Just Us

Adult nonfiction 

     Some books are really hard to describe.  Usually when I run across such a volume I return it to the library unread.  But Claudia Rankine's Just Us: An American Conversation was too intriguing to put down.

     Right handed pages contain poems and essays on what racism feels like in daily life in the most quotidian of spaces and interactions.  The microaggressions and other tribulations that fly under the radar of many whites.  Left handed pages are a scrapbook of photographs, pictures, back stories, and sources.

     One of the essays that really got to me was the one entitled daughter.  It begins with this paragraph:

     "Because I want the world for my daughter, and I do mean the world, I have my most corrupt thought of the year.  It's time for the fall parent-teacher meetings at her predominantly white high school, and I think, if her white father goes on his own, her teachers' unconscious racial bias won't be triggered by me to land on her.  Oh God.  Oh God.  Oh God."

     Can you imagine knowing that your mere presence might be detrimental to your beloved daughter's educational experience and opportunities?

     The piece entitled violent starts with a child's coloring of Goldilocks and the three bears.  The child artist was told he had "ruined" the picture by coloring Goldilocks brown.  Rankine delves into the doll preferences tests and the ways in which white teachers convey suspicion of darker skinned children and judge their behaviors more harshly than those of white peers.

     And what about the myriad microaggressions of white male frequent flyers making the skies not so friendly.

     If, like me, you're white, I suggest you read the book.  It may change the way you perceive the public spaces that we all inhabit.

On a purrrsonal note, Academic Showcase went super well.  It's like a science fair for higher education graduate students.  Students who had seminar showed their posters contrasting different kinds of schools on specific issues.  My internship class did exhibit on our internships.  We were to show artifacts and discuss what we did and what we learned.  It was fun.  I had plenty of people come to my table.  They said they really enjoyed my presentation.  

Well now I'm done with work and classes until spring semester.  About a month vaca.  (Jules)

She'll be here more!  That's my big Christmas present!  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all the other Academic Showcase participants.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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