MYOB
i'm sitting at the library of the university where i work, writing on my blog at a terminal reserved for students who are studying for finals (there are empty terminals, so i don't feel bad). the library has extended hours till the end of the week. a number of the students' faces are familiar enough to me that if our eyes met i'd say hi. yet i have no idea who they are and why they are familiar to me. i don't think they ever took classes with me. i think i'd be able to remember that.
this is the situation. in spite of the large signs, put up just for finals week, declaring the whole library a "quiet zone," the library is anything but quiet. in fact, i'd say it is nosier than usual. this is not difficult to understand. i'm sure there are students here who have been seriously cramming, basically living at the library for days on end. many are in sweats, slouched alone or in groups on the comfy chairs, their belongings scattered on the (fortunately new and pleasant-looking) carpet, huddled with their books and laptops. at the terminals there are empty soda cups, stacks of notes, even books and notebooks that have been left behind. this library looks lived in. heck, it feels lived in! i generally freeze in here, but today the air is warm and slightly sour, animal. i'd say a good 30% of the students who are not at a computer terminal are on their cells.
and here comes the "situation" part. because what i have described is not a situation, not a situation at least in the sense of "we have a situation." the situation is about the guards. the university, it seems, has hired private security to guarantee that the quiet ordinance is enforced. the guards i can see from here, two women and a man, are black. the vast preponderance of the students are white or some variety of light brown. not many black students come to this university, not at all. so, you see, it's not good. because the black guards don't have the authority to shut the students up. they know it and the students know it. i just saw one of the women, middle-aged and nicely put together, stand next to a vociferous girl who was herself standing next to a group of sitting kids, explaining something and laughing. stand. the woman just stood there, hoping that her presence alone would shame the student into leaving. but the student completely ignored the woman and left only after she was done saying what she had to say. all the while the woman stood there, not two feet away, waiting, for a few long minutes. i wanted to get up and shout at the girl: don't you see what you're doing?
that wouldn't have helped anyone, of course. the girl would probably have left (i am, after all, white and a faculty member), but the woman would have felt terribly humiliated. or maybe not. i was sure at the time but am not so sure now. no matter. it's done.
this friend of mine told me yesterday that they arrested a rowdy passenger on her plane when she was coming back from visiting her family for thanksgiving. the woman apparently was very drunk when she boarded, but no one noticed. then, when she was on the plane, she started getting loud and happy, and, after being told to calm down, belligerent. eventually they came and took her away.
my friend told me she was sitting directly in front of her. i said, "why didn't you help her calm down, talk to her?" she didn't even stop a second to think: "we are in america," she said. "we mind our own business because we are afraid that, if we get into other people's business, we'll get dragged down with them." she said it with the same tone of voice with which one would say: "we are in america. we eat bread and butter with our dinner." i left soon after, but it stayed with me, you know. it really did.
this is the situation. in spite of the large signs, put up just for finals week, declaring the whole library a "quiet zone," the library is anything but quiet. in fact, i'd say it is nosier than usual. this is not difficult to understand. i'm sure there are students here who have been seriously cramming, basically living at the library for days on end. many are in sweats, slouched alone or in groups on the comfy chairs, their belongings scattered on the (fortunately new and pleasant-looking) carpet, huddled with their books and laptops. at the terminals there are empty soda cups, stacks of notes, even books and notebooks that have been left behind. this library looks lived in. heck, it feels lived in! i generally freeze in here, but today the air is warm and slightly sour, animal. i'd say a good 30% of the students who are not at a computer terminal are on their cells.
and here comes the "situation" part. because what i have described is not a situation, not a situation at least in the sense of "we have a situation." the situation is about the guards. the university, it seems, has hired private security to guarantee that the quiet ordinance is enforced. the guards i can see from here, two women and a man, are black. the vast preponderance of the students are white or some variety of light brown. not many black students come to this university, not at all. so, you see, it's not good. because the black guards don't have the authority to shut the students up. they know it and the students know it. i just saw one of the women, middle-aged and nicely put together, stand next to a vociferous girl who was herself standing next to a group of sitting kids, explaining something and laughing. stand. the woman just stood there, hoping that her presence alone would shame the student into leaving. but the student completely ignored the woman and left only after she was done saying what she had to say. all the while the woman stood there, not two feet away, waiting, for a few long minutes. i wanted to get up and shout at the girl: don't you see what you're doing?
that wouldn't have helped anyone, of course. the girl would probably have left (i am, after all, white and a faculty member), but the woman would have felt terribly humiliated. or maybe not. i was sure at the time but am not so sure now. no matter. it's done.
this friend of mine told me yesterday that they arrested a rowdy passenger on her plane when she was coming back from visiting her family for thanksgiving. the woman apparently was very drunk when she boarded, but no one noticed. then, when she was on the plane, she started getting loud and happy, and, after being told to calm down, belligerent. eventually they came and took her away.
my friend told me she was sitting directly in front of her. i said, "why didn't you help her calm down, talk to her?" she didn't even stop a second to think: "we are in america," she said. "we mind our own business because we are afraid that, if we get into other people's business, we'll get dragged down with them." she said it with the same tone of voice with which one would say: "we are in america. we eat bread and butter with our dinner." i left soon after, but it stayed with me, you know. it really did.
posted by faculty for workplace justice at 7:51 PM
2 Comments:
there's not a day goes by I don't think of this.
huh, pony?
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