May 3, 2005
the ongoing quest
I calculated the following today.
I moved out to go to college when I was 17. I am now 31.
There are 365 days in the year.
Out of each of those days, I was conscious for approximately 16 hours each day.
Calculated out, over the course of the last 14 years, I have spent 81,760 conscious hours looking for quarters with which to do my laundry.
That's a lot of hours.
Back in the days when I traveled for work, I would hoard strange and silly stories like quarters and bring them back to my coworkers as gifts. The nature of my business travel didn't tend to support actual, physical presents; it's hard to go out and find souvenirs when your work hours are from 7AM to 11PM, with 5 minutes for lunch if you're lucky.
Now that I don't travel, it's my coworkers who bring me back stories. K, the owner of the cat-ravished Elvis car, traveled to Tennessee several months ago on a business trip. Several days into the trip, she was met by her husband, who flew out to spend some vacation days with her.
At one point, she and her husband booked tickets to see a show at a large arena. Accompanied by one of our clients, she arrived at the arena and found people streaming out of what was obviously a previous showing. She and her husband waited.
On the other hand, the client who accompanied her was plainly uncomfortable and embarrassed. "We must seem a little backwards to you," he said.
K and her husband were puzzled. The arena was obviously made with up-to-date concepts. Concrete. Electricity. Even plumbing. There were no horses or pigs or mules in the parking lot.
The client waved a hand at the crowd streaming out of the arena. "The earlier showing's for the ethnics," he said, apologetically.
...and K and her husband, both charming, intelligent, educated white people from California, realized for the first time that all the people coming out of the arena were, indeed, not Caucasians.
"Ethnics," she said to me later, blankly. "I couldn't believe he said that, for one thing. I wouldn't even have noticed if he hadn't pointed it out. And anyway, 'ethnics'? There was maybe one or two asians, and everybody else was black. How do you get 'ethnics' from that? I mean ... ethnics?"
Ethnic ol' me laughed herself sick.
Nowadays she and her husband, still bemused by the entire experience, recall the strangeness of the South and its ways with tongue-in-cheek mockery. They reserve tickets for showings and concerts, and caution each other over the phone, "You sure you didn't get the showing for the 'ethnics'?"
It's sad that there are places in this supposedly progressive and leader-of-the-free-world country that still feel it's necessary to segregate people based on color. That it's so entrenched that people feel more comfortable that way -- at least until they see it through someone else's eyes -- is even sadder. Then again, this is the same country that still thinks Creationism should be taught in schools, and tries to force at-risk children to bear more children.
On the other hand, this is the same country where a nice young couple from California looked at a segregated crowd and didn't even realize it, because it literally did not occur to them to register skin color.
We might be slow, but we're getting there.
Posted by yhirata at May 3, 2005 2:39 PMWhoa! As someone who was born and raised a Yankee, then successfully transplanted in the Deep South 35 years ago, I can't let this one go by without comment. Maybe I've led a sheltered life down here. Maybe my home in Alabama is an atypical island. But I have traveled a bit in the South as well. And I must say that the only public accommodations I've encountered that are segregated by color -- and in this case it's a matter of choice on the part of both segments of society -- are the churches. I have never heard the term "ethnics" used in a context such as that of the traveler's story. But again, I may have sheltered myself from gritty realities. So, today I showed the article to James, a black friend and sometime co-worker. He grew up in Mississippi in the "bad old days," moved north to work in the auto industry most of his life, then came back to the South to spend his retirement years. Why? Because yes, he has a higher comfort level with life here than in the more "enlightened" state of New York where he worked 40-some years. After reading about the "ethnics" incident his first question was, "Just where is this supposed to have taken place?" We both agreed that there may indeed be isolated places where such things do still persist. But in most parts of the South that type of situation went away decades ago. And, if we're going to base judgments about whole regions of the country on what happened decades ago, I guess even California would not get off scot-free. Just for a start, I'm recalling Watts in 65 and the Rodney King Uprising in 92, both suggesting that some folks out there evidently aren't completely color-blind either. Having said all that, the reported "ethnics incident" is still intriguing to me. Was there anything more specific such as the city of the occurrence? Did it involve separate performances of the same show, one for each group? Or was the content of the shows different, such that there may have been an appeal to different audiences? Etc.
Posted by: Jerry at May 4, 2005 8:07 PMHmmm, wonder why my previous post didn't trigger the comment-counter? Perhaps because it was done from Firefox?
Posted by: jerry at May 4, 2005 8:19 PMHm. Interesting. There must be some sort of weirdness going on with the comment thingamajimmy. I'll take a look at it. I revised the site design, so it might be that things aren't getting picked up.
In the meantime: Location. The story actually took place in Memphis, which certainly isn't a backwoods town. I'll have to double-check on what the event itself was. I forget. :>
And, you're right: California has its own (serious) problems with race relations -- gangs, riots, local government corruption and nepotism, so it isn't fair of me to point at the South and isolate it as the home of all that is evil.
On the other hand ... "Ethnics." It still makes me giggle.
Posted by: Yuhri at May 5, 2005 9:43 AMMy husband and I went to a restaurant the other night. "Something's wrong" I commented to him, as we were getting ready to order. I looked around: nice decor, quiet people, deferential waiters. What could be wrong? It wasn't until later that I realized what was WRONG. All of the people in the restaurant, service and clientele alike (ourselves included), were of a single ethnicity. Here in Los Angeles, we're a melting pot. To be in a venue that's one color only is weird and felt wrong, even on the subliminal level, before being identified consciously.
Yes, baby steps in progress. I have hope for the future.
Posted by: Sarah at May 6, 2005 10:58 AM