Why Intersectionality Matters
The show This American Life describes the segment behind the LJ cut below as:
A hot dog stand in Chicago, The Wiener's Circle, has this gimmick that you occasionally see in restaurants: the staff acts rudely, in sort of a playful way, and cracks jokes about the customers. Except at The Wiener's Circle, late at night, the gimmick becomes more than ( Read more... )
A hot dog stand in Chicago, The Wiener's Circle, has this gimmick that you occasionally see in restaurants: the staff acts rudely, in sort of a playful way, and cracks jokes about the customers. Except at The Wiener's Circle, late at night, the gimmick becomes more than ( Read more... )
also, its only a matter of time before something truly irrevocable happens. I'm suprised it hasn't happened already.
Talking about race is impolite? Isn't that a favorite silencing method these days? 'Oh those uncouth POC, always playing the race card, always bringing THAT up, don't they know how impolite that is?'
I'm learning that it is white privelege to be able to not bring it up.
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exactly!
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No, it's not. Does Chicago have a huge racist streak running through it? Oh you'd better believe it! But dammit...I really hope people from elsewhere don't watch this video and think this will happen to them in any restaurant they might visit in the city.
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While I understand not wanting Chicago, or any city, to be viewed in such a way - I think that saying 'this is what Chicago is all about' isn't saying you go to a restaurant and this will happen, but rather 'the racism is huge and on the edge of every moment.
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This is a conversation about intersectionality, racism, and othering and your contribution is recentering the conversation around the area not being 'that racist' and describing the actions as ugly (which they are) but completely ignoring the root issues.
Let me be clear: I don't think you are doing this intentionally - but it ties into my thesis that I put into my post. Please, if you have the time, go back and read it and comment on the premise rather than argue whether or not this video somehow defames your town.
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Your recounting of Washington's election is , by the way. He won the primary because Byrne and Daley split the white vote. That should've given him an easy victory in the general election, but the (white) Cook County Dems backed the (white) Republican candidate, and the election ended up being closely contested. And the Cook County Dems blocked/attempted to block nearly every action Washington took through their majority of Aldermen. If anything, Washington's election demonstrates Chicago's racism.
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I was about to compare to Detroit and then saw your comment.
In fact, Detroit's last three mayors have all been black (I believe), since Coleman Young in 1974. And it certainly does not mean anything in regards to racism by white people in Detroit, except that he is often the target of it, and most of the white people in the area live outside the city. (And with everything that's been going on with Kwame Kilpatrick, it's another excuse for white people in the area- both in Detroit, and in the metro area in general, to fall back on racist attacks and reasoning.)
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city is like this"
"This is what Chicago is all about."
It's also easy to be all critical of a city one doesn't live in and hasn't been to based on one youtube video, (since when does youtube anecdote = scientific data? I have tried to find the actual statistics online about Chicago being the most segregated city and all I found was, "I heard somewhere...") and I'm so tired of the attitude in here that you have to think the worst of everyone and only have one correct opinion to be a good feminist.
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That jingle, which I successfully erased from memory, is now stuck in my head. NO THANK YOU.
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