various bits

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

Kragen Sitaker wrote:
> I just spent three days in Ann Arbor, staying at the Hampton Inn on
> Green Road, just north of Plymouth Road.  I noticed that all the folks
> who worked at the front counter were white or Asian, while all the
> folks in the laundry room were black.  Racism is alive and well in
> America today. . .

This little tidbit reminded me so much of my college.  I went  undergraduate
to Loyola College in MD located in Baltimore, MD.  The overwhelming majority
(around 95+%) of the student and teaching faculty were white (mostly Irish
Catholic or Italian Catholic---at freshmen orientation, many students were
surprised to meet someone who was Irish or Italian for the first time.  I was
out of place being Polish Catholic!).

Meanwhile, everyone who kept the campus running---gardeners, food service
workers, maintenance men, and every single unskilled job and blue-color job
on campus were held by blacks.

It was, oddly enough, my grandmother who noted that it was like being on a
plantation when she came to a campus event.  All attendees were white, and
everyone serving the attendees were black.


I keep trying to decide which city is more racist---my hometown of
Baltimore, MD or my current town, Cincinnati, OH.

It's a hard call; I must say.

At least Baltimore has (until November) an honest, black mayor, even if the
city council is dominated by white, corporate-owned greedy politicians.

Cincinnati has a lesbian mayor, though, which is pretty cool.  Of course,
some of the city council make me want to be ill; in particularly Phil
Heimmlich.

Anyway, enough rambling about racism and politics in southern-ish cities.
:)
-- 
         -  bkuhn@ebb.org  -  Bradley M. Kuhn  -  bkuhn@gnu.org  -
                          http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn