Monday, August 21, 2006

Significance of the date?

1. I started back TAing for the first time in years, the number of which I shall not disclose, lest thou who art more judgmental sayeth: "Verily, verily, I say unto Elle, thou shouldeth be closereth to finishingeth."

2. I watched the first part of Spike Lee's documentary on Katrina tonight--a prof at the university insisted that, as an American historian and an African American historian (and I mean that both ways), I should not miss it. All I can say is, My God. I vacillated between tears and my usual disbelief of Bush and his allies.

The image that stands out most (for me) was that of an older black woman wrapped in the American flag. I just had this jolt, like, it's ours, too. That flag. This country. Sometimes, you get so caught up in hearing over and over how you don't offer anything to the society, how pathological and embarrasing you are, how you've failed so dismally, that you start feeling like an outsider. Which is exactly how proponents of those arguments want you to feel. It's only in those terms that the federal government's response--or appaling lack there of--in the aftermath of the Hurricane can be understood. You get treated as less because you are less. Less worthy. Less deserving. Less wealthy. Less white. Less American.

If you didn't watch, you have to.