13 September 03
Scrutinizing White Privilege
For the past two days I was participating in a diversity workshop run by the campus. Though it was not specifically about race, this culture is organized very much along racial lines, a racial hierarchy that includes class and other elements. Race was therefore an important topic over the two days.
The thing I learned most forcefully: that there will always be more to learn.
Owning up to, and acknowledging, the privileges that are mine because of my skin color is painful. I can rent or buy a house, I can expect to drive anywhere without being stopped by the police, I can shop in the market without being followed, I will be innocent until proven guilty: these things I take for granted; I don’t even notice them. My brothers and sisters of color do not experience life like this. They fear for their children’s safety on a constant basis. They experience much more subtle racism than perhaps their parents did, but they experience it all the time. Every day. The stories I heard made my skin crawl.
Another thing I learned is that there is not much impetus for the dominant culture—i.e. the culture that looks like me—to change. We have it too good. Any requests for a reconsideration of our position on the part of people of color are likely to be met with incomprehension, incredulity, or ridicule. “We’re bending over backwards,” the standard line runs. “We’re doing what we can. But we can only do so much…”
I believe we can do more, we whites who are tired of the way things are. We can encourage those around us to look at these things in a new way. It involves a lot, mostly the acknowledgement that the privilege we have is unearned and undeserved. That the fear we have, collectively, is mostly fear of the unknown, and the unknown can be learned about. It’s an opportunity we have. I believe our world can be richer for it. And I believe the consequences of not doing this will be disastrous.
12 September 03
River Cats Win The PCL
The Sacramento River Cats just won the Pacific Coast League championship, beating the Nashville Sounds 8-1. They were undefeated in post-season play. The team has been in Sacramento four years, and has made the playoffs three times, but this is the first time they’ve won the championship. I listened to most of the game on the radio; the crowd was quite into it. Were we more mobile nowadays, it would have been fun to have been at the game ourselves.
Yolo County now has their very own championship baseball team!
11 September 03
Haikus for September 11
(written in September 2001)
The Day It Rained
It rains, oh, it rains:
four fat drops collect the dust
of summer swirling.
Standing, I look out
in my nightie in the rain.
I stand there smiling.
They rush to take in
the crates of ripe tomatoes
before the rotting.
Behind me lie hives
and corpses of worker bees
no longer buzzing.
Ahead, discarded
tomatoes—a red carnage—in state are lying.
I do not yet know
that four bomb-planes have wrought
a death-red silence.
In Memoriam
United Nations
1945-2001
10 September 03
The New Tandem
Pica’s lilac contraption is built to carry a passenger on the front. I don’t think it’s quite the long-distance machine our Burley Duet is, but it will be a while before we ride the Burley again, alas. But Lila does have independent front-rear pedalling, a feature only rarely found on regular tandems.
9 September 03
Laughing Stock of the World
Our absentee ballots arrived today for the California Recall Election. For any of you who have not been following this circus, Governor Gray Davis has been challenged by the Republican fringe. We are being asked whether or not to recall him (Yes/No) and then to choose between a number of possible replacements on October 7.
And I mean, a NUMBER.
Seven pages’ worth. Among them, the most well-known, Arnold Schwarzenegger (page 4) and Larry Flynt, Publisher of Hustler Magazine (page 7). Among the others, here is a representative sample of their “occupations”:
College Student; Satellite Project Manager; Golf Professional; Artist; Used Car Dealer; Mortgage Broker (could be useful); Custom Denture Manufacturer (this one’s a Green); Retired Meat Packer (could be even more useful); Air Pollution Scientist; Businessman/Prizefighter/Father; Railroad Switchman/Brakeman; Musician/Laborer; Firefighter Paramedic/Nurse; Adult Film Actress; and Middleweight Sumo Wrestler (could be most useful).
You non-Californians are missing ALL the fun.
8 September 03
The RealAudio Jinx
We finally got around to subscribing to the MLB Audio deal where you can listen to live streaming RealAudio of the radio broadcasts of any major league baseball game. (It’s $10 for the whole season.) This lets us listen to the Red Sox games over the computer. Tonight’s game turned into a miserable Boston bullpen collapse, and we’re now 0 for 2 in games listened to via RealAudio. Have we started something for ill here?
At least tying up the phone line like this is a good way to shoo off telemarketers.
7 September 03
Bees: A Secret Life
I finished reading Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees yesterday. Several people have recommended it to me but it is also under consideration for next year’s Campus Community Book Project.
The story of a white girl coming of age in the Deep South during the era of Civil Rights unrest, it weaves the orderly, matriarchal society of bees through the sometimes turbulent lives of a group of women, most of whom are black, and the black Madonna, an interesting and incongruous figure in this setting. The writing is good. The story is powerful; the threads are drawn together at the end in a satisfying but not quite predictable way. Why, then, am I so ambivalent about this novel?
For a book that features so many strong female African American characters, I fear it will only be seen by black readers (if this book ever has any) as yet another Aunt Jemima story. A friend pointed out recently that black movie audiences and white movie audiences are, today, almost completely segregated. Eddie Murphy, for instance, has made the crossover into the white mainstream, but he no longer has a strong black following. At least in certain films. Did I go and see Antoine Fisher? No. I didn’t. I wanted to; it didn’t come to Davis. But surely that only strengthens her point.
If there’s anything I’ve learned over the last year when racial tension has been rife in my office and in the university, it’s this: African Americans are sick and tired of liberal white angst about race. They don’t want to hear any more “I get it now” stories. They want action, they want change; they don’t want to see or hear about any more handwringing. Liberal white guilt is the least effective agent of change.
The Secret Life of Bees is a story about a white girl, for white people, about a successful, healing, powerful interaction with black people. From where I sit today, it reads as fantasy. I wish it weren’t so.
6 September 03
Laptops At The Game
According to a report in Wired News, fans at Raley Field, home of the Sacramento River Cats, next year will be able to use a free wireless network to order food, beverages, and check email during the game. We really ought to get out to more games next season: the River Cats have played superbly this season and are about to start playing for the Pacific Coast League championship.
Back East, the Red Sox routed the Yankees in the Bronx today 11-0. We are thrilled.
5 September 03
A Contraption Named Lila
Yesterday afternoon we went over to visit Peter Wagner, owner and creator of Whymcycles, which can only be described as elaborate contraptions made up entirely of used bicycle parts. I wanted a stable bike that could transport me, my crutches, and my assorted bits and pieces to work and back.
He had just the thing: a lilac/lavender piece made up in the front of two girls’ bikes welded together and joined to a larger bike. It has five gears and a parking brake. I am ALL SET.
I caused a sensation at the Physical Therapist’s office this morning, showing everyone the photos. The PT says I’m ready to ride the two miles to work and back on Monday. Move over, Lance Armstrong…
4 September 03
MondaviCenter.Com
A view of the Mondavi Center on the south edge of campus, quite a landmark from the freeway. It’s about to start its second season of performances. Maybe I’m just uncultured, but it’s hard for me to see the center as anything other than a $60 million dollar vanity project to benefit a completely different clientele than the students attending the university. This student’s letter expresses a similar view.