~Monday~ I actually drove into work today. The Wolfline service is in a “dead week”: the regular semester service has ended, but the summer service hasn’t yet begun. There are only three routes in service, none of which come near my house.
While in the car, I heard a portion of a very compelling interview with two women who are doing work to eliminate racism, which reminded me of my participation in NC State University’s Study Circles on Race and Race Relations program in March and April of 2009. The interview was on public radio and was described as follows:
| The YWCA of the Greater Triangle’s Racial Justice Initiative aims to empower women and eliminate racism through dialogue, action and advocacy. Luckily, the ambitious goals are being taken on by a team that includes two women who have been challenging people to address racism head-on for many years.
Crystal Hayes and Julia Dawson met in college where they began their advocacy work in favor of racial justice. In the beginning, Hayes, an African-American woman from New York, rejected the idea of a friendship with Dawson, a white Southerner who is about 10 years her junior. Eventually, their shared passion for bringing an end to racism brought them together – first as partners in activism, then as pals. Hayes and Dawson join host Frank Stasio to talk about their approach to generating honest dialogue about race and how their friendship fuels their important work. |
They talked about the notion of what they refer to as the “classroom-to-prison pipeline,” which I found interesting, and they gave this example of policy-based institutionalized racism: when students can be suspended for infractions with a range of severity, statistics show that non-white kids disproportionately suffer at the one end.
This is my offering of an instance of that general statement for better understanding. Let’s say you can get two days suspension for an infraction that ranges from calling a teacher an epithet, to threatening a teacher, to actually laying a hand on them. Statistics show that more non-white students than white students would be suspended for calling the teacher an epithet. The white kids would have to do something toward the more severe end of the spectrum.
The story ended with a pointer to a blog these two women are publishing, to which I’ve subscribed to with an RSS feed: ellaprinciple.org.
At work, I had to move my car after two hours, because of the parking zone I was in, and I took the opportunity to run over to Cameron Village, where I enjoyed a Butterscotch Concrete at Goodberry’s. Yum. Yum. Yum.
When walking to my car at the end of the day, I was reminded of a time when adjacency pairs actually meant something. In layman’s terms, when you walked by someone in their yard and heard, “Hi!” and you looked at them to say hi back, they were actually talking to you and not into their phone.
I arrived at the gym at around 6:30, and it was absolutely jam-packed in there. This is not the first time this has happened, and if I remember correctly, it was on a Monday night the last time it happened, too. With this time after-work always already being the most crowded, in walks a guy with between 15 and 20 kids, who proceed to cluster over to the free-weight area that’s already packed to the gills. I don’t know if it’s a gymnastic team or cheerleaders (or some other stereotypically female group), but it’s all prepubescent girls except for three or four of them, who are boys (as opposed to post-pubescent girls).
And as if that isn’t enough, there is also a group of about 7 or 8 older people—and you know they’re old when I say “older,” because that means they’re older than me, and I’m old as dirt. They’re with this lady who presumably is their trainer, who’s also older, not attractive (not that that matters; but there, I said it), and whom I would classify as “average” fitness-wise—certainly not overweight like those in her charge, but looking at her, the word “fit” wouldn’t even rise to the top ten adjectives that I’d use to describe her. Okay, now I’m getting catty.
The point is, and I dohave one, “Why do these groups of people have to come to the gym at the busiest time of the day?” It seems to me that both these “demographics” could more easily come at a different time than the working stiffs whose schedules presumably aren’t as flexible.
I did my usual ab crunches and elliptical work and scooted on out of there.
On the way home, I listened to part of the Fresh Air episode called Reporting On Hidden Dangers Of Medical Radiation. If you—or anyone you know or love—ever has to have radiation therapy, you absolutely must listen to this interview. It is really unbelievable how unregulated the industry is. In a lot—if not in most—states, the person administering the radiation is not required to be credentialed in any way. If they are, it’s only because the particular hospital or clinic they work in has chosen to require them to be.
It’s a very thoughtful piece done by a New York Times investigative reporter, which ended in a driveway moment when I arrived at home.
I met Joe at Kanki at Crabtree for our 8:00 reservation to use a Groupon that was expiring on Wednesday. I arrived a little before him, and sat across from a couple—of the male and female variety—who for the five minutes I sat across from them never spoke a word to one another. They were both reading and texting on their phones, and I hoped that they weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. The girl had on calf-high cowboy boots with tight-tight, short-short painted-on white shorts that corralled her bubble-butt ass into distracting mounds. Distracting even to me.
A group of three other people eventually joined them, and Joe and I ended up sitting with all of them at one table, which is how Kanki seats everyone, since they essentially put on a “show” when they cook. They always seat you with other people if you don’t have enough in your own party to fill up a table. In addition to the seven of us, two more people joined us before they started taking our orders.
Joe had their Hibachi Shrimp and I had the Filet Mignon and Chicken Hibachi. Those come with soup, a salad with their ginger dressing, which I absolutely love, a grilled shrimp appetizer, sautéed zucchini, mushrooms, and onions, and some fried rice. Love all of it.