A new school year begins…
A new school year begins and this time, I am a student! I’m excited to begin the epic journey of becoming a clinical social worker! I feel the need to do a “top 10″ of my favorite things about the of the beginning of school year in Ann Arbor:
10.) Mary Sue’s open house! I’m going this year! Probably has good food, right?!
9.) Packs of freshman roaming down State Street and Washtenaw Ave looking for a party. It’s a love hate relationship, but it is funny!
8.) New school clothes! This time I get to buy casual and business clothes!
7.5) An addendum to #8: I went inside of “Launch” the skate board store on South U. to get some flip flops. The sales associates were drinking/drunk. It was a mess, but I got $5 dollars off my purchase! I ain’t mad at ‘em.
7.) Professors in bowties…too cute!
6.) Freshman giggling outside of the Safe Sex Store. Some of them need to go inside and WRAP IT UP!
5.) Ann Arbor Brewing Co. I love ABC any time of year though…
4.) Michigan apparel. Everyone is wearing maize n’ blue.
3.) Ralph Williams, excitedly gesturing across campus. He’s retired, but we all know professors don’t REALLY retire; I’m sure I’ll see him.
2.) The money that is found outside of Rick’s dropped by drunk 21 year olds. I once collected $75!
1.) Michigan Football. Go Blue! I’m stop making up bull crap about us breaking the rules. Why are you kickin’ a team while they’re down? Ya’ll some serious haters.
I’ll keep you posted as the year progresses. For now, GO BLUE!
I love Tim Gunn!
Want to send a thoughtful gift to your favorite Project Runway fan? Have Tim Gunn send them a personal message!
Counting down the days until the season premiere! PR watching party anyone?
Scary baby commericals
Dancing, singing, and talking infant commercials scare me (except for the e*trade babies). This is absurd. Thanks for this, Brian.
To ACCESS and YouthVille
For the past 8 weeks, I’ve been working with 10 young people from Dearborn and Detroit looking at the issue of racism and segregation in metro-Detroit. This kids are fantastic! They were recruit by ACCESS, and Arab/Arab American advocacy group and YouthVille, and youth center in the New Center area of Detroit. We met, we talked, we did activities, we learned about each other and together explored centuries-old societal issues.
I struggled this summer. I went from being proud, to embarassed, to confused, to upset, to hopeful, etc etc. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I got all of the validation I need for doing this work. We assembled a panel of adult allies, including a member of the Michigan State Board of Education and a State Legislator. Our kids testified in front of these panelist, telling the stories of racism in the classroom, lack of access and lack of voice. They told stories of teachers telling them that Black people are inherently dumber and people throwing rocks at them because they are wearing a head scarf.
Thee young people were given a microphone and got a politician to make a PROMISE (shocking!) to sponsor a bill, and are now on the agenda for the next Michigan State Board of Ed meeting. 14 year old’s accomplished things in one night that it would take years for an adult to do.
To my Summer Youth Dialogue kids…I’m so proud of you. 
I’m scared to break into my own storage closet
Brad and I have finally moved into our new place (pictures will be up next week). We’re almost done unpacking, but our storage closet lock is broken, so we can’t put our boxes away. This morning, I had the idea of breaking into it using a credit card. I find an old debit card, and go out to the balcony where the storage closet entrance is, and get to work. Then I realize, crap, I probably shouldn’t be doing this, I don’t want anyone to think I’m breaking into my own storage closet. I decided to wait until Brad wakes up, and let him do it.
This incident from this morning made me think about the events that have occurred over the past couple of weeks in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Racial profiling is still very much a reality for people of color and other marginalized groups. Although I would probably be fine breaking into my storage closet, I’ve been taught by my parents and other to keep my receipt out if I’m going through a department store with a bag of merchandise I’ve already purchased, or to keep my hands where people can see them in stores, to not “look suspicious,” go to the mall dressed in a manner that makes people think I have money to spend, etc etc. Not many of my White friends have been told these messages.
The bottom line is people still make assumptions about people based race. People are more likely to think I have bad credit, don’t have money or a college degree, and the list of stereotypes goes on and on. This doesn’t automatically make people racist; these assumptions are a function of our society and we ALL need to be aware of them. I grew up with the same dominant narrative and stereotypes about my own race and others that every other citizen has.
There are a lot of facts that we don’t know about the incident with Dr. Gates and Officer Crowley, but both parties made assumption about the other base on appearance and skin color. We all need to be aware and willing to take ownership of mistakes that misinformation causes us to make.
In the mean time…I’m just going to leave the boxes in my apartment, until the landlord comes to fix the door knob. Brad couldn’t break in either, it’s the wrong kind of lock for the credit card trick.
This is all Daniil’s fault…
Well, it’s not really Daniil’s fault, but he’s a useful scapegoat. Daniil is doing his honor’s thesis on Black Israelites. This is a very cool topic and something that I’d be interested in reading as my Dad is a “Israelite, who happens to be Black.” Here is a definition of the religion, so ya’ll can have some idea of what I’m talking about. Daniil asked me to call my Dad and ask if he’d be willing to talk about his experience with the religion, etc. The rest of the post is Daniil’s fault because I wouldn’t have called my Dad this weekend if Daniil hadn’t asked me to.
Here we go: Staci Story #3 – My Dad, Israelite
I called my Dad to ask him about his religion for Daniil but decided I wasn’t ready to talk about it, so I asked him a wedding question instead. That was a mistake. I asked him to give me an estimate of how many folks he would like to invite to the wedding. Naturally, this led to the question, “Does your mother talk to you about marriage?”
I replied, “Um, sometimes…why?”
“Well, if you ever have any questions, I am an open book. Your mother and I had a good marriage, well until, anyway, I was a good dad wasn’t I? A good stay at home Dad?”
“Sure.”
“Basically, here’s how it goes: you can’t change a man. You should take your spouse as they are. Don’t try to change them. If you want to change them don’t marry them. I think Brad’s a good with the flow guy, but do railroad him, ask him his opinion. I also hoped that you’d end up with someone like me.”
<GASP>
“Your Dad is a good man, I pretty much go with whatever, I don’t have any problems with anybody, I just sort of do what I need to do, as long as it’s the right thing…”
“Isn’t this what marriage counseling is for?
“Who’s counseling you?”
“My uncle, he’s officiating.”
“Oooh, he doesn’t really follow the bible. There’s this guy who married me and your step mom who I thought you could use, but you have to book with him way in advance and he costs a lot of money, because he does this for a living. Had your uncle married anybody?”
“Dad, he married my aunt, you were there, he’s a minister”
“Oh, well I guess that’s OK, but….”
and he goes on, and on, and on. Now you’ve probably forgotten, that I called him originally to ask him about his religion, because I had forgotten by now. My goal at the end of the 20 minute conversation, was to get off the phone. And that’s what I did.
On the way to meeting Daniil for our Psych 405 class activity I remembered that I needed to give Daniil and answer about speaking with my Dad. So I’ve gotta call him back.
“Dad, what congregation do you belong to?”
“What?!”
“What’s the name of your church?”
“Why?”
“Because my friend Daniil is doing his thesis on Black Israel–”
“There’s no such thing as Black Israelites, there’s only Isrealites, there is no such thing as race in the bible! You need to read the bible. When you come home next weekend, bring the bible with you.”
“Ok, but what about my friend Daniil?”
“Tell him I can only talk to him about the bible, so if he wants to talk about that, I can talk to him.”
“Ok, I’ll tell him, bye!!”
So thanks to Daniil, I have to talk to my Dad about marriage and the bible. I enjoy marriage, and I enjoy the bible, but I do not enjoy my Dad thrown anywhere in the mix. Thank you Daniil.
St. Patrick’s Day
My friend Brian posted to video before I could, so here’s a link to his blog for a festive St. Patty’s song.
Protest for Project Runway!!
Heidi Klum has called upon us Project Runway fans to protest because of the delay in the release of the new season due to legal issues surrounding network change. I must admit, I’m ready for a new PR season. I’ve having Tim Gunn withdrawal. Make it work, T.V. execs!
Don’t stop til’ you get enough….
Michael Jackson (my favorite musical artist) is having a final concert in London! I worry about him though, he’s not as young as he use to be. I’m not sure if he can take all of this. Home boy is 50. All of the crotch grabbin’ and moon walking isn’t so cute when a 50 year old man is doing it. But I love Michael, so I wish him the best.
Also, for those of use who think Michael Jackson “bleached” his skin. It’s not possible. He did not poor on the Clorox and hope for the best. He has a disease called Vitiligo. Some of my family members have it and have lost their pigment entirely, just like Michael Jackson. It’s a real disease, so stop talking about skin bleaching!
To my friends with Ph.D.’s and advance degrees
Dear people with Ph.D.’s and advanced degrees,
I know that getting a Ph.D. or professional degree takes determination, effort, an (sometimes unhealthy) obsession with perfection, intellect, the ability to process at a high level, the ability to deal with complex issues. I appreciate that your road to your career path has been hard and sometimes expensive. So, my question to you is:
WHY DO YOU ACT LIKE YOU HAVE NO TRAINING? Just because you have a Ph.D., it doesn’t give you permission to not write and speak in complete sentence. In fact, I expect your sentences to be better than mine. Did your procrastinating get you through school? I don’t think so. So why do you do you think it’s OK now that you have a job? Guess what… it’s not! Did you pout like a 5 year old in front of your advisor? (Some of you probably did.) Well it wasn’t OK then, and it’s not OK now. Having a Ph.D. means that your an expert in something, so act like it! Don’t make me act all uneducated…cuz I will!
I’m done ranting. Thank you.
