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Everywhere is Here – No – 4

Years ago, those of us in Jamaica would join a chat site as ourselves and the same site with  our dual.  We’d give our dual some bland American name, and pretend to be white American men in their thirties.

Those of us who were connected in the 1990s were professionals;  lawyers, engineers, programmers, etc.  The internet wasn’t universally available, computers were expensive.

We would join,  post as ourselves, admitting our nationalities, often our professions or, write at a certain level.  We were treated with contempt by Americans.

Creating our dual, we would dumb it down.   A lawyer, for example, would pretend to be a low class white American taxi driver.

Our American Dual got more respect, his gaffes were gently corrected.

Clearly, the reactions Americans had to ‘one of their own’ was far nicer than we would obtain as ourselves.

It led to all sorts of thesis and discussion and was a hot topic in sociology classes.

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What do you think?

Written by jaylar

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