Some good things, and some reality

[magid]

• A postcard from Europe! Thanks to Bitty, I now have a picture of a large statue of a rabbit with disturbing eyes.
  
• The happiness of an orker when I gave her a pint of gingered watermelon pickles.
  
• Finding a 10-cent Euro coin (Is this the correct phrase?) just outside my house. I wonder how it got there.
  
• The windows at Shreve, Crump, and Low jewelers are always interesting. I had to laugh this morning when I saw the new ones, little wooden men packing rings into boxes, dragging necklaces along, little moving trucks, showing the way to the new location (first floor of the building I work in; I hope the neat windows will still be along my morning walk).
  
• Hugs.
  
• Indulging my tomato lust.
  
• Early closing Friday (aka knowing I have time to cook and clean for Shabbat).
  
• Trying maple yogurt by Brown Cow. Not as thick as Liberte (which is truly more dessert), but yummy, and only three ingredients other than live cultures. Plus they only use milk from non-growth-hormone cows, etc. (Plus I get to type "How now, brown cow?", which in my family transmogrified to "How now, brown frau?")
  
• Lunches with friends.

And then I read more about Katrina. About how the federal government cut spending for the levees and such to pay for Iraq, for homeland defense, despite the increased hurricane activity. About how the evacuation plans basically left poor (read: black, or African American, or whatever the correct term is these days) people to sink or swim, since they don't have their own transportation, nor enough money to pay others for transportation. About how the air smells of gas, and the water already will make you sick. About the oil refineries there, along with other industries, and how much it will hurt the nation as a whole (All those who think gas costs too much already, get ready for more sticker shock.). About what our esteemed (*cough*) president has done for this disaster, so much larger in physical impact than September 11.

And all I feel I can do to help is pull out the checkbook (even if it's online), tiny sponge that it might be ("a drop in the bucket" really not being the right metaphor). Which is just about nothing. But not quite nothing.

Comments

[queue.livejournal.com]

I know SCL was planning on moving in. When did they move? Did they throw a party or something?

[magid.livejournal.com]

They haven't moved in yet, which is good, because there's still a bunch of construction to be done on their new space. They change the windows once a month at most, so perhaps the move is supposed to be this fall.

[queue.livejournal.com]

Oh, I misread your post. Er, well, I was kind of reading quickly.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

(read: black, or African American, or whatever the correct term is these days)

Either work, but it gets tricky. Martin is black and these days he's American. But he's not African-American. Ethically he is West Indian or Afro-caribbean, but he no longer considers himself Jamaican as he gave up citizenship. I usually use African-American, unless I know that they are not.

I am upset that most of the pictures of the stranded people and the looters are black. Did they really leave all of the African-Americans behind?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I grew up using "black," and find "African-American" just too many syllables to use most of the time (living in a place that shortens street names down to Mem Drive and Mass Ave doesn't help, I suppose). Plus, as you point out, that describes some, but not all, people supposedly in the category. (And "people of color" is just problematic. I mean, everyone's some color, which makes it redundant.)

From what I've been reading, more of the poorest people in N.O. were African-Americans, so they were the ones with the least means to get themselves out of the city, and the evacuation plans of the city basically relied on people moving themselves. Not so impressive. Of course, it sounds like there were underfunding problems to deal with, as well. But yeah, basically. (I just tried to find what I'd read before, and am annoyed at myself for not keeping track of it.)

Possibly of interest:
One friend has noted that there are disparities in races, even amongst those who didn't leave.
Another has a lot of suggestions for what to do, but also links about background, as well.

[cellio]

I grew up using "black", too. I won't use "African-American" because it is incorrect and I am a pedant; those who use the term mean to include Jamaican blacks and exclude South-African whites, but correct use of the term would imply otherwise.

Cutting the funding for maintaining the levees to pay for Iraq was inexcusable. What a clear case of ignoring "homeland defense"! I guess they didn't actually intend that to mean "protecting the people and property that are here". Bah!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Do you use "black," then?

I totally agree, cutting levee funding in favor of Iraq was inexcusable. Of course, I'm of the view that most cutting of funding in favor of Iraq is problematic, in that I disagree with the war in iraq at all, beginning, middle, and now.

I've tended to read "homeland security" as Big-Brother-speak for "loss of rights" and "increased taxes" (in one way or another), not an actual increase in security.

The cynic in me wonders if they'd've dealt any better with a terrorist threatening to blow up the levees, since of course the only threat to our security is terrorists.

[cellio]

Do you use "black," then?

In my own speech/writing, yes. When interacting with others, generally but I try to be sensitive to their own preferences. If an individual black tells me that he finds the term offensive, I'll ask him to propose another term -- but I'll also try to cast the conversation in ways that let me not have to use a word for the group at all, if I can. Sometimes this just involves letting him steer the conversation more.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

How is it incorrect?

FWIW, all of the Jamaicans I have met tend to distinguish themselves among ethical lines, such as West Indian. Or sometimes I hear the term Afro-Caribbean. Only people who don't know them would call a Jamaican an African-American.

[cellio]

How is it incorrect?

Not all blacks are African. Not all Africans are black.

Only people who don't know them would call a Jamaican an African-American.

I agree -- but many people say that "African-American" is the correct term for blacks, and that "black" is somehow inappropriate. I can't bring myself to call a Jamaican an African-American, because he's not an African. (Ok, individuals might be -- but I mean as a group.)

I do have a (white) friend from South Africa who always checks "African-American" on forms, and argues if challenged that he is an American from Africa and if they meant something else, they should have used different words. I'll bet he's messed up more than a few affirmative-action databases, but it's their own darn fault.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I just have to tell you how pleasing it is to hear about your friend from South Africa.

The country says it wants to be color-blind, yet there's all this constant identifying and classifying, which doesn't lead to everyone being just people.

(Side note of tangential relevance: in some textbooks I've worked on, there's supposed to be a balance of ethnicities, with a certain percentage [black/African-American/whatever], a certain percentage Hispanic, and Asian, and so on. Which meant that I was supposed to choose names that were 'obviously' ethnic, since calling someone John in a word problem would get you any ethnicity points. Unless I used a real person of whatever desireable ethnicity, then s/he could be named whatever and it would count. It frustrated me to no end.]

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I would avoid using anything along the lines of "colored." I once saw someone call Pata "colored," when he really is an African-American (his parents are exiles from Zaire). The person walked away with their head still attached, but only just.

[magid.livejournal.com]

"Colored" says one of two things to me: early to mid 20th century terminology that was pc back then, or an official race designation in South Africa before apartheid was abolished. I'd never think to use "colored" in reference to a person's skin. (Clothes, sure :-)

(Someone actually called Pata colored?! To his face?! Some people are really stupid.)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

There are some recent posts here (http://www.prospect.org/) that talk about the demographics of New Orleans. About 67% black and the rest white, and many of the residents are poor - they couldn't afford to buy a bus ticket, don't own a car . . . and of course, many of the poor are also black.

It's also interesting to note that pictures of white people taking stuff from stores are not as likely to be labeled "looters" (although I will note that the examples of that I have seen were from different sources). Not that taking food without paying is looting in quite the same way that, say, breaking into a jewelry store is.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Not only could poor people not necessarily afford a bus ticket, it outrages me that all non-car options (other than bike or foot) weren't options at all, since the buses and trains and such closed in advance.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. _Brilliant_ evacuation strategy, that.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Tell me more about the statue. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

According to the English on the postcard (significantly shorter than the German), it's a "Contemporary paraphrase of the original of Durers Rabbit". (There should be an umlaut over the u, and presumably an apostrophe before the s in Durers. And I suspect Rabbit should be italicized, too.)

It's in the Albrecht-Durer-Platz in Nurnberg. The postcard shows a side view, which is not the one shown in this picture, where it looks a lot more innocuous. Check out the eye under the kid's leg, however. That's the part that I find creepy, a bronze statue with bloodshot eyes. (Or maybe they're just realistic. It's not what I expect on this kind of sculpture, though.)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Lunches with friends.

Yeah, I need to do that more often. :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

*smile*
Definitely.

I'm lucky enough that this week it was plural.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

Eeet has pointy teeth!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I couldn't quite see the teeth, but I imagine it does, given those eyes.