Thursday, March 12, 2009
oh, back to what i said that the beginning of the last post... people dont understand what its like to truly have nothing. even i dont, and ive seen what its like to have nothing. i dont really have much more to elaborate on that except that if anyone wants to argue that they know the struggles of being financially unbenefitted or not being able to go out with friends because they have no money, that aint havin nuthin.
so i was thinking about just one brief comment that Esther made to... i forget who, but thats besides the point. TBA was commenting on how difficult life was when you had nothing... Esther thought to herself "you dont know what its like to have nothing until you literally have nothing." ive been having more and more flashbacks to my time in new york this past summer. i was visiting a friend around the 4th of july who was there on an internship and ended up experiencing things that were beyond my imagination. my friends roommate, whom was randomly assigned in an apartment complex literally three buildings down from the empire state building and across the street from macey's (they had it rough, lemme tell u), was actually doing an intership for RBI, a youth summer baseball/summer school program for kids from the age of 9 to 14. this program was located in the heart of spanish harlem, the baseball field she worked at only blocks from the Washington housing projects and the metropolis hospital in the area. it was surreal. me, being me, wanting to kick it with emily the entire time, as opposed to walking around the fashion district and eating sushi with my friend that i was visiting.... at the heart of the spanish harlem, every body that had a chance to look at me without me wearin my sunglasses to hide my blue eyes, since in the summer my skin turns quite brown, made me feel like i had that "dubois-ian" veil that W.E.B. Du Bois spoke about in his writings before the turn of the 20th century. its wierd to be looked at as an outsider and to have that unspoken, psychological establisment that i am not part of this community and sure as hell aint welcomed.
in NY i briefly tipped my toes in the bronx... the reason for which i was kicken it in in the bronx shall be unmentioned, but the fact of the matter is the community level, the brother and sisterhood, is extreme. yet it is divided by districts and and city blocks. there are SO many people that live in a single city block, without going there, you cannot even imagine. so the problem lies, then, with the abstraction of how to unite so many individual groups, communities, familes, and lives that are solely interdependentent on each other and maybe have run dry of any heart or passion to work towards a better good because they are struggling for the survival of their children, brothers, sisters, parents, and anyone else that is in their immediate community.
there are so many people in this world. why doesnt anyone help their brothers and sisters, their fellow people, fellow human beings... last i checked, it was proven that melanin does not mean racial inferiority. apparantly that useful bit of information hasnt gone mainstream.
in NY i briefly tipped my toes in the bronx... the reason for which i was kicken it in in the bronx shall be unmentioned, but the fact of the matter is the community level, the brother and sisterhood, is extreme. yet it is divided by districts and and city blocks. there are SO many people that live in a single city block, without going there, you cannot even imagine. so the problem lies, then, with the abstraction of how to unite so many individual groups, communities, familes, and lives that are solely interdependentent on each other and maybe have run dry of any heart or passion to work towards a better good because they are struggling for the survival of their children, brothers, sisters, parents, and anyone else that is in their immediate community.
there are so many people in this world. why doesnt anyone help their brothers and sisters, their fellow people, fellow human beings... last i checked, it was proven that melanin does not mean racial inferiority. apparantly that useful bit of information hasnt gone mainstream.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
readings for 3/10
Kivel, 22-247
multiculturalism in America is neither democratic nor anti-racist... quite the opposite. still. nobody is striving for a (i know these politically have negative connotations) socialist/humanist ideal where you reach out to your neighbor rather than say its their problem and their fault. common solutions is a theme, but competition and individuality and this sense that "everyone has the same opportunity, you just have to work hard" is so thoroughly imprinted in our society's blueprint that is passed on generation after generation, along with numerous other prescribed/ascribed statuses and roles, that the framework has to be rebuilt with some MAJOR renovations. and these renovations are not to be purely bureaucratic, because our democracy is clearly devoid of color (white), but something that is based on multicultural inclusion.
in order for this to happen though, each subculture must have a competent voice that is at an equal level as all the others; white superiority starts superficially but is integrated in education, family structure, health opportunities, well-being, etc etc. it is instituted throughout the nation and lack of knowledge is what continues to keep oppressed races in standing. tolerance should be the theme of a nation that has such a successful reputation for the opposite and the deculturalization of entire peoples.
as long as the dominant white race remains in its dormant, naive state where integration has occurred, racism died after the civil rights movement, and those of us white people fail to spread the wealth found in understanding and compassion, inequalities shall reign free and strong.
racism without racists- chapter 3
because the normative climate of racism has changed post-Civil Rights/Jim Crow, so have the linguistic manners/rhetorical strategies when talking about race
whites' avoidance of direct racial language to express their racial views (like the old guy at the restaurant saying "Homeboy" rather than the N word), using projection as a rhetorical tool to defend any accusations someone might have about you, like saying that they segregate themselves... "why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria, eh??"
in many of the responses to questions about race, the rhetoric is so round about, its hard to even understand what they are trying to say! incoherence is just another indication that if they cannot talk about race, they do not know about race, and are inevitably socialized in a racist society.
multiculturalism in America is neither democratic nor anti-racist... quite the opposite. still. nobody is striving for a (i know these politically have negative connotations) socialist/humanist ideal where you reach out to your neighbor rather than say its their problem and their fault. common solutions is a theme, but competition and individuality and this sense that "everyone has the same opportunity, you just have to work hard" is so thoroughly imprinted in our society's blueprint that is passed on generation after generation, along with numerous other prescribed/ascribed statuses and roles, that the framework has to be rebuilt with some MAJOR renovations. and these renovations are not to be purely bureaucratic, because our democracy is clearly devoid of color (white), but something that is based on multicultural inclusion.
in order for this to happen though, each subculture must have a competent voice that is at an equal level as all the others; white superiority starts superficially but is integrated in education, family structure, health opportunities, well-being, etc etc. it is instituted throughout the nation and lack of knowledge is what continues to keep oppressed races in standing. tolerance should be the theme of a nation that has such a successful reputation for the opposite and the deculturalization of entire peoples.
as long as the dominant white race remains in its dormant, naive state where integration has occurred, racism died after the civil rights movement, and those of us white people fail to spread the wealth found in understanding and compassion, inequalities shall reign free and strong.
racism without racists- chapter 3
because the normative climate of racism has changed post-Civil Rights/Jim Crow, so have the linguistic manners/rhetorical strategies when talking about race
whites' avoidance of direct racial language to express their racial views (like the old guy at the restaurant saying "Homeboy" rather than the N word), using projection as a rhetorical tool to defend any accusations someone might have about you, like saying that they segregate themselves... "why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria, eh??"
in many of the responses to questions about race, the rhetoric is so round about, its hard to even understand what they are trying to say! incoherence is just another indication that if they cannot talk about race, they do not know about race, and are inevitably socialized in a racist society.
i really really really want to watch this documentary in full again. it was released in 1992, but its timeless. and i doubt there have been any considerably drastic changes over the past decade and a half.
"A year in the life of two seventh graders reveals the stark contrast in resources and opportunities offered by each of their schools. While the schools are located in the same Bronx school district only a few miles apart, they represent two distinct neighborhoods that are socially and economically worlds apart. Unequal Education bears witness to the colossal failure of the local school system – a tragedy of national proportion. This acclaimed documentary premiered nationally on the PBS series, Listening to America with Bill Moyers."
Unequal Education: Failing Our Children
"A year in the life of two seventh graders reveals the stark contrast in resources and opportunities offered by each of their schools. While the schools are located in the same Bronx school district only a few miles apart, they represent two distinct neighborhoods that are socially and economically worlds apart. Unequal Education bears witness to the colossal failure of the local school system – a tragedy of national proportion. This acclaimed documentary premiered nationally on the PBS series, Listening to America with Bill Moyers."
at the library
one things for sure, black men are not bound by any racial boundaries. whenever im at the public library, literally every time, a black guy comes up to me, whoos me by tellin me how foxy i am and how it would be just the greatest thing if he could take me out on just one date. bf gets in the way of that, but damn am i impressed with the fact that a person could be so confident, so self-assured, so not afraid of rejection or failure. And since when is hollarin back at guys that are chillin in their house, just callin out just because, an "invitation"? i was walking to the bistro last weekend to see a friend of a friend perform in a Drag King show and some black guys started talkin to my two friends and i from a second story window... we weren't running so we weren't moving too quickly, and it was just awkward when my friends were too SomEtHinG to say anything back. so i started just talkin sh*t, told em we were goin to the gay bar and to join, knowing that nothing was going to come of it... but apparently my friends were not so sure because they freaked out and started power-walking like it was life or death. so annoying. and i cant do anything about it.
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