The book keeps repeating the word "Negro" over and over, and you can just tell that readers must have been turned on by it.
There's also some reflection about the race problem in the U.S.
Sometimes, too, it's a mix - e.g. pp. 20-21 -
It was during my first week on the job that I found out that I'd be serving Alabamans. Not only that, they were from Birmingham.
After they were seated I nervously approached their table and gave the standard greeting.
"Good evening, sirs. I'm your Bunny Anna." Without a comment, each man gave his order.
When I returned with the drinks one of the men stood up and said: "It's a privilege to meet you, Anna. Such a privilege that I've made a $50 bet that you're a native of either Ceylon or Burma.
"With skin as golden as yours, I figure you're Ceylonese, Burmese, or possibly Eurasian."
They were all watching me. Then I said, "Sir, I'm sorry, but you lose your bet. I'm 100% American Negro. And what's more, my great-great-grandmother was a slave in your home town."
He stretched out his hand and said, "Might proud to meet you, ma'am."
You can tell that this is totally where Hairspray comes from.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
(Black) Undergrad Fundraiser.
Today after I stopped through the undergrad student center to use the ATM there, I passed through the large hallway where undergrads set up tables for fundraisers and whatnot, and I saw 2 (black) students (one male, one female) with a box of designer cheesecake cubes selling for 50 cents each.
"Want to buy some cheesecake?", the (black) (female) undergrad was like.
"Sure," I was like, "What group is this for?"
"The [whatever the name of their undergrad (black) students association is]," she was like, "You can pick any of these, we have turtle, like, you know, with caramel, and regular, and strawberry."
"Hmmm," I was like, mulling them over, and then I was like, "Shouldn't you guys have chocolate?"
At that, both of the students kind of look stunned, and the guy started laughing, then the girl did too.
"Sorry," I was like.
"No, it's cool," the girl was like, "We totally should, and when you're right, you're right."
"Want to buy some cheesecake?", the (black) (female) undergrad was like.
"Sure," I was like, "What group is this for?"
"The [whatever the name of their undergrad (black) students association is]," she was like, "You can pick any of these, we have turtle, like, you know, with caramel, and regular, and strawberry."
"Hmmm," I was like, mulling them over, and then I was like, "Shouldn't you guys have chocolate?"
At that, both of the students kind of look stunned, and the guy started laughing, then the girl did too.
"Sorry," I was like.
"No, it's cool," the girl was like, "We totally should, and when you're right, you're right."
Thursday, February 24, 2011
WISCONSIN UPDATE!!!: Texts from a Madison resident.
I've been texting a friend from high school who lives and works in Madison (she was the one who treated me to dinner with her and her coworker the night I was the victim of an attempted mugging)...
I asked her if she was running into a lot of protesters and she replied:
They're mostly at the Capitol. I went up there on Monday and there's a really great energy.
I asked her if she protested too and what people thought and she replied:
I didn't have a sign - mostly went to check out history in progress. Most people I know are liberal and fully support the protest.
I asked her if people at her (huge) company are aware of the prank call tape and if so what everyone was thinking and she replied:
I saw it passed around but haven't listened yet. My friends hope it's real.
I asked her if she was running into a lot of protesters and she replied:
They're mostly at the Capitol. I went up there on Monday and there's a really great energy.
I asked her if she protested too and what people thought and she replied:
I didn't have a sign - mostly went to check out history in progress. Most people I know are liberal and fully support the protest.
I asked her if people at her (huge) company are aware of the prank call tape and if so what everyone was thinking and she replied:
I saw it passed around but haven't listened yet. My friends hope it's real.
Addendum.
When me and my colleagues were checking in at the hotel, there was this slightly odd (white) early 20s blonde guy with big non-blinking eyes kind of bored-ly lingering around the counter. He asked us what we were doing in town, then he volunteered that he was here to accompany a friend to meet her boyfriend in person.
"They hadn't met before?", I was like.
"Yeah, they've been talking on the phone for 7 months," he was like.
After a pause, my one colleague was like, "Was he like she expected in person?".
"No, a bit different, but still fine," he was like.
After another pause, I was like, "So are you guys friends from college or something?".
"No," he was like, "I'm her caregiver."
"They hadn't met before?", I was like.
"Yeah, they've been talking on the phone for 7 months," he was like.
After a pause, my one colleague was like, "Was he like she expected in person?".
"No, a bit different, but still fine," he was like.
After another pause, I was like, "So are you guys friends from college or something?".
"No," he was like, "I'm her caregiver."
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Conference (3 of 3): Discotheque.
After the 1st day of the conference, me and the 2 students I split a hotel room with went to the downtown strip of the small off-the-highway town where we found a cheap hotel room...
Everywhere around was cornfields and a flat horizon, and occasionally a car dealership or a fastfood place or something, and then there was this cluster of trees where you could see a church steeple like a mile or 2 off the highway, and if you drove to that, you found a little strip of downtown that followed some railroad tracks a couple blocks, and then a block in in the westward direction.
We 1st went to the one bar around 9:30pm - right when you walked in there was a big plastic tub of Bud light, and a staircase to your right that went up to this big platform built into the front wall of the room, and overlooked the entire bar... There was a tin ceiling and an old wooden bar and a NASCAR banner up, and the place was wall-to-wall (white) people of all ages, though a little bit on the younger side. There was this old guy in red at the bar with a cane, and when he left later, this 20-something heavily-made up (white) girl took him by the arm and led him out... There were also some older early 40s (white) women there in college sweatshirts and jeans, including one who had said (unfacetiously) "Nice scarf!" to my colleague when she passed us on the street earlier (he was wearing a sweater and a scarf tied round his neck, but no jacket).
The band was a cover band, and opened up with some heavy rock song.
Shortly after that, we left to the other bar in town, a pool hall/club.
So, my friends played a bit of pool, and I watched (black) music videos play in the (white) club part. I was talking with the bartender a bit, and he said that the Christian university that was hosting the conference would call up their bar to see if any of their students were there drinking.
"This is their hideaway," he was like, "But we don't tell them shit. We'll stop 'em if they're not 21, but otherwise, they're adults, we're nobody's babysitters."
The club was sparsely attended by (white) people and several (Mexicans), except for maybe a period of like maybe an hour sometime after midnight.
At one point, several (white) girls kicked off their shoes and danced all along the bar, then stopped, and then like a half hour later started up again, at which point a young (Mexican) guy reached up and drummed one of them's buttcheeks with his palms.
A few minutes later, some (white) chick was all like, "FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU" with both her fingers up to him, and he stormed out the door with two of his (women) friends.
When I asked the bartender (actually, the barback, and the local football coach to boot) what that was all about, he was like, "I don't know."
An hour later, I look down from a music video, and it looks like this taller (drunk) (white) guy is armwrestling the short (Mexican) bartender, only I look closer, and he's choking him and pulling him across the bar, except the (Mexican) guy is suspended in mid-air with both his tennis shoes off the ground. Like 20 seconds later, the barback and a bartender run up, and then the barback goes around and they disappeared from my line of sight for like 10min., and I see the (Mexican) bartender walking around all day with the top 3 buttons of his shirt open since they'd been pulled off, and after that a cop walks in and in the direction of the barback and the drunk...
Later, the barback told me that the guy was drunk and for whatever reason picked a fight.
"He was a mess," he was like, and said that he was knocking down beer bottles and shattering them, and picked the owner up and threw him against the wall.
At some point my friends from school left, and I had promised them that the walk home wasn't too much, so like 2am I was sauntering down the street when a police car pulled up and asked me if I was all right... I told them I was visiting and my friends had gone back to the hotel near the highway, so they gave me a ride. They said they weren't surprised about the fights at the bar.
"You have to remember," the one cop was like, "It's a bunch of hillbillies down here."
Everywhere around was cornfields and a flat horizon, and occasionally a car dealership or a fastfood place or something, and then there was this cluster of trees where you could see a church steeple like a mile or 2 off the highway, and if you drove to that, you found a little strip of downtown that followed some railroad tracks a couple blocks, and then a block in in the westward direction.
We 1st went to the one bar around 9:30pm - right when you walked in there was a big plastic tub of Bud light, and a staircase to your right that went up to this big platform built into the front wall of the room, and overlooked the entire bar... There was a tin ceiling and an old wooden bar and a NASCAR banner up, and the place was wall-to-wall (white) people of all ages, though a little bit on the younger side. There was this old guy in red at the bar with a cane, and when he left later, this 20-something heavily-made up (white) girl took him by the arm and led him out... There were also some older early 40s (white) women there in college sweatshirts and jeans, including one who had said (unfacetiously) "Nice scarf!" to my colleague when she passed us on the street earlier (he was wearing a sweater and a scarf tied round his neck, but no jacket).
The band was a cover band, and opened up with some heavy rock song.
Shortly after that, we left to the other bar in town, a pool hall/club.
So, my friends played a bit of pool, and I watched (black) music videos play in the (white) club part. I was talking with the bartender a bit, and he said that the Christian university that was hosting the conference would call up their bar to see if any of their students were there drinking.
"This is their hideaway," he was like, "But we don't tell them shit. We'll stop 'em if they're not 21, but otherwise, they're adults, we're nobody's babysitters."
The club was sparsely attended by (white) people and several (Mexicans), except for maybe a period of like maybe an hour sometime after midnight.
At one point, several (white) girls kicked off their shoes and danced all along the bar, then stopped, and then like a half hour later started up again, at which point a young (Mexican) guy reached up and drummed one of them's buttcheeks with his palms.
A few minutes later, some (white) chick was all like, "FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU" with both her fingers up to him, and he stormed out the door with two of his (women) friends.
When I asked the bartender (actually, the barback, and the local football coach to boot) what that was all about, he was like, "I don't know."
An hour later, I look down from a music video, and it looks like this taller (drunk) (white) guy is armwrestling the short (Mexican) bartender, only I look closer, and he's choking him and pulling him across the bar, except the (Mexican) guy is suspended in mid-air with both his tennis shoes off the ground. Like 20 seconds later, the barback and a bartender run up, and then the barback goes around and they disappeared from my line of sight for like 10min., and I see the (Mexican) bartender walking around all day with the top 3 buttons of his shirt open since they'd been pulled off, and after that a cop walks in and in the direction of the barback and the drunk...
Later, the barback told me that the guy was drunk and for whatever reason picked a fight.
"He was a mess," he was like, and said that he was knocking down beer bottles and shattering them, and picked the owner up and threw him against the wall.
At some point my friends from school left, and I had promised them that the walk home wasn't too much, so like 2am I was sauntering down the street when a police car pulled up and asked me if I was all right... I told them I was visiting and my friends had gone back to the hotel near the highway, so they gave me a ride. They said they weren't surprised about the fights at the bar.
"You have to remember," the one cop was like, "It's a bunch of hillbillies down here."
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Conference (2 of 3): Apartments.
One of the guys who rode down to the conference with us is teaching at a school down south while he's finishing up his dissertation. As it turns out, he and his wife couldn't sell their condo near the university because of the housing market, and so are renting a place down there, not buying.
As he summarized the way that the banks are sell properties at ridiculous rates and depressing the market, "My money bailed them out so they could dump places and keep me from selling."
As he summarized the way that the banks are sell properties at ridiculous rates and depressing the market, "My money bailed them out so they could dump places and keep me from selling."
Monday, February 21, 2011
Conference (1 of 3): Cancellation.
Because of a family emergency, one of the profs I work with had to be out of town and cancel a panel discussion of her most recent book at the regional conference I attended a few weeks ago.
As it happens, a (professor) panelist called her faculty assistant that same day, and was telling her how he had to cancel, since his car got stolen and then he fell off his bike and hurt himself, and then fell on the ice.
"Who is this guy, an undergrad?", she said all non-facetiously after she hung up, to a student in my program who was in the room.
As it happens, a (professor) panelist called her faculty assistant that same day, and was telling her how he had to cancel, since his car got stolen and then he fell off his bike and hurt himself, and then fell on the ice.
"Who is this guy, an undergrad?", she said all non-facetiously after she hung up, to a student in my program who was in the room.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
2 Comments.
1) After a talk at school -
My one German professor (noting the writing on the back of my hand as we went for the cheese and crackers that had been laid out after the talk): "Look, you are like Sarah Palin!"
2) That night at the gym, since after the same talk my one (white) friend from Mississippi said he'd see me at the gym, since I was heading there and he just had to run home 1st, though he didn't arrive till right when I was leaving -
My one (white) friend from Mississippi (laughing as I pass him on the stairwell going out): "Timed it just right!"
My one German professor (noting the writing on the back of my hand as we went for the cheese and crackers that had been laid out after the talk): "Look, you are like Sarah Palin!"
2) That night at the gym, since after the same talk my one (white) friend from Mississippi said he'd see me at the gym, since I was heading there and he just had to run home 1st, though he didn't arrive till right when I was leaving -
My one (white) friend from Mississippi (laughing as I pass him on the stairwell going out): "Timed it just right!"
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