The Day After The Capture

When I was in the line Saturday at the airport in Minnesota  (returning to Oregon) having to have my bags  checked so I can get to my gate, there was a Middle Eastern-looking gentleman ahead of me with a full beard, waiting for the containers they give us to store our carry-ons  that go through the ex-ray.  The TSA guy asked him tons of questions.  He asked him where he was going, what he did for a living, and asked how terrible the tragedy was in  Boston. My guess was  he did that to gauge his opinion of it. The Middle Eastern-looking gentleman was a Sunday School teacher, a pastor of an Episcopalian church in Minnesota, and was headed to Berkeley, to speak to an Episcopalian class there.  The TSA  guy tried to guess the gentleman’s ethnicity by guessing 2 or  3 Arab countries when the guy said Sicily,  that he was 100% Sicilian and raised Catholic but converted to Episcopalian to please his wife.  Every bit of prejudgment the TSA guy had was disintegrated.   I was personally bothered by how he was treated.   The gentleman didn't seem to mind. He smiled a lot and answered  every question. It wasn’t an interrogation it seemed, because we were standing in line. The TSA guy just walked up to him and started asking questions. And when the TSA guy saw me he just said good afternoon and walked further down the line.  Even after he stood in that chamber they have us to stand in with our arms raised above our heads-they pulled him over to the side to waive a wand over his body, front and back and between his legs and underneath his arms. It seemed they were determined to find something on the man, but he remained cool and calm and very obedient. Then eyen re-scanned his items. They found nothing. They had to let the Sicilian gentleman with olive skin and a thick beard, who was not a Muslim, but a Christian, pass.

 Unfortunately, this is the times in which we live.  We can’t be too careful, though I know how it feels to be prejudged based on how I look. I remember when it was just black folks that white people felt they had to look out for. 

Unfortunately for  CNN's John King as well ,  it's white folks as well.  His characterization of the suspect(s) as  "dark-skinned"...inflammatory, appealingto prejudice, as it turned out, was incorrect.

I have yet to hear an apology from him.

Dear White People

-- Justin Simien doesn't mind the possible comparisons to Spike Lee. Since the recent release of the trailer for his film Dear White People, a satire about black students' experience at PWIs (Predominantly White Institutions), many have noted the similarities between its take on race relations and Lee's own joints. (The clip already has more than 600,000 views on YouTube and has raised more than $41,400 on Indiegogo, surpassing its $25,000 fundraising goal.)
But, Simien says, the film is not just about race. "The movie to me is really about what it means to your identity when you are a thing that everyone around you has a preconception about," he explained. "And how that can really limit you, your potential, and in some ways, honestly, help you find yourself."
Simien used his own college years as inspiration, with the first few drafts culled from experiences such as when his suitemate was disappointed that the filmmaker couldn't teach him how to Crip Walk, or how people were obsessed with his hair. He talked with The Root about how Dear White People came to life and how he hopes it will spark much-needed cross-cultural conversations.
The Root: Why do you think it's so important for a movie like yours to be released now?

Justin Simien: We are coming out of this fantasy that we are postracial, and I just think … we have to challenge ourselves a little bit. There are a lot of people in the world who are just comfortable not really considering things from other perspectives. This film, what it hopefully will accomplish … is to put some very new perspectives out there about race and identity. It's important for black film. It's important for film, and it's being talked about in pretty much every format except for film right now. You have it in music, with comedians. You have books coming out about it -- How to Be Black [by Baratunde Thurston], Who's Afraid of Post-Racial Blackness? by Touré.
TR: Race and identity are satirized heavily in the film. Did you take any inspiration from comedians?
JS: Dave Chappelle is one of the first people to break through and have this really major crossover appeal commenting about the black experience. Donald Glover, who I'm just a tremendous fan of, who's on Community, has a rap persona as well. His commentary about being a black nerd is something that was inspiring. Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks, too, was just a huge inspiration. It was funny, extreme satire and … it just went there unapologetically. You know, Martin Luther King waking up [from a coma] and being call a socialist was the most ridiculous, amazing piece of television [laughs].
 
TR: What was your character development process like?
JS: There was always [characters like] a Sam, a Coco, a Troy and a Lionel ever since I started writing the script in 2005. It's really hard for me as a writer to really talk about any major topics, such as identity, from one point of view. So, I love ensemble movies -- Do the Right Thing, Election, The Royal Tenenbaums and Insane. Those movies are such an inspiration to me because you see this one thing dissected from all these different points of [view]. Sam, her voice was definitely developed through the Twitter account @DearWhitePeople; that's where I really honed her in a little bit as a funny, Angela-Davis-Malcolm X-Huey-Lisa-Bonet-type of amalgamation [laughs]. The other characters were culled from people I knew and experiences that I had personally.
TR: How has the film changed since you wrote it in 2005?

JS: When I first started writing it, I was fresh out of film school. I don't think I was a strong enough writer to write a script like this. At the time, it was called Two Percent … and it was just a series of episodes. Myself and the other producers all met in writers' groups where I was working on some version of it. That's where we all became friends and decided to do this project together. It really wasn't until two years ago when I felt a sense of urgency about it all of a sudden. We then took it to a workshop and did it with actors -- that was such a profound moment because I think we all heard it for the first time and were like, "Wow, this is the movie, this is a real story and it works."
Jade O. Earle is an editorial intern at The Root. 


--courtesy, the Root

WTF moment

So,

I'm on the train this morning headed to work, and this older white-haired lady is staring at me either  like she had never seen ablack man before or she was afraid I might beat her up.  I don't know what kind of look I had on my face (though most people say I always look pissed off until I smile), but the young man who was sitting with her smiled at me and said :

"Sorry for the stares, sir. This is my grandmother's first time outside of Finland. She's only seen black people for the first time this morning when I picked her up at the airport."

Stupidity

 So,  about an hour ago I'm in the elevator at work heading down stairs, and a white guy and 2 white women get on at the 5th floor. The white guy looks at me like he knows me and smiles and says hi, and I say hi back. Then he says:

"Oh, I'm sorry, you look like Will."
In this building of maybe 1,000 people, there are about 7 black men. Before I could open my mouth, one of the women says :

"Will, you're in my Diversity meetings.We meet every tuesday afternoon on Diversity projects!"

My response:

"Will is about 6'3" and tall and lean,and light-complextioned and wears glasses. And in his 20s. I'm 5'8" and I'm not lean,I'm dark skinned and I don't wear glasses. And I'm in my 40s. We look as different as night and day. If you think we look alike, then I don't even know what to say."

They all gave me that blank look of awkwardness, like they couldn't wait to get to the first floor to get away from me since I embarrassed them. I'm sure the rest of the elevator ride was uncomfortable for them, but I didn't care.

The situation reminds me of an episode on Good Times where JJ was accused of robbery, as he fit the description of the criminal, but when the criminal was discovered, it was a young, very short,  fat black boy, and the cops told Florida and James "it was an honest error. Anyone would have made that mistake."