It took me a little while to catch on to what "banana" meant on a gung-ho Asian American website I had stumbled upon recently. If you haven't noticed, I'm a little slow on the uptake on slang. "24/7" wasn't in my vocabulary until it was already mainstream and I still cannot forgive one particular freshman (who has since dropped out, gotten married, and flew to the Sudan for missionary work) who single-handedly introduced the term "wicked" (as in "cool") into the Techer geek vocabulary.
Anyways, a lightbulb flashed in my brain. Aha! The old word analogy trick. Banana is to Asian American as Oreo is to African American. And then my next thought: Am I supposed to feel angry about this particular use of terminology? To be honest, I don't know how to feel. I can see it both as accurate and derogatory depending on who you apply it to.
Of course, personally I would never compare myself to a phallic piece of fruit, no matter what the silly fruit quiz results say. I don't hang out with people to be like them. Or because they are like me. So what exactly do I consider myself as?
