I. Starting at Walltown School in the fall of 1970 involved some edgy moments. The black kids had to put up with a sudden influx of nervous white kids, and the best way to deflect awkwardness was through humor.
Thank God for Flip Wilson. His new show provided a ton of material for mimicry. If not as well as some, I could mimic Wilson's "The Devil made me do it" well enough to draw chortles by the drinking fountain. Once the ice was broken, I made several new friends from Walltown. Though not all was completely civil, overall it was a good experience.
From my perspective, the facilities at Walltown were not as good as at my school in Minnesota, and it took quite a while to get used to seasonal heat much of the time. The best place at Walltown was the library, which was air conditioned. Spent as much time there as possible during the school day, and have spent a lot of time in air conditioned libraries ever since.
II. An excellent window into modern Iran (helping to contextualize today's mass demonstrations and government crackdown, for instance) is Persepolis, book or movie version. French or English versions are both worthwhile. Voices between the two, as mentioned in a previous post, include Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Gena Rowlands, Iggy Pop and Sean Penn.
Today's Rune: Possessions.
7 comments:
It's hard for me to even imagine having to go through that.
Charles, racism (be it black, white or, ethnic) and its aftermaths are definitely one experience you can be glad of not having lived through as a young 'un.
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i remember the flip wilson show - he was great - especially that first season
i went to a school that was all white (1 black out of 2000 students) - talk about non-cultural
I USED TO PLAY WITH SOME BLACK CHILDREN WHEN I WAS YOUNG BUT THEY WOULD NOT PLAY WITH OUR OTHER NEIGHBORS KIDS BECAUSE THEY WERE "DIRTY POLOCKS'. DISCRIMINATION CAN WORK BOTH WAYS.
Erik, we had 'up north' racism. I was called a farmer at Alpena High--never having lived on a farm, just little old Ossineke. Polocks, hicks, etc. were tossed around, tho.
Ah...I see you HAVE seen it. I'll have to get my hands on a copy...
Oh, & I remember Flip Wilson, too. I loved that show as a kid.
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