tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5349472.post4079442566153768780..comments2024-03-20T14:31:49.238-07:00Comments on mole: Where The Target IsDalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14523194846272870013noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5349472.post-87080917509394813422015-08-02T15:27:03.354-07:002015-08-02T15:27:03.354-07:00Oh Dale, I do so hope that "in the end—we are...Oh Dale, I do so hope that "in the end—we are going to win this one" ... yes! Living in Western Japan in my younger days, I felt what it is like sticking out like a sore thumb. Being hated and discriminated against just because of the way I looked or didn't look. It was a good experience for me. Made me think and act. I just finished reading Te-Nehisi Coates <i>Between the World and Me</i>. Thought-provoking read, and I thought I was sensitive to things having lived in Mississippi for some years. All I can say is that I'm glad I stumbled across this book. Opened my eyes further. Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5349472.post-14524012083296900632015-07-28T15:52:27.764-07:002015-07-28T15:52:27.764-07:00Natalie,
I'm thinking you're not an Ameri...Natalie,<br /><br />I'm thinking you're not an American, and that's why you're wondering how Dale knew "the target" this woman referred to. "Target" is a store, one that sells a variety of goods such as food, clothing, housewares etc. She was asking if he knew where the closest one was.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5349472.post-34042408886989299502015-07-27T08:47:55.757-07:002015-07-27T08:47:55.757-07:00I'm dubious whether I've really conveyed w...I'm dubious whether I've really conveyed what I meant here, Natalie. There's nothing unusual about the interaction: a black woman might have asked me the way to a shop in Portland any time these past fifty years, and the script might have run exactly the same. It's just that the feel of it would have been different. There are, of course, plenty of (white) people in Portland who will tell you there's no prejudice or racial tension here at all. Portland has many recent immigrant communities, among them a large Somalian contingent, so it's not like, say, Switzerland as James Baldwin described it, where someone with brown skin was startling. Still, Portland is one of the whitest cities in America, and it's done a poorer job than most in coming to terms with its racial past, which is not very pretty. The largest black immigration from the South came here in WW II, to work in the shipyards, and they were met ungenerously, with hostility and suspicion and violence, and rioting here in the 60s was some of the worst in the country. Martha grew up in the thick of that, in a working class North Portland neighborhood, and it left its marks: being hit and kicked and vilified for being white was a daily experience.Dalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14523194846272870013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5349472.post-90212712771540359752015-07-27T07:36:30.952-07:002015-07-27T07:36:30.952-07:00Yes, it feels like we have cracked the silence and...Yes, it feels like we have cracked the silence and can say what is going on. I hope that's true.Nimblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16426446791363667887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5349472.post-2394953487973331192015-07-27T05:21:57.735-07:002015-07-27T05:21:57.735-07:00What's strange and intriguing and so existenti...What's strange and intriguing and so existential to me is her question: where is the target?<br />What target? How did you know what 'the target' meant?<br />There's a whole cinematic story to be uncovered here!<br /><br />But on the reality level, it's so sad that such a simple encounter should appear so unusual. In London, it's a daily kind of thing. Not that there are never racial tensions or incidents but the mixture of races, colours,clothing, languages is so ubiquitous and commonplace that one hardly notices it.Natalie d'Arbeloffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07757081405040926647noreply@blogger.com