked? Perhaps in part, but it’s also because the kids are so damn cute.

Read everything here.