Tim Wise on Van Jones’ resignation

No it’s not all about race, but it’s a lot about race. Check out Wise’s writing on the issue--cogent, insightful, and well-researched, as usual.

even babies discriminate

Check out this Newsweek article. Aside from the interesting studies on children and their behavior, the article points to what seems obvious to me, but apparent isn’t to many: white people don’t talk about race enough and pretending that race doesn’t exist as a social reality actually perpetuates its existence.

other people’s lists

Check out the cool list of “Mindblowing SF by Women and People of Color” at Tor.com.

Thanks to Alisa for the heads up.

SparkTests

I realize I’m way behind the curve here, but I just stumbled on SparkTests and took the Personality Test. It has me as:

A DREAMER (Submissive Introverted Abstract Feeler) — reserved and imaginative. You are basically the shy, silent type. You don’t have much interest in facts and figures or most of what’s going on around you, but the internal worlds you build for yourself are rich and complex. Luckily, your creativity and strong heart mean you have a deep personality evident to anyone who gets to know you. It’s just that not many people do. Talk to yourself less, other people more.

Considering what I do for a living and my life in general, I think this has missed me pretty substantially. Nevertheless, taking the test was fun; it has some interesting questions. They also have a lot of other tests: Death, Gender, Jerk, Unintelligence, and more.

small links round up

South Africa Isn’t Post-Racial Either
In a thoughtful essay, Robert Jensen writes about his visit to South Africa, the racism he saw there, and what he learned about confronting it.

The White Supremacist in Us
Rinku Sen, Executive Director of Applied Research Center and Publisher of ColorLines, writes about the connection between recent killings and our white supremacist culture.

Inspired Bicycles – Danny MacAskill 2009
In this video, Danny MacAskill does almost unbelievable things with his bike. There’s some question why he’s still alive.

a brief exam

Now that the school year is over, I find myself looking for some conclusions, or lessons learned, or at least some reflections. It’s an indulgence on some level, but I’m enough of a believer in the “examined life” to make an attempt:

I dove into a more overtly political world in the last year and, as a result, I’ve written much less here. I’m still writing—perhaps more than before—but instead of writing about what I read, I prepare for public statements and speeches. I summarize arguments and send out mass emails and construct positions. It is a very focused style, rhetorical and argumentative and to help myself I’m studying speeches by politicians like Presidents Obama and Lincoln.

Those choices are, of course, quite conscious; they are leaders I’d like to emulate in some ways. While I do not pretend to have the intellect or ability of either men, I do try to learn from them. I’m impressed, in particular, by the way Lincoln prepared and the careful way he argued. Sometimes he made fine distinctions that may not play as well in today’s faster, sound bite politics, where a subtle point is hard to make, but the power of his logic and his tendency to evoke first principles are important.

I’ve also been reading about organizing and framing and the political process more generally. There’s a whole set of skills and abilities that are unique to the political world and that I have never before worked to develop. I’m beginning to see it as a perspective, a way of seeing the moves that people make, the postures they take. I’m learning how to respond. And, fortunately, I’m comfortable disagreeing with people while still respecting them.

This process of acquiring new skills and a new lens through which to view the world is akin to going to graduate school. Also like graduate school, I’ve been conscious of a desire not to lose the person I was when I entered the process. So far, I don’t believe I have. In fact, in many ways the heat of political pressure only drives me closer to my core values: it’s always about the students for me. They are the reason I put myself through the pain of interminable meetings and other minutia of the political process. And I’m reminded of those values every time I go to the classroom. There I am part of the miracle that we call teaching and learning, through which people create new lives and begin to see themselves in new, more powerful light.

The challenges and growth I’ve experienced in the last year are part of my own process of seeing my self and my life in a new way. Where it will lead I cannot say—which of course is part of why we get up every day: to find out what will happen. My life is full and rich with learning. I can ask for little better.

Christmas 2008 — New Year’s 2009

why

I’ve been done with a new book (American Pastoral) for a couple weeks and I’m halfway through the next one–and still no post. Partly I’ve been having a hard time getting my thoughts together about the novel and partly I haven’t found the time to finish up the post.

And then the election happened. The response in my neighborhood was unbelievable. People were out shouting and singing and honking horns until late in the night. I’ve never seen this kind of response to a political event.

Every time Barack Obama says “yes we can” I feel like he’s speaking to me. I don’t think I have delusions of grandeur and I feel like I must answer the call. We all must answer the call. I know what I’m doing to help make the country a better place. Do you?

a summer interlude

During July, my job as a teacher allowed me what still feels like the utterly decadent luxury of time away from my home not working. I spent the time in Colorado, farming on the community supported agricultural (CSA) venture of one of my oldest and best friends, John. (If you’re not familiar with CSAs, check out these websites for starters: www.localharvest.org/csa/, www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml.)
My typical day looked like this:

6 am — wake to go into the field for weeding, hoeing, or other work during the cool of the morning
8 am — breakfast
9 am — back to the field for harvesting, pruning, work in the tomatoes, or whatever else needs to be done
noon — lunch and a game of go
1:30 pm or so — work on something that keeps us mostly in the shade; maybe run into town for supplies; maybe a nap
5 pm or so — dinner and conversation; reading, writing, thinking
10 pm — sleep

It was a good schedule, especially when sprinkled with time spent with a few other friends. It gave me a lot of time to look at things like this:

tool wall

tomatoes

irrigation system

part of the garden

beets and cabbage

a different garden view

Nevertheless, it took me two weeks to stop thinking about work all the time. Once I did, I didn’t want to start again. I needed to check in on my email and other communication and I found myself resisting, delaying.

When I have a lot of time to think I quickly come the conclusion that nothing is more important than anything else. I stay with my routine because it feels good, but life appears meaningless. From this perspective, my regular life feels just as useless: I get up and do this and that and keep doing it till I get too tired to keep going. Why bother? Meaning eludes me quickly and easily. There is none. My attempt to make meaning through intent, by the effort to make that intent reality, by caring is worthwhile and ultimately not enough. As farmer John says, the question “what is meaningful?” becomes less important than “what do you want to do?”

When I ask these questions and really think about what I want to do, I slowly realize that I want the life I currently lead. Yes, there are certain details I would change, but overall and even in many of the specifics, I am having the life I want. The time of summer reflection and of testing the potential for another life is good, probably necessary for me. It is also good that, when I return and look closely at my life in its day-to-day moments, I still want that life. I’m a lucky man and I’m happy to say it.

and now for something a little esoteric

Chess boxing. Really. This seems ripe for psychological and sociological analysis. I will leave that to the experts.

Thanks to G for the tip.