Casual Bigotry

[mallorys_camera]

That’s what the diaries looked like when they were found.

Passingly strange, no?

I’d be almost afraid to read them again now. Are they even still legible? They may be—I had a Rapidograph fetish back in the days when I kept handwritten diaries, and Rapidograph ink lasts forever.

###

Yesterday, Marissa, my current ESL student who lives in the Poughkeepsie women’s shelter, began telling me about the mistreatment she suffered at the hands of her X—to whom, it turns out, she was not legally married. A pity—New York State does not recognize common law marriage, so it’s unlikely she will receive any form of spousal support though, of course, she will receive child support.

He’d grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into a wall.

She wanted to show me the scars under her hair.

“Not necessary,” I said.

Really, all I wanted to do was to return as quickly as possible to making sure she could answer—grammatically!— the questions in the free You, Too, Can Become an Ultrasound Technician in as Little as 29 Days! book I’d managed to track down for her.

It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that there’s so much to care about right now. Too much! I’m feeling overwhelmed.

“And then his parents come at me, they say you can’t press charges, he will go to prison. They’re Jewish, they are very rich, so all they care about is their money—”

“Well, I’m Jewish, Marissa,” I said mildly.

Honestly?

Casual bigotry doesn’t bother me so much.

(Though, of course, I am forcefully opposed to non-casual expressions of bigotry.)

If I let it bother me, I would never leave the house—because the quaint and scenic Hudson Valley is not Berkeley when it comes to casual bigotry.

And, of course, there’s casual bigotry in Berkeley too, only people think it’s impolite to talk about it.

What many pundits on the subject seem to miss is that it’s human nature to “other” the other.

And there will always be others.

Until human beings encounter intelligent lifeforms that are not bipedal vertebrates with opposeable thumbs.

Then human beings will join hands, sing Kumbayah, and be as one.

Because then, there really will be “others.”

“Not all Jews,” said Marissa quickly. “Chinese like Jews. We give them place to stay when Hitler.”

Uh-huh.

“So, Marissa,” I said. “Let’s look at this question again. Which type of cellular connection is characterized by openings in adjacent animal cells for intercellular exchange to take place?”

###

Not that God’s own chosen are exempt from othering if it comes to that.

Neighbor Ed, who is really worked up about the upcoming local elections, tried to convince me yesterday that the Republican candidate for Hyde Park town supervisor was mob-connected.

“Why?” I asked. “Because he has an Italian last name? Honestly, Ed, you need to get out more. Organized crime isn’t run by Italians anymore. It’s run by Russians.”

###

This morning, the wind is high in the trees.

The media has really been into hyping an apocalyptic rainstorm.

But the rainstorm wasn’t all that apocalyptic so far as I could tell. A lot of water fell from the sky in New York City. People had to use umbrellas. And wear raincoats. And rainboots.

Uh-huh.

Of course, we’re scheduled to entertain another massive rainstorm on Friday, and that one may be apocalyptic.

Comments

[adoptedwriter]

My old diaries were all spiral ringed notebooks.
If she’d just said “rich people” and not “Jewish”, but again…She’s a crime victim in a shelter and maybe not thinking or less educated so is unaware?

[mallorys_camera]

Oh, she's very educated. In China, she taught accounting at the college level.

Anti-semitism is very prevalent.

[bleodswean]

Ugh. You have far more level-headedness than I do.

Also, wth, diaries?! Strange story, P.

[mallorys_camera]

I'm not particularly level-headed, E. 😊

This particular remark was made without any intention to offend. So, I did not let it offend me.

I can't be responsible for providing liberal reeducation to every person on the planet. 😊

[rebeccmeister]

Yes, I will take the bait: Why does an ultrasound textbook have questions about gap junctions in it?!

Now I wonder how I would feel about my childhood diaries being put out on display like that. A weird sense of disassociation, methinks.

I don't want to shred or toss them, though. At one point I taped in a lock of my hair, after I let a friend cut a bunch of my hair off. I've got to keep that kind of ridiculous thing!

[mallorys_camera]

These aren't chiildhood diaries. They're diaries from when I was in my late teens, 20s and 30s.

The ultrasound class makes students study physics! And anantomy. And physiology.

(Well. The anatomy is understandable.)

It's meant to justify charging students outrageous sums of money to attend vocational training classes, I'm thinking. Barriers to entry, in the classic economic sense. I can't imagine it's that hard to do an ultrasound.

[rebeccmeister]

I mean, I had to figure they were. But you were on your way to throwing them out, no? Is this whole theft just a weird way of the universe insisting that those collections of atoms continue to stick together for a while longer for some reason?

And yeah, the anatomy is understandable, but I think you're right about the vocational training classes economic justification.

[mallorys_camera]

Is this whole theft just a weird way of the universe insisting that those collections of atoms continue to stick together for a while longer for some reason?

That was the conclusion I came to. 😊

Very strange.