After polls closed for the Emanuel - Garcia election, I was hanging out in the local election office I had been volunteering out of, and I was talking with a few (black) people, some of whom I had gotten to know from previous volunteer shifts, and some new.
One (black) guy and one (black) woman were talking about how Facebook was taking down a lot of their stuff, since it was too political.
As the woman told it, the other day she put up a post that was taken down in 11 minutes:
It was a picture of Rahm Emanuel posing with a group of (black) children above the caption "What's wrong with this picture?", as a test if people were part of the "white supremacist regime".
The answer was something like, "A white man can pose with a group of black children and put it on a campaign brochure, but a black man posing with a group of white children would be accused of being a molester."
Everyone listening agreed it was true, and the guy and the woman ended up promising to Friend each other on Facebook.
The woman also said that she really respected Abraham Lincoln, esp. how he promised poor whites that he'd send the freed slaves back to Africa, but as soon as the War ended, he gave them the vote.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Chicago election aftermath:
1) The big question is whether Rahm becomes more cautious or more vindictive, and most every activist I talked to thinks he'll become more vindictive and seek to harm everyone who opposed him as much as possible.
Local public school teachers are already saying they expect him to open up contracts and crack down on them, and are preparing for another strike, perhaps even 3-4 weeks long.
. . .
2) Local political operatives think that the campaign tanked any national aspirations Rahm had.
A figure from country government was telling me at the bar after the post-Chuy election results party, "Where can he go from here?".
In their opinion, national office has closed off to him, and he'd be a stretch even for state governor.
The flip side of that, though, is that Rahm might remain mayor for a while, since he can't do anything else.
. . .
3) Chuy voters really hate Rahm.
Basically, they whipped each other up during the course of the campaign, and most now totally can't stand him, though they may have felt only mild dislike at first.
That form of hatred is going to come out in weird ways, I think, including venomous opposition and badmouthing for however much longer Rahm is mayor, and more and more articles uncovering new and rehashing past cronyism and corruption.
You have to remember, 9/20 people in a city is a lot of people to hate a mayor.
. . .
4) Rahm is now publicly stigmatized, even if he did get enough votes to win.
Oddly, though people who voted approved him more than not, anti-Rahm folks won the battle of public opinion.
People not only snub him on public transportation - an Election Day tweet said no-one could be bothered with him in a stop in a downtown stronghold of his! - but in other venues too.
On Election Day, a fellow Chuy canvasser told me that when Rahm was at her (black) church that Sunday, she was watching, and no-one wanted to shake his hand, and only one person came up to him to take a selfie.
I told that to a (black) (female) security guard I know at the art school who voted for Rahm, and she was like, "Of course."
And she voted for Rahm!
To the extent that Rahm steps outside his bubble of wealth, his life in Chicago is going to be pretty unpleasant the rest of his life.
And, my hunch is that as he undertakes appalling new policies, and as people learn still more what he's done in the past, that number of people snubbing him will grow.
Gosh, that must stuck to be snubbed by other citizens like that.
Local public school teachers are already saying they expect him to open up contracts and crack down on them, and are preparing for another strike, perhaps even 3-4 weeks long.
. . .
2) Local political operatives think that the campaign tanked any national aspirations Rahm had.
A figure from country government was telling me at the bar after the post-Chuy election results party, "Where can he go from here?".
In their opinion, national office has closed off to him, and he'd be a stretch even for state governor.
The flip side of that, though, is that Rahm might remain mayor for a while, since he can't do anything else.
. . .
3) Chuy voters really hate Rahm.
Basically, they whipped each other up during the course of the campaign, and most now totally can't stand him, though they may have felt only mild dislike at first.
That form of hatred is going to come out in weird ways, I think, including venomous opposition and badmouthing for however much longer Rahm is mayor, and more and more articles uncovering new and rehashing past cronyism and corruption.
You have to remember, 9/20 people in a city is a lot of people to hate a mayor.
. . .
4) Rahm is now publicly stigmatized, even if he did get enough votes to win.
Oddly, though people who voted approved him more than not, anti-Rahm folks won the battle of public opinion.
People not only snub him on public transportation - an Election Day tweet said no-one could be bothered with him in a stop in a downtown stronghold of his! - but in other venues too.
On Election Day, a fellow Chuy canvasser told me that when Rahm was at her (black) church that Sunday, she was watching, and no-one wanted to shake his hand, and only one person came up to him to take a selfie.
I told that to a (black) (female) security guard I know at the art school who voted for Rahm, and she was like, "Of course."
And she voted for Rahm!
To the extent that Rahm steps outside his bubble of wealth, his life in Chicago is going to be pretty unpleasant the rest of his life.
And, my hunch is that as he undertakes appalling new policies, and as people learn still more what he's done in the past, that number of people snubbing him will grow.
Gosh, that must stuck to be snubbed by other citizens like that.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Awful downtown hotel.
The other week I was at both (new) bars at a luxury hotel downtown, and though I tried to be friendly with the staff who were everywhere standing at attention, they all had this dull, obsequious look in their face, like they had internalized how great (white) (rich) people are.
As I was leaving the restaurant-bar, I asked the (white) (early 30s) hostess what was up with the restaurant's name, and she told me it was named after a (20th c.) (French) designer's lover, since the whole hotel was inspired by 1920s Paris.
I almost told her that I'd rather have a hotel inspired by 1790s Paris, but I bit my tongue.
As I was leaving the restaurant-bar, I asked the (white) (early 30s) hostess what was up with the restaurant's name, and she told me it was named after a (20th c.) (French) designer's lover, since the whole hotel was inspired by 1920s Paris.
I almost told her that I'd rather have a hotel inspired by 1790s Paris, but I bit my tongue.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Wonderful Pope Francis news:
A nun at a local Catholic media center downtown told me that a book from his days in Argentina has an entire first half devoted to corruption!
Called "The Way of Humility" in English, the book (or at least its 1st half; I'm not sure) was called "Corruption and Sin" in Spanish.
I began reading and it blew me away - and then I realized that that was just the preface.
The overall reflection on corruption has its moments, and he theorizes signs of corrupt people's character very helpfully, and he gives explicit definitions, too, including in a part-ending summary.
What wonderful, wonderful food for thought. I can't wait till I locate more of his writing on this subject.
Called "The Way of Humility" in English, the book (or at least its 1st half; I'm not sure) was called "Corruption and Sin" in Spanish.
I began reading and it blew me away - and then I realized that that was just the preface.
The overall reflection on corruption has its moments, and he theorizes signs of corrupt people's character very helpfully, and he gives explicit definitions, too, including in a part-ending summary.
What wonderful, wonderful food for thought. I can't wait till I locate more of his writing on this subject.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Last thoughts on the Chicago mayor's election.
Random tidbits:
1) Social media shows that in the past 1-2 weeks Garcia's had meetings with Arab and South Asian community leaders, but Rahm hasn't.
2) Yesterday, a(n African-American) woman said her Facebook is half-and-half with people for Rahm or Chuy, though people I talked to on the street were 2-to-1 Chuy over Rahm and Twitter was heavily pro-Chuy.
3) Yesterday, a (young) (African-American) woman said she was pro-Rahm, then I talked to her for five minutes and she said she was going to vote for Chuy - which is good, but it made me wonder why she hadn't had a similar conversation with someone else until the day before Election day.
4) Yesterday, I ran across a paid Rahm canvasser, a(n African-American) woman who said she'd been out for 5 weeks, and 2 Rahm volunteers, two (African-American) women who were just going up and down streets and hanging doorhangers on every door knob and gate knob they saw without even stopping to knock...
They said they were doing it for their alderman, and one was doing it since she hoped it'd lead to a job.
5) Yesterday morning like 8am, an art school student saw Rahm at the Belmont redline stop, right in the heart of the north side, Rahm's bastion. They said very few people stopped to shake his hand and many refused, and the whole thing was "super awkward", though they also said that it may have just been people in a rush on the morning commute and not wanting to stop.
6) Two days ago, the Hyde Park alderwoman endorsed Chuy, though she'd been taking $ from Rahm's super PAC. She sees the writing on the wall, perhaps...?
7) Two days ago at a restaurant-bar in an "old Chicago" part of town, the (old) (white-haired) (immigrant Italian) restaurant owner and two of the (lower class) (white) (female) workers said they were voting for Chuy, though it later came out that the owner and one of the workers (who had a sticker collection of Looney Toons [sp.?] and Disney) had both voted for the victorious Republican candidate Rauner in the last governor's election...
Each said that Rahm was too much like recently voted-out Democratic governor Pat Quinn, too much waste in the budget b/c of favors to friends.
The (old) (white-haired) (immigrant Italian) owner also asked me for my Chuy button and I gave it to him if he'd wear it, which he said dramatically that he'd do "from the moment that I get up in the morning to the moment that I go to bed at night."
He also said that Rahm's people the Jews stick together, but Italians don't, that's why they're so bad at politics.
. . .
Overall, I'm very nervous for this election. Guess we'll see what happens!
The other night I was telling my one (hippie) friend from Michigan that I was getting too emotionally invested in this election and that I shouldn't be so attached, and she was like, "No, don't apologize, that's normal," then she told me how after Kerry lost to Bush she and her mom were crying, then when she got home she curled up on the couch and cried an hour more.
1) Social media shows that in the past 1-2 weeks Garcia's had meetings with Arab and South Asian community leaders, but Rahm hasn't.
2) Yesterday, a(n African-American) woman said her Facebook is half-and-half with people for Rahm or Chuy, though people I talked to on the street were 2-to-1 Chuy over Rahm and Twitter was heavily pro-Chuy.
3) Yesterday, a (young) (African-American) woman said she was pro-Rahm, then I talked to her for five minutes and she said she was going to vote for Chuy - which is good, but it made me wonder why she hadn't had a similar conversation with someone else until the day before Election day.
4) Yesterday, I ran across a paid Rahm canvasser, a(n African-American) woman who said she'd been out for 5 weeks, and 2 Rahm volunteers, two (African-American) women who were just going up and down streets and hanging doorhangers on every door knob and gate knob they saw without even stopping to knock...
They said they were doing it for their alderman, and one was doing it since she hoped it'd lead to a job.
5) Yesterday morning like 8am, an art school student saw Rahm at the Belmont redline stop, right in the heart of the north side, Rahm's bastion. They said very few people stopped to shake his hand and many refused, and the whole thing was "super awkward", though they also said that it may have just been people in a rush on the morning commute and not wanting to stop.
6) Two days ago, the Hyde Park alderwoman endorsed Chuy, though she'd been taking $ from Rahm's super PAC. She sees the writing on the wall, perhaps...?
7) Two days ago at a restaurant-bar in an "old Chicago" part of town, the (old) (white-haired) (immigrant Italian) restaurant owner and two of the (lower class) (white) (female) workers said they were voting for Chuy, though it later came out that the owner and one of the workers (who had a sticker collection of Looney Toons [sp.?] and Disney) had both voted for the victorious Republican candidate Rauner in the last governor's election...
Each said that Rahm was too much like recently voted-out Democratic governor Pat Quinn, too much waste in the budget b/c of favors to friends.
The (old) (white-haired) (immigrant Italian) owner also asked me for my Chuy button and I gave it to him if he'd wear it, which he said dramatically that he'd do "from the moment that I get up in the morning to the moment that I go to bed at night."
He also said that Rahm's people the Jews stick together, but Italians don't, that's why they're so bad at politics.
. . .
Overall, I'm very nervous for this election. Guess we'll see what happens!
The other night I was telling my one (hippie) friend from Michigan that I was getting too emotionally invested in this election and that I shouldn't be so attached, and she was like, "No, don't apologize, that's normal," then she told me how after Kerry lost to Bush she and her mom were crying, then when she got home she curled up on the couch and cried an hour more.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Michigander on empties.
The other day I was at a winebar in a downtown yuppie grocery store and the chatty (white) (young) (female) bartender turned out to be from Michigan, and she said something about how the biggest thing she had to get used to since starting to live in the city was that empties weren't worth a dime each.
"Honestly, after a party, you'd take the empties in, and they'd pay for your next party!", she was like.
While I was there, some (very rich-looking) (monolingual) (white) people also couldn't manage to order from her for some reason, and when I found out that they spoke Spanish, I mediated the interaction and ordered a single glass of sweet white wine for them.
I also spoke with them some, and they turned out to be (rich) tourists from Argentina.
"Como el Papa," I was like.
("Like the pope.")
The woman said that they spend 2 weeks in a single city every year for vacation, to really get to know it, and they struck me as a bit snooty, esp. the guy, who didn't pay attention to me at all or even attempt to be sociable, though I went out of my way to help his wife get a glass of wine in a foreign land.
So, I kept waiting for them to ask me where I learned Spanish, so I could say to them with a straight face, "He dormido con muchos Mexicanos."
("I have slept with many Mexicans.")
Unfortunately, they didn't.
Also, I found it odd that in the downtown yuppie grocery store's 2 winebars, both (white) (young) (female) (kinda fat) bartenders had this starfucker thing going on where they obviously loved working there like it made them rich, though they both were being paid shit.
"Honestly, after a party, you'd take the empties in, and they'd pay for your next party!", she was like.
While I was there, some (very rich-looking) (monolingual) (white) people also couldn't manage to order from her for some reason, and when I found out that they spoke Spanish, I mediated the interaction and ordered a single glass of sweet white wine for them.
I also spoke with them some, and they turned out to be (rich) tourists from Argentina.
"Como el Papa," I was like.
("Like the pope.")
The woman said that they spend 2 weeks in a single city every year for vacation, to really get to know it, and they struck me as a bit snooty, esp. the guy, who didn't pay attention to me at all or even attempt to be sociable, though I went out of my way to help his wife get a glass of wine in a foreign land.
So, I kept waiting for them to ask me where I learned Spanish, so I could say to them with a straight face, "He dormido con muchos Mexicanos."
("I have slept with many Mexicans.")
Unfortunately, they didn't.
Also, I found it odd that in the downtown yuppie grocery store's 2 winebars, both (white) (young) (female) (kinda fat) bartenders had this starfucker thing going on where they obviously loved working there like it made them rich, though they both were being paid shit.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Positive outlook on the Chicago mayoral election.
Even if Garcia doesn't win, a lot of consciousness will have been raised about how much in bed with each other all the elites are, in politics and business and media.
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