I was sitting at my dining room table doing other homework, and I was listening to podcasts. One of them was 2 Dope Queens. It's my favorite pass time when I have to do homework. I was listening to episode #33, "Hot Pickles". Which is a really funny name, by the way. Refocusing.. a guest speaker named Shalewa Sharpe. She talks about her experience of working with white liberal women, and having her first day of work be the most recent election day. These women couldn't pronounce her name, and were all the way Hillary supporters. Sharpe calls them "well meaning white women". Her first day of work, the ladies were partying, getting super excited for the win that Hillary would (SIKE!) have the next day. There was a cake in the break room, and everyone was having a good time. Sharpe was just trying to figure out how the phones work.
For her second day of work, the night after Trump got elected, all the white women were crying in each others' offices. Sharpe just continued with her day, answering the phones, when one of the women came up to her. She was talking about how she had "never seen this America". The reaction Sharpe had was different from the other woman, as she told the audience about how she had seen "this America" because she grew up in the south. She then continued to say that the America she had seen was everywhere. Her surprise was minimal when it came to who was actually elected the night before.
For her second day of work, the night after Trump got elected, all the white women were crying in each others' offices. Sharpe just continued with her day, answering the phones, when one of the women came up to her. She was talking about how she had "never seen this America". The reaction Sharpe had was different from the other woman, as she told the audience about how she had seen "this America" because she grew up in the south. She then continued to say that the America she had seen was everywhere. Her surprise was minimal when it came to who was actually elected the night before.
Sharpe's experience of not having her coworkers not be able to pronounce her name reminds me of one of the moments in Citizen. " When a woman you work with calls you by the name of another woman you work with, it is too much of a cliche not to laugh out loud with the friend beside you who says, oh no she didn't" (43). I think I understand more what Sharpe was saying about "well meaning white women". Racial sensitivity can be at an all time high, but the fact of the matter is that there is still a distance between people that will always create misunderstandings as long as it exists. Maybe we all need to think about the unintentional consequences of our "well meaning" behavior. Sharpe's story is universal in the professional world, and that is why so many women of color identify with her experience. She didn't even have to say where she was working because this happens everywhere.
This is a great example of how Rankine's writing reflects the real world - definitely gonna have to give this a listen!
ReplyDeleteThis a really great cultural parallel! I wonder if we looked all across the internet how often we would find these similarities of thought and why some prosper and others don't.
ReplyDeleteI did not realize before how much of a different America it is for blacks, and how much Citizen displays that difference. Many white people do not even realize how much racism is still going on, and Sharpe's experience conveys that.
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