Summary
"I don't agree. I think in Scandinavia we're used to giving and helping others. We look after each other. In school when you're done with an assignment, you help your fellow students finish theirs. People don't get labeled in Scandinavia - whether your parents are doctors or factory workers, you go to the same school, you ride the same buses, you're friends. Here you get labeled very early on, and then you're rarely given a second chance."
"I'll tell you what," she says. "I think it's good that I have an accent. They do see me as different, but not because of my skin color, but because I'm from somewhere else. Most of them have no idea where Norway is, but that doesn't matter, the fact is that I am not a white American with all that that implies in form of slave history and so forth. Like the kids I am different, and our differences become binding. We share a similar sense of humor, they like me. I sometimes feel I have more in common with them, than I do with the average white American.""I'd feel guilty if I chose to have a cup of tea with a friend rather than being with one of the kids," she says. "I must learn to let go. I am doing more things hands-on now than ever before, but I am learning that I have to say 'no' at times. I have three children at home, and although they don't have any issues, I mustn't ignore them. I want to go out with friends, I want to have a life of my own, too."See the full content of this document
Extract
Angel of Harlem ... From Norway
Lise Himberg Powers has spent the morning teaching; she has an essay due at Columbia University at 5 p.m, and must be done with our interview in time to take her son to his dance class at 3 p.m. Nevertheless, steaming hot tea and white porcelain bowls filled with dried fruit briskly appear on the table, and Powers looks as fresh as a daisy.
"It'll be OK," she smiles.Powers, who has the looks of a lithe, blonde John Bauer princess traip...See the full content of this document
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