Black in College

Like so many countries occupied by Western forces, Nigeria is in turmoil. When countries are occupied by foreign forces, they become increasingly conservative in order to protect what they see as the occupiers infringing upon their rights to their own culture and political systems. I have no doubt that things like spousal abuse and rape have escalated in Nigeria in addition to this surge of violence–that is also a by-product of colonialism.

Yet again, the Western media has made it seem like these conflicts are something new–that unrest is something Nigeria has been unfamiliar with for some time. But for anyone who knows anything about the countries and history of the African continent, it’s pretty damn obvious that Nigeria is notorious for terrible acts of violence. And all of this violence is coming from the exploitation of Nigeria’s resources. Oil companies not only drain the area of it’s so-called “black gold,” but they destroy the local environment, making in impossible for farmers to maintain their crop. They pretend to care about building schools, educating the youth, and investing in the area–when really, all they’re doing is sucking it dry.

And just like their counterparts in the Middle East, the people in Northern Nigeria are reacting against all things Western in an attempt to take back control of their lives and their countries–but it’s not going to happen. Keeping the local people uneducated and in poverty is what makes it possible for oil companies, and consequently, Nigerian politicians to rake in the dough while their citizens are stranded in squalor.

To the shock and dismay of the universe, a cop said something racist. So… what now?

Apparently, Justin Barrett, a 36 year old cop and member of the National Guard called Henry Louis Gates Jr. a “jungle monkey” in an e-mail he sent to some of his fellow National Guard members–and the Boston Globe. Now he’s on paid leave until his union can decide what they want to do with him. CNN took care to mention that the message seemed more like a “rant” and another article I read via Yahoo! News said the e-mail was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. He used the phrase “jungle monkey” four or so times in the e-mail, but maintains that he is not racist. His lawyer attempted to clarify, saying Barrett never called Gates a “jungle monkey,” but rather said he was behaving like one… This is one of those instances where the art of semantics will come to no avail.

Everyone that matters is calling for this guy to be fired, even referring to him as a “cancer.” I don’t know what possessed this man to send out a mass e-mail on how he would have sprayed Gates in the face with pepper spray if he were the cop called to his door–but, as I’m sure you have guessed, I’m not surprised. I think it’s important that people within the police force and the National Guard make it clear that they don’t agree with his racist comments, but I also wonder if this is another Don Imus case–a case of free speech.

Like Don Imus, this idiot Barrett should have the right to say whatever he wants. Both Don Imus and Barrett claim that they are not racist, and that their comments were simply taken out of context. And I haven’t a doubt in my mind that these guys sincerely believe they’re not racists. It could be argued that Barrett was calling for violence when he said he would have sprayed Gates in the face with pepper spray if he were the cop in attendance, but I believe that’s stretching it. I find our right to free speech more important than the diatribe of a fool.

After returning from a trip to China, literary theorist Henry Louis Gates Jr. and a driver were attempting to bring his luggage into his “well-maintained two story home” when the door jammed. Gates went through the backdoor and managed to let his driver in. After the driver left, and on the phone with the maintenance company, a couple police officers show up saying someone called in about an attempted robbery. The police officers claim Gates responded irrationally and with loudly about his being racially profiled before eventually turning up his Harvard and state identification. When the conversation continued, the police officers say Gates asked for the identification of the officer but was denied. Angry, Gates supposedly followed the officer to his car saying, “You haven’t heard that last of me” before the officer finally arrested Gates for disorderly conduct. Gates’ lawyer says there’s no way Gates could have been yelling because he was sick and in no position to be yelling and carrying on–even if he’d wanted to. His lawyer also said that Gates isn’t the only black professor at Harvard to be approached by police in Cambridge.

Is this racial profiling?

Absolutely. No question. But by whom? Now, although Gates was understandably upset, it was not in his best interests to be angry with the cops, because they did now show up of their own accord. A woman living/existing nearby happened to see Gates and the driver trying to enter the house “wearing backpacks” and (of course) assumed that they were attempting to break in. This is the woman who was profiling Gates–not necessarily the cops. Should the cops have been expected to be familiar with Gates and his work? Why should they?

The woman who called the police assumed that Gates was breaking into the house for two reasons. The first reason is because he is a black man standing in front of a nice home — the second reason is because he was wearing casual attire and a “backpack.” It would come as no surprise to me if she didn’t notice the rest of the luggage at all.

Another thing that annoys me about this story is that the Associated Press takes care to mention that his home is “well-maintained” and that he was wearing casual attire. It doesn’t matter what condition his home is in or what he was wearing — in one night he had trouble with his jammed door and he was thrown in jail. Why would they see it fit to mention these things? Well, because if his home was dilapidated there would be reason to believe a poor (black) person was living there. And if he was wearing baggy jeans and a hoodie, then she would have been COMPLETELY justified in calling the cops… right? Both the woman who called 911 and Ms. Trujillo of the Associated Press are assuming that criminals are supposed to look a certain way — and only if someone who doesn’t fit the typical description of a criminal gets arrested does that count as profiling.

Good job.

Squeezed on the Rutgers bus system yet again, I read something interesting in the Targum. I’m not really sure how I feel about it. The former governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, came to speak at the Eagleton Institute of Politics a couple days ago. She came to speak about diversity in politics, and she mentioned the recent demolishment of the Republican Party as an example. She said it’s time they get with the times and start reaching out to darkies of all sorts. I think that’s obviously what the Republican Party should have been thinking of when they were running against a potential black president. They should have tried to come up with their own platform catering to dark folks–perhaps they would have gotten more votes.

Mark Huckabee is a good example of a white politician who actively sought out black voters–and it worked. Whether or not a politician actually cares about the plight of brown people of all sorts, it’s important to at least seem like you care if you’re going to get any votes outta people. Unless you hadn’t noticed the recent presidential election, a majority of the people in this country aren’t vehement racists. I think most people are just uncomfortable with the idea of “racial mixing,” but I’ll sure as hell take discomfort as opposed to… pure hatred.

Whitman also talked about gender. She said in order to ensure diversity in politics, it’s important to vote women as equally qualified as their man-counterparts into office. And while I feel encouraged by the increasing number of blacks and Hispanics in political positions, I also think it’s going to take a while to reach true diversity. Where are the Asian politicians, for instance?

Anyway, it seems that people are more concerned with filling up the Obama administration with non-threatening black men than anything else. Don’t get me wrong–I like the guy and I like his reputation and political viewpoints thus far, but all politicians shouldn’t be chosen on the tenants of white guilt.

…Right?

Earlier this afternoon, I thought my precalculus class was supposed to meet at 1:55. After my morning ecology class, I spent the remainder of the late morning and early afternoon doing math homework to catch up with the assignments after my horrible stomach virus. For some reason, it felt like time was going in my favor for once. I finished some homework and even began to fully understand some concepts–until I walked over to the lecture hall at 1:35 (intending to catch my usual seat) to see the auditorium filled with students already. I initially thought the previous class hadn’t yet let out, until I remembered that my precalc class meets at 12:35. I am an idiot. I don’t know where my head has been at, but I seem to be making a number of different blunders like this lately. I figure I’ll e-mail the professor, explain to him what happened, and then just ask him my intended question through the mail. If I have to bring it up after class again next Thursday, then I’ll do that. Other than that, I’m just going to have to make sure I don’t keep pulling crap like this. Usually, I catch myself before a major blunder, but this semester has really gotten to about four different bad starts. Blah.

On my way back home on the Ride of Defeat, I grabbed a copy of the Targum. It appears that some intelligent young women with the student council on Douglass have been taking issues with the staff shortage and mismanagement at Rutgers. Obviously, it’s a product of the budget cuts, and the budget cuts are a product of the recession, but the last thing that should be cut after Rutgers has been admitting at least 70% of its applicants is the health services available to all of those kids. All the doctors and nurses I meet have a chip on their shoulder because they can’t catch a break. It’s ridiculous.

Another great point the ladies of the council made to the Health Center Director Lady is that there has been a lot of misdiagnoses on the part of the doctors and nurses. Apparently it’s happened to them personally–and you know it’s happened to me. It’s boiled down to me trying to solve my own health problems, and that shouldn’t be the case. As far as my yeast infection goes, I have no idea if it’s the same one or if it’s been just one yeast infection. I have no idea if the Boyfriend is a carrier and we’ve just been passing it back and forth. Who knows. I just know that I want it over and done with once and for all, and for some reason, Hurtado can’t seem to give me any reasons why it either keeps coming back or hasn’t gone away.

While I was squeezed on a Rutgers bus trying to get to one of my many classes dealing with the various aspects of soil existence, I read in the Daily Targum that apparently President Obama recently called on some pretty influential academics from Rutgers to help him set up a method of giving people of little means an education that does not involve sitting in a building that costs money to run. As one of many initiatives he seems to be working on, I think this is an extremely important one–for reasons that may seem obvious to you. While online educations are already available, they are still not as inexpensive. It takes time for a professor across the country to go online and try to get in contact with his/her students in addition to whatever other brick and mortar/field work they may be doing.

I think it would be a really good idea to find some kind of standardized system for people looking to get their education online–something that doesn’t cost as much, but offers a wide range of opportunities for people without money–or people who are just interested. As a matter of fact, I think it would be a great opportunity for people with knowledge in a bunch of different areas, but not too many credentials to earn some extra money on the side. I would think all the online schools already established would get a ton of applications all the time. I might even consider it myself. $15 an hour or so helping people learn some basic Geology stuff would really be a great job.

One of the things that continues to surprise me, is the demand for Rutgers experts in the government. There are some pretty impressive people out there, and there are a good number of them at this school–the school that has an acceptance rate of at least 65-70% at the undergraduate level. At the graduate level, however, Rutgers is more competitive than some Ivy Leagues…

I watched the first couple episodes of “Black. White.” with the boyfriend earlier this week, and he was extremely aggravated by the attitudes of the white family. I felt bad for subjecting him to that, because he and I are very open when it comes to discussions/jokes about race. The only time a discussion got a little heated was before Barack Obama became the President-elect. He said Obama is articulate, and I had to explain why that was an inappropriate comment. He was not surprised–I think he just didn’t realize what he was saying. After dating a psychotic African girl and then an eccentric black girl right afterward, he’s most certainly aware of our cultural differences.

After one episode of “Black. White.” he was done for the day, promising that we would watch another episode later (which we never did). He was pissed at the “surprisingly” ignorant white family for expecting a bigger reaction to their newfound black existence than they got, and I was pissed at the black family for not being able to concentrate more on their own experiences, rather than spending each episode schooling the white folks. Then again, I’ve only seen two episodes thus far.

The most annoying character for me was Bruno Wurgel, who spends every minute of every episode preaching positivism. He’s convinced that the only racism black people experience nowadays is all their own creation. He thinks if you have a positive outlook, no one can get to you–not even a vehement racist who shouts “Hey, nigger!” for no particular reason. My hope is that Big Man Wurgel will soon realize that he’s not going to get the type of racism he seeks; because interestingly enough, he criticizes black people for seeing racism when there is none, and yet even in black-face, he can’t see the fear or apprehension in the eyes of the white people he encounters. I guess white people do a good job of “just being polite.”

Really, I’m not sure what the black people are supposed to get out of the show. Perhaps they’ll realize that white people have more to do with themselves than sit around hating black people? I don’t know. I think Renee Sparks was right when she said that most black people don’t need training when it comes to “acting white” because they have to do so each and every day they go to a job interview, or attend a professor’s office hours… My mother trained me to impress many white person while I was growing up–and everything she’s taught me has been extremely useful. I make sure to keep my posture straight, shake hands firmly, and enunciate each of my words, occasionally even inserting an SAT word for good measure. These tactics will ensure that I am one of very few black woman soil scientists.

Besides the plethora of bad news regarding the opulent Douglass house, my weekend in Matawan has been decent. The boyfriend and I are not at square one regarding the apartment search because two people unexpectedly bailed out on us. I was so sure we had the Douglass house, and that we would find an additional person, but I was quite wrong. Now, the boyfriend and I are looking for a place together. Of course, there are the potential dangers of cohabitation, but as long as we each have a place to sleep and a different area to do our work, I think it should be fine. (As long as I can have my own nook away from the boyfriend.) If M stays above the bar, then Rai can move in with her and all they would need to do is find another tenant. I tried sending M a message, asking if she was going to stay at the bar, but she has yet to return my message. This is getting old.

In the midst of all this, I’ve been trying to get some freelance writing done and looking for jobs. There’s going to be a part-time and summer job fair in the beginning of February, so I’m definitely going to make time for that. I’ll try to make the boyfriend come as well. It would be nice if I had a little more security than this. Hah… The refund check should hold me over for five or six months, and I should be able to find a job by then. Not to mention the freelance writing I’ve been doing may gain some momentum, and could prove to be a decent supplementary income.

I woke up at one o’clock this afternoon with a dry throat, no doubt due to the space heater that’s been blasting for days on end. The boyfriend’s radiator hasn’t worked since the winter started, so every weekend I lug my space heater from above the bar to his place and back once the weekend is over. Eagerly pouring water down my throat, I attempted to log in to my new anime blog. Rejected. For whatever reason, the boyfriend’s internet connection is down.

Pissed off, I washed up and headed to the computer lab, thinking I would enjoy some quiet time with my anime blog, contemplating all of the wonderful ways I’ll be earning passive income by the time Winter Break is over with. Unfortunately, the computer lab is much more crowded than I was expecting–not too long into my stint at the lab I was confronted by lab assistants poking over my shoulder at my terminal and loud conversations from lab patrons. That’s right, now I remember why I’m going to be spending a huge chunk of my refund check on purchasing my own computer. I don’t care how much it’s going to cost me. When I’m trying to do my work, I should at least expect some semblance of peace and quiet. My freshman year, I was always relieved when loud patrons were shushed by the lab assistants. Now the lab assistants themselves are the problem–and I don’t understand why. Perhaps they’re simply not doing their jobs? One of these days I should try to send out an e-mail to their supervisor.

Anyway, on the walk over to the computer lab I was thinking of this website I came across a little over a year ago. It’s called Nigga Know. You may very well have heard of it. It’s this technology/pop culture/news commentary site mocking white people supposedly from the perspective of a black male. I think it’s pretty obvious that this site is not, in fact, run by a black man, but a bunch of white kids pretending to be a black guy making fun of white people. Don’t get my wrong–it’s an ingenious idea and I’m sure they get a lot of hits and make a decent amount of advertising money. But this reverse/hipster/postmodern racism is really beginning to annoy me…

NiggaKnow.com is just one of many sites run by white people, mocking white people. A lot of the other sites are written from a white perspective, but NiggaKnow takes it a little too far when claiming to be written by an angry black man who also occasionally mocks Asians and poor black people. When feeling uncomfortably racist reading “edgy” blogs like NiggaKnow.com, one must take into consideration their target audience: young, college-ages white men.

Now that I’m done complaining about that, my GPA for this past fall has been calculated, despite the fact that I still haven’t received my grade for Sanskrit–it’s higher than it’s been in a long time. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that I didn’t get that 4.0 I was so desperately dreaming about, but 3.62 isn’t bad either. I’m a little apprehensive about precalculus, but if I manage to get a decent professor, I can attend as many office hours as possible to at least let the professor know how hard I’m trying.

The Spring is when I’ll really be getting into my soil curriculum. The books are going to be quite expensive, but the refund check will help that out.

The boyfriend didn’t get to sleep until about six o’clock this morning, so he didn’t officially wake up until about five o’clock this evening. I woke up this morning a little after nine o’clock–and this has been going on since I returned from Ohio. Our schedules are completely out of whack with each other, but it actually works out pretty well. For instance, I got an entire day to work on another blog I call, “The Anime Connoisseur.” The first blog post is a review of the first three episodes of Speed Grapher, and the opening credits of this anime features the song, “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran. You can check out the link to the right of this page under The Soapbox. Anyway, I wish my new blog was a Today.com blog, but I added it to the directory, so that may help it get some exposure. I’m thinking that the use of Project Wonderful ads will help a lot. Apparently, some people make a decent amount of money running ads on their blogs from Project Wonderful–perhaps I can get in on the fun. In addition, Today.com seems to have gained enough faith in Black in College to allow me to apply for a second blog with them. Black in College was approved rather swiftly, so I’m hoping my new idea goes well. Thus far, I’ve managed to make a little over $35 with this blog since its inception in October. Not bad. I just wish the payout was $25, rather than $50.

In other news, the boyfriend’s housing dilemma may be just about solved now. He’s managed to get five people to agree to sign the lease for the labyrinthine house that lies about about a mile away from College Avenue. I guess the boys can rest assured that they won’t be forced to live with icky, sticky girls like me, M, and Rai… Now all I have to do is make sure I have my own apartment situation figured out. If it boils down to living above the bar for another year, I don’t have a problem with that, but I would like the landlord to get back to me some time this century. If I did get to move to the upstairs apartment–even if I had to live with Rai–then I wouldn’t have to go to the boyfriend’s house all the time to get away from all of the hubbub.

Despite all of those stressful elements, what I’m most worried about right now is getting my thesis proposal over with so I can get an A in the first half of Comparative Literature Honors and then just get started writing the thesis itself. This week, the boyfriend and I planned to do nothing but relax, but I might at least get some reading in tomorrow while he’s hanging out with a mutual friend of ours. Due to a variety of planned illegal activities for tonight, I don’t think I’m going to be able to get up early enough to meet with one of my advisers for my prospective individualized major is Soil Science. Thus, after this weekend’s visit with the boyfriend’s parents, I’m going to spend the rest of the remaining week of Winter Recess trying to write at least the first 20 pages of my thesis. That would leave only 25 or so more pages for the remaining semester–difficult, but doable. This past Fall, I watched the boyfriend hammer out a 15 page paper in a night, so with enough fire under my ass, I can write at least 20 pages in a week. I’ll work on getting my library privileges returned, getting my bibliography completed, and then all I’ll have to do is read and write. I may try to dedicate at least 10 hours a day working on it. Not to mention all of the precalculus I have to brush up on before the semester starts. It seems the break may be more stressful than the actual semester… Nah.