Clune Lover

Why can’t I add the text at the bottom without it looking like it’s part of blackbird’s post…like normal?  Is it because I’m drunk?  Anyway, I’d like to agree that Madisonians are weird about race.  When I was in high school (this would probably be 2002) I went to a friend’s band concert and sat with her parents.  They are a certain stripe of Madisonian that’s very common—rich but not ostentatious and very liberal and concerned about Social Issues.  I really liked them then and still do.  But.  

Afterward, we were milling around waiting for my friend to come out from backstage and making awkward kid/parents-of-kid’s-friend type conversation (which was how I spent way too much time in high school: chatting with friends’ parents instead of other peers.  Still do, actually.)  

Anyway, I made some general remark about how impressed I was by the band, and how great they sounded.  My friend’s mom said something along the lines of “Yes, but it’s such a shame there aren’t more people of color in the band.”  It was sooo weird.  Of course it’s true that children of color generally have less access to enriching extracurricular activities in school like band, and this is BAD, etc.  But I definitely got a vibe that my friend’s mom meant “I would feel better about things if the band was more diverse” or even “my enjoyment of the concert was lessened by the homogeneity of the band”…not sure how I knew, but I knew.  And it was weird.  And that is something I encountered again and again in Madison—white people who claimed to want more diversity but it was obviously just something they wanted to help lift some of their “white guilt” or whatever, and who probably wouldn’t really like it if a black family moved in next door.  Or would like it but only so they could say they had a real live black neighbor.  I don’t know if I’m explaining this well.  Again, drunk.  But Madison is an odd place when it comes to race.  

I have so many things to say about the differences re:race now that I’ve moved to Baton Rouge but my brain is losing clarity and cogency.  Another time.  

tehblackbirdisincognito:

anedumacation replied to your post: Sometimes I think Madison, Wisconsin needs to…

it must be weird, being a southerner up north.

It is. There is a general distaste for southern folks, with southerners presumed to be backwoods ignorant rednecks and all. And that is all…

(Source: tehblackbirdflies)