Day 19 Issues 21 March 2002

1. Names. Papers back. They did range widely, I have to say. Some were just outstanding, others were, well, not. The good thing is that there’s still time to fix things. Please note that writing clear English sentences is a minimal expectation. Use the spell checker, and the grammar checker. Go to the Writing Center. Remember what you had to do in College English. It still matters.

Next Tuesday, we’ll show Do the Right Thing. Given that most plan to see it then, I propose one more schedule adjustment: that we switch Thursday and the Tuesday following. It’ll give you more time to read Honky, and mean that you can concentrate on the “possible solutions” papers for next Thursday rather than having to read as well.

So: Tuesday, show the film. Get it from me before or after if you can’t make it. I believe it’s also at Dave’s, or has been for a long time. Thursday, discussion of film, group D responses, and papers due. The Tuesday following, more on Honky, group B and C responses.

2. On Honky. On American urban life, projects, class, poverty, race, and all that. Dalton Conley is a sociologist, as we eventually learn, but what I like about this book is that it’s informed by what he knows without being written in that heavy, abstract style we often associate with sociological writing.

The challenge the book poses for us, though, is this: can we use it as a starting point to educate ourselves on these issues? Can we in effect do some sociology, based in his account but going beyond it?

How many people here grew up in a large city? Certainly for me reading this book involves learning about another culture, one that I know mostly second-hand, though I’ve made occasional and brief forays into cities, sheltered by money from most of what’s really going on.

Kyle wrote about his experiences growing up in Lorain, a bit—want to talk about those a little?

Tell a few of my city stories, maybe. Julia’s apartment in Brooklyn. Running in Atlanta. Canal St., most recently.

So where is it? Here’s a map. http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap&addr=Avenue+D+At+E+14th+St&city=New+York&state=NY&slt=40.727400&sln=-73.973400&name=&zip=10009&country=us&&BFKey=&BFCat=&BFClient=&mag=9&desc=&cs=9&newmag=8&poititle=&poi=&ds=n

Let’s consider some of his stories, and their implications.

Stealing the baby, 6 ff. Awareness of race as category

“Trajectories”: the question of choices. The Soho loft they might have bought, which would probably have made them rich, or at least well off. Property and ownership and appreciation are major paths toward upward mobility.

Interview with Conley at http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20011015.htm he comments on the book not being a horrific tale of oppression, that it emphasizes the structural advantages and choices that remained his as a white person even in this context.

“Downward Mobility”: Social distinctions and realities. The projects were tough, so were “the slums.” People watching out for each others’ kids, 22. Jewish or goy, 25, cf. Amish or English. His mother and father, artists both: she sees things that aren’t there, he’s likely not to notice things that were (34).

“Race Lessons”: learning race, like learning a language. Sister in nursery school, white and black dolls, cornrows. Conley starts school: what privileges does he learn about? They’ll put him in whichever class. In the black one he’s the only student not beaten (46, 48-9). The place is haunted by a child molester, though nobody seems much concerned. He moves to the Chinese class.

52-3 he changes schools. By then, he says, he understood race. But class is the main category at his new school.

“Fear”: his more or less constant fear of assault, 55. The real dangers, robbers breaking into their apartment, etc. 59: the sense of being safe nowhere, not even in his bed.

The game “manhunt,” which Tony and Matt both found interesting. What about his being found by his mother?

*62: it’s a natural game for them, it teaches evasion and the posse mentality.

Rahim the karate instructor, who’s killed in a drug-related robbery/assassination.

66: The question of a larger order. Is the violence patterned, or random? If the truth can’t be found, then his sense of uncertainty and powerlessness increases.

“Learning Class”: P.S. 41. Greenwich Village, mostly white and with a whole different set of structures and hierarchies. He makes friends by knowing big words, or faking it. 73: being white isn’t the marker now, he has to be “just myself.” 76-77: learning the language of class, the connections between popularity and family wealth and power.

3. If there’s time, let’s talk about some of these web sites. I’ve been deliberately semi-directive, but we might think about which ones seem more substantial and really relevant.

4. Some points to consider as you read on, from online interview with Conley, http://discussions.previewport.com:8001/articles/01/11/16/1626225.shtml :

	by Dalton Conley on Friday November 16, @01:12PM EST
	From the moment I conceived of doing this memoir the title HONKY lodged itself in my brain. But now, post-pub, I sort of regret the title since it gives a much more conflictual feeling to the book and to my experience as a white minority than was the case growing up. the fact is that i was remarkably well accepted into a impoverished community of color when contrasted to how a poor Puerto Rican or African American kid would have been treated had they try to live in a poor white community. And this very fact is part of race and race dynamics in America, too.

What about the future of public housing?

so much public housing has been decommisioned or even knocked down since my day. i think the best thing society could do is keep building low income housing units, but to sell them to the low income residents for a dollar each and create a new crop of homeowners like we did with suburban whites after WWII. as for how it's changed, i think some projects have gotten better, some worse and some have been bulldozed.

Why is it important to study whiteness?

I think it is important so that whites realize the power of race affects them too, that race is not just about being a minority, but that it is about being the "default" or majority category too. we are only telling half the story if we focus on minority issues. if we have depts of african-american studies and latino studies, etc, on college campuses, why not call the rest of history, english, etc. by what they really are, white studies depts... (somewhat joking here, but the organization of universities is a longer discussion...)

Do you encounter racism?

i don't encounter racism because i am white. i hear it around me sometimes. i think the best way for america to overcome its racial problems is through economic policies, making the promise of 40 acres and a mule (back from the civil war) a reality for all americans, black and white. if we correct the enormous wealth inequalities that dominate the american landscape and race in particular, the rest will take care of itself...
(currently the typical white family owns 8 times the net worth of the typical african american family, a gap that has grown since the civil rights triumphs of the 1960s)

Student Web Links

Ewa Budzynska

I found a website about the use of corporal punishment in the States

because I was quite surprised while reading about it in the book. I wonder

if this kind of punishment is still used by teachers. There are some links

to other countries as well (with a long passage on Polish Constitution and

human rights).

http://www.corpun.com/websch.htm

http://www.stophitting.com/NCACPS/NCACPS_facts_about_corporal_punishment.htm

Tony Cleveland

I decided to use a website on the Chinese calendar. So I found this website, http://www.new-year.co.uk/chinese/calendar.htm, it doesn't the look of a placemat that you might find at Chinese restaurant but it gets the message across. Something interesting about the site is that you click on the animal for the year you were born in.

Kyle Cutnaw

Here is my web site for the response to Honky. It is a link to my hometown

of Lorain, Ohio: http://www.lorainohio.net/

Matt Chiles

The internet site that I found was a readers forum that talks to Dalton about his book and the way he feels about the things that were going on in his life as he was growing up. http://discussions.previewport.com:8001/articles/01/11/16/1626225.shtml

Lisa Bard

At the website http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0520215869.asp the University of California Press points out how he becomes very aware of the differences since he becomes a white boy from the poor neighborhood.

Eric Burdette

I found this site about the history of one of the first Mosques built in New

York City:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/nymosq1.html