I never use drugs or drink. Why? Poutine. Huh? Remember I had a Crohn’s attack and feared it was from eating poutine. The night before last I couldn’t resist and had poutine again. I’m addicted, like an addict (Buffy reference). I didn’t get sick but there was a small amount of bloating the next day. If I can’t resist the siren song of poutine how am I supposed to resist the things many people get addicted to?
I went to Aldi yesterday and lost track of my count on the way there. What I noticed was that in my immediate neighborhood most people don’t wear masks but once I cross Grand Concourse they do. On the walk home from the bus stop 9 out of 11 people on the far side of the Concourse wore masks, on the close side it was only 14 of 47. There were a lot of people in the Mosholu Parkway Park. There were parties of maskless people. They were outside and probably a bit further apart than usual but still not exactly social distancing. Many were smoking and so propelling any virions that had in their lungs. I didn’t count but on Broadway, by the store, virtually everyone was wearing a mask. I’m already a Census enumerator but I want a job walking outside with counters counting who is and isn’t wearing a mask. It appears to be very neighborhood dependent, but that could be just small sample size. I should start keeping track of that. My natural mindset is statistical.
The cats are not happy with the lockdown, they never have the apartment to themselves. I find them hanging out in all sorts of places they used to avoid. When I walk into the kitchen they give me a look, “what, we can’t have a room to ourselves for a minute?” and then storm out. Dogs love having their people around, cats not so much. Yet Lefty twice let me hold her when I picked her up to throw her out of my room. She’s not allowed in there, but she sneaks in now and then. Usually she fights to be let loose when I pick her up but twice she just got comfy in my arm and wanted her belly rubbed. Was she trying out being a dog? Is this some kind of feline role playing?
As usual I forgot what I wanted to write about but then sadly was reminded by looking at the New York Times, racism. A woman with a dog off the leash had a confrontation an African American birdwatcher, White Woman Calls Police on Black Bird Watcher in Central Park. When I first read that I thought it was a woman calling the police on a man watching blackbirds. That story is not what I want to write about, but it does touch on it. She explicitly said, “I’m not a racist.” We all know that trope, “I’m not a racist but … ” is only said by racists. What I really want to discuss is racism as an aspect of the Dunning-Kruger effect. So many racists, and bigots of all stripes, are so poor at understanding bigotry they can’t see their own racism. Someone posted a picture of Joe Biden altered to look black and didn’t get that was racist. People affect black dialect and don’t realize it’s racist. When people go out of their way to point out the ethnicity or gender of someone they found offensive they don’t realize it’s bigoted. I have to stress “go out of their way,” Sometimes it’s just a simple description where it’s natural to describe the person.
The prejudice is so deeply embedded that it can’t be seen anymore than we can taste our own saliva or smell ourselves. It’s part of people’s intellectual framework. I wouldn’t be me without being afraid that I do the same thing. Of course, I do the same thing. You do the same thing. The trick is to be aware of it and work at minimizing it.
On the bright side we can learn. I know I’ve learned. When we consciously suppress our unconscious prejudices; we weaken them. Don’t beat yourself up over them. Having a biased thought does not make you a bigot, it makes you human. It doesn’t make you a bad person. I hate when people say, everyone is racist. If that’s true, why have the word? It has no meaning. That in itself is a manifestation of a prejudice, one towards moral simplicity. Everything is black and white, good, and evil. People aren’t divine or demonic, they are people. Work on exercising the good in you and exorcising the bad.
Wise Madness 