Vegetarian Who Doesn't Eat Vegetables

My mom used to call me names when I was in highschool because I apparently didn't eat vegetables--and I called myself a vegetarian (but still managed to stay away from meat). Well, I am living with a variation on a theme. My 55-year-old Bronx-born, Italian Catholic, 5-foot-tall roommate (soon to be former roommate), is the English as a Second Language teacher who doesn't like foreigners.

It doesn't matter how often I tell her that it's offensive to me that she makes such blanket statements about what she perceives as a well-defined ethnic group (generally the HiPANics--she likes to draw out the middle syllable in a way only a native New Yorker can). It doesn't matter that I remind her from time to time that she lives with a Mexican. In fact, she corrected me and told me that my family was actually from Spain. Um, well, yeah...kinda like your family is from Italy. None of this matters. She doesn't stop.

And just today, she's telling me about her friend's class of "Nasty Rusky's" that think ESL is their conversation hour and they don't want to learn English Grammar.

When you can keep her off the subject of people from other cultures (not often), she really is a fine person. A little talkative, and completely self-absorbed, but generally ok. However, on the topic of people she thinks she doesn't like, she can be downright nasty.