1) Blogger looks great in Safari.
2) The Macbook Pro keyboard types better in the Mac OS than when I'm booted into Windows. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying: the keys feel to actually click differently while I'm using OS X, lending itself to a perfectly punctuated and sensuous experience. This is the worse sort of fascism--it's fashionism, and it's corrupt, and its delicious. This bears further investigation.
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I've been in Altanta for a week and a half, and I can't tell whether the people here love Obama, or not. Every other street corner has a gazillion Obama tee shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, and hats for sale. Tons of them. If Obama was popular, shouldn't these be sold out?
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I had to buy some equipment for the show I'm working on, so I got a cab to go out to a place called Little Five Points. My driver sounded almost Italian, or maybe Greek, but he had dark skin. We exchanged pleasantries and I told him my plans. As he drove on he said, "I love this show--you ever hear this?" It was Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion". At that moment, he was Guy Noir: Private Eye.
"Yeah, it's pretty funny."
"Man, I love this guy. There is a show on television?" he asked.
"No, just the radio." I said, looking out the window.
"Yeah, it's really really good. I listen to it every time."
I decided this guy was determined to talk to me, and any further blow-off attempts would be rude now that I've become cognizant. "However; they did make a movie."
"Oh."
We talked about some more things, and then we came to Best Buy.
"You sure you don't mind waiting for me?"
"How long you going to be?"
"15 minutes."
"Okay, I wait."
After awhile I exited the store and waited a minute or so until he came back around the corner. When I jumped in he said, "Man, you got it! 15 minutes exactly!"
"What can I say? I'm good." He laughed and lurched the taxi into traffic.
"Man, can you believe this guy won?" He said, pointing at some Obama posters. "A guy from Kenya is the president of America!"
I wondered whether he was speaking of heritage, or actually saying Obama was born in Kenya. I decided if I changed the subject it wouldn't matter. "Where are you from?", I asked.
"Africa", then he said something I couldn't understand. "Somalia-land", he finished up.
"You're from Somalia?"
"Yeah. Man, I can't believe this guy is president! Only in America could this happen. And you know something--God must have wanted this because nothing could stop him. Everything people say; all the evil people he hang around with; nobody know anything about him, and he still win."
"You think God wanted Obama to be president?"
"It's a miracle! It must be."
I wondered--in the ancient sense--at that. Did God want Obama to be the president? I'd never thought of it before; not in a direct there-was-an-intercession-for-Obama way. Maybe so.
"I voted for McCain", he continued.
"Really?"
About this time we pulled back up at the convention center. "Yeah, man, these guys, they don't know who they voting for. These blacks--these niggers--"
By this point we had stopped, and he was turned halfway around, facing me. The cringe in my head must have been on my face.
"--it's okay; it's just slang, you know? Anyway, these people don't know who they voting for. He's not black, he's Kenyan, and white. If you black, you're grandfather's grandfather's grandfather from here, right? They ought to elect that guy--that guy's black."
2 comments:
I see your mistake there, Cane. You got into a taxi alone, whilst being male. You see, had you been accompanied by a young lady, you would have got silence from a supportive brother who was rooting for you to get lucky, and maybe a few winks in the rear view mirror. Had you been alone but female, he wouldn't have dared to talk to you in case you sued him for sexual harrassment. But lone males are fair game. Or at least, that's how it works over here.
I've heard that view before, and it still baffles me. Obama isn't black enough? I mean, for crying out loud. It's a start, isn't it?
I'm really don't get self-dubbing with the word 'nigger'. I detest the word, and I don't understand why people would want to use it among themselves when it represents so much bad history.
The line of those waiting to be my cabmate is very short.
"I really don't get self-dubbing with the word 'nigger'."
It's easy to miss when reading a transcription, but by his voice I could tell that he didn't identify as a 'nigger'; that it only identified American blacks descended from slaves.
As for the bad history: it kind of makes sense. He's an immigrant from Africa--he has no real appreciation for the bad history. And because so many blacks in Atlanta use nigga to describe themselves (Dre calls it "Niggaville USA" in "Spottieottiedopaliscious"), in his mind it can't be that derogatory. A perfectly sensible conclusion from a perfectly muddled American culture. It's not a good fit.
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