| | |
|
AustenBrandfordFirstPaper 5 - 23 Apr 2012 - Main.AustenBrandford
|
| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
|---|
| | | Dignity Through Defiance | |
<
< | The cul-de-sac on which my childhood home is situated has eight houses around its perimeter and a very wide variety of residents: one pastor, three interracial families, a single woman, two Jewish families, and a gay couple. Given the diversity and friendliness, my darker skin tone never led to feelings of inferiority or subordination. However, these feelings and the subsequent urge to lash out against everything that caused them could be found just a few minutes away. | >
> | The cul-de-sac abutting my childhood home has eight houses around its perimeter and a very wide variety of residents: one pastor, three interracial families, a single woman, two Jewish families, and a gay couple. The neighborhood, located near the center of Seattle, is among the more affluent in the city proper. Given the diversity, friendliness, and financial comfort, my darker skin tone never led to feelings of inferiority or subordination. However, these feelings and the subsequent urge to lash out against everything that caused them could be found just a few minutes away. | | | | |
<
< | Madison Park is a neighborhood in which some of the world’s wealthiest people reside. In the middle of the neighborhood on an enormous piece of lakeside property is the Seattle Tennis Club—a country club that was a summer hot spot for teenagers because we could lay poolside and charge drinks to their parents’ accounts. I went there once when I was 17 and I refuse to ever go back. | >
> | Madison Park is a neighborhood in which some of the world’s wealthiest people reside. In the middle of the neighborhood on an enormous piece of lakeside property is the Seattle Tennis Club—a country club that was a summer hot spot for teenagers because we could lay poolside and charge drinks to friends parents’ accounts. I went there once when I was 17 and I refuse to ever go back. | | | Almost every employee at the Seattle Tennis Club is black. Every single member of the club is white. Noticing this immediately rubbed me the wrong way and I felt like I should trade in my swimsuit and towel for a uniform and platter of hors d'oeuvres. What really got to me, however, was the way that the members looked at me.
You have to be friends with a current member in order to get a spot on the club’s extensive waiting list. This is a very effective way for the club to explain the complete lack of diversity, as well as a very effective way to maintain it. When I walked by tables of people eating nicoise salads in my shorts and a tank top, they would realize that I was there to enjoy the club and not to work there. While some didn’t seem very bothered, others displayed facial expressions ranging from confusion to disgust. | | | I’ll never go back because I hate what that environment did to me. Not only did I reaffirm what these people expected from someone “like me,” but also I acted in a way of defiance and disrespect that is completely out of character. I generally respect rules and order, but feeling like a disrespected, worthless outsider who would never be welcomed into their ranks made me truly not give a damn about their rules and customs. It was a way for me to try to protect my dignity, but it backfired and I walked out feeling like I deserved to be mistreated. Luckily, I can simply avoid places like that. They belong to the very upper crust and elitist portion of society, which is a small (albeit powerful) group. | |
<
< | This experience made me realize that I have been very fortunate and extremely sheltered. There are many people in this country with a similar skin tone to mine who feel this way every day. They feel like institutions like education and the legal system work against them. They push back in ways that others may see as defiance, but they are really just trying to maintain some pride in systems that screwed them over from the start. The effects of this, like lower education and higher crime rates, are obviously harmful and perpetuate the problem. However, while I could just get in my car and drive back to the safety of my cul-de-sac, many more people are stuck in a cycle that goes far beyond the confines of a waterfront country club. | | | \ No newline at end of file | |
>
> | This experience made me realize that I have been very fortunate and extremely sheltered. There are many people in this country who feel this way every day. They feel like institutions like education and the legal system work against them. They push back in ways that others may see as defiance, but they are really just trying to maintain some pride while being forced to deal with systems that screwed them over from the start. The effects of this, like lower education and higher crime rates, are obviously harmful and perpetuate the problem, and the oppressive institutions are ubiquitous and powerful. While I could just get in my car and drive back to the safety of my cul-de-sac, many more people are stuck in a cycle that goes far beyond the confines of a waterfront country club. |
|
|
|
|
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
|
|
| | |