Saturday, September 30, 2006
Race
17th Sept
Before coming to Chicago, one of the things I was worried about was race. I know that Britain is hardly an ideal society, but still you hear and read and see so much about the divisions in America. Of course you do get a sense of division here – so far all the students and faculty I have yet met at UChicago are white or Asian, and almost all the employees on the desks and the cleaners are black American or recent immigrants. But it’s not quite like in the movies.
Reading a paper, or going into a bookshop, or looking at lecture lists on university noticeboards, you see title after title on race relations, the struggle against inequality, the division of wealth in society. If not at the level of mass culture, then certainly in intellectual circles, the problems dogging the country are being discussed and chewed over to a very great extent. Now this is probably quite obvious – that a society should strive to overcome its problems, and yet somehow I did not expect it. What I had been led to expect from cinema and articles in British newspapers was complacent enjoyment of the fat of the land from the patricians, and seething rage from the dispossessed.
Anyway, in short I have been sensitive to the question of race since I have been here. One of the few things I knew about the area where we live, and where the University is located, Hyde Park, is that it is surrounded by poor black areas. As Zach, the Israeli guy who lives upstairs said “Hyde Park is a settlement” – we are surrounded by the dispossessed.
And yet the area is very nice. It is the most racially integrated area in the city, leafy and affluent, and people are polite and seem happy.
I needed to get some photocopies to start processing my work permit. I walked up and down East 53rd street a bit, and asked a couple of people. A very tall, large greying black man of past middle age walked towards me with a limp. I said
“Excuse me, do you know if there is anywhere I could get photocopies done round here”
without stopping or looking at me he said
“No sir”, he growled, and limped on.
I asked a young guy, and he rapped out fast detailed instructions and disappeared, I found the place.
There was a black woman working behind the counter in UPS where I did some photocopies who was talking to a white lady customer. The white lady was making jolly conversation, and the black lady was polite but rather monosyllabic. Then the black lady says
'I'm sorry, I am soo tired'
The white lady says
'You’re tired, you poor thing'
The black lady says
''Cuz we got ourselves a new church. Been up every evening this week till 1 or 2 am. Then I get back home, and have to come out here.'
The white lady says something like
'You MUST be tired'
'After a while it takes its toll, y’know'
The white lady said, 'it sure does'
And then she said
‘You know, I’m proud of you doing all that work, and you always so efficient when we come in here’
Before coming to Chicago, one of the things I was worried about was race. I know that Britain is hardly an ideal society, but still you hear and read and see so much about the divisions in America. Of course you do get a sense of division here – so far all the students and faculty I have yet met at UChicago are white or Asian, and almost all the employees on the desks and the cleaners are black American or recent immigrants. But it’s not quite like in the movies.
Reading a paper, or going into a bookshop, or looking at lecture lists on university noticeboards, you see title after title on race relations, the struggle against inequality, the division of wealth in society. If not at the level of mass culture, then certainly in intellectual circles, the problems dogging the country are being discussed and chewed over to a very great extent. Now this is probably quite obvious – that a society should strive to overcome its problems, and yet somehow I did not expect it. What I had been led to expect from cinema and articles in British newspapers was complacent enjoyment of the fat of the land from the patricians, and seething rage from the dispossessed.
Anyway, in short I have been sensitive to the question of race since I have been here. One of the few things I knew about the area where we live, and where the University is located, Hyde Park, is that it is surrounded by poor black areas. As Zach, the Israeli guy who lives upstairs said “Hyde Park is a settlement” – we are surrounded by the dispossessed.
And yet the area is very nice. It is the most racially integrated area in the city, leafy and affluent, and people are polite and seem happy.
I needed to get some photocopies to start processing my work permit. I walked up and down East 53rd street a bit, and asked a couple of people. A very tall, large greying black man of past middle age walked towards me with a limp. I said
“Excuse me, do you know if there is anywhere I could get photocopies done round here”
without stopping or looking at me he said
“No sir”, he growled, and limped on.
I asked a young guy, and he rapped out fast detailed instructions and disappeared, I found the place.
There was a black woman working behind the counter in UPS where I did some photocopies who was talking to a white lady customer. The white lady was making jolly conversation, and the black lady was polite but rather monosyllabic. Then the black lady says
'I'm sorry, I am soo tired'
The white lady says
'You’re tired, you poor thing'
The black lady says
''Cuz we got ourselves a new church. Been up every evening this week till 1 or 2 am. Then I get back home, and have to come out here.'
The white lady says something like
'You MUST be tired'
'After a while it takes its toll, y’know'
The white lady said, 'it sure does'
And then she said
‘You know, I’m proud of you doing all that work, and you always so efficient when we come in here’
# posted by Ed @ 4:51 am 
