check yourself...some thoughs on our own racism

i recently attended a ccda institute workshop on racial reconciliation. it was pretty rockin. i should say that i am a recovering racist, and that i definitely see jesus moving us to racial reconciliation.

i've been to a bunch of different kinds of trainings like this (this one is my favorite so far), and work this stuff out on the daily with close friends, partners in our church, and people that i don't know too well yet. i also work it out in my own head.

barbara skinner and isaias mercado did this one section where they were saying that many "ordinary" terms in our language (mostly so-called white people language) and their implied definitions. check them out, i'd love to hear if you have any thoughts on these or any experience that would validate/debunk this mini glossary.

so when we say (code word) we really mean (definition)...(and then a little bit from me in parentheses) these are from kind of a high context place, i hope that you can read these in the spirit of trying to fight racism, and part of that is knowing how racist our society (and us) can be. we need to find more dignifying ways to talk about difficult situations and a new language that is not tainted with the superiority complex that our country was founded on.



underclass: poor, desperate, violent blacks.
(african americans do not have the monopoly on poverty)

welfare mothers (or welfare cheats): african american teen moms with kids from different fathers
(the number of african american women on welfare has steadily decreased over the last 2 decades, especially). when i married my wife (italian/german decent) she had a baby with another dad and was on welfare)

illegal aliens: latin americans (they consider themselves americans, people from the US say american meaning from this country not the N and S American continents). how about "undocumented" people, many of whom are born here or grew up here, are kicked out by hicks with guns and then are just coming home.
(do eurpoean immigrants have the same discrimination when they came/come here?)

terrorist: arabic people (please. how come timothy mcveigh isn't talked about as a terrorist, or at least not at the tip of our tongue when we talk about terrorism?)

invasion: we don't say that the Europeans invaded this continent (i guess it was too long ago) but the Japanese have invaded our economic markets

nas is my best rapper today

i finally got chris' bass amp back. that took forever. dipinto guitars is moving to girard and columbia sts...i like that. some of the new fishtown stuff is cool (like them, the rocket cat, CIRCLE THRIFT) but some of it is bad news.

we were hangin with ryan and rachel the other day and decided that we are going to wait for the nkcdc house on dauphin st rather than keep lookin for the deal of the century. this house is so sweet, and it will probably take about 7 more months or so for them to do the rehab...

john mallinen has been added to the psalters show on may 24. i'm not partial, he is just real good. 22nd and mt. vernon (olivet covenant) right by all the artist studios. 8 pm or something.

the postal service can be annoying

i got a letter returned because "covered stamps not good for postage."

not feel good from strange stamped-on message.

i had cut the stamp out from another letter that was a mistake or something and taped it onto the envelope.

i'm going to the ccda lunchy today. like pretty much now.

frankord ave block cleanup is saturday at 9:30. free BBQ at the yards brewery afterwards.

jolene is the best song today

i downloaded like 4 versions of this one. dolly parton and melissa etheridge is probalby my favorite. i heard this slow version on xpn one day but i don't know who sang it and i can't find it, anyway.

sweet events next month...
may 3-show at 2007 frankford "the pelicans (tony gib on bass!, colin daniel on gits, ana tantaros on drums, dave siefried on vocks), half handed cloud (sounds familyre records), bang bang beautiful (the charismatic pascale bros and company )

may 16-the Aware House launches, first of 3 nights (one a month) to learn and share about Northern Ireland and the struggle. irish food, murals, and whatnot.

may 20-free movie and discussion-HOtel Rwanda. most of us were watching OJ while 800,000 people got ethnically cleansed over 3 months and we did shit.

may 22-psalters lead worship at circle of hope, frankford and norris
may 24-psalters at olivet covenant (608 n.22nd st).

i like the white stripes' jolene, a lot. even though i'm not so into them.

a new nephew

i wasn't one of those kids who had uncles that were older than me or stuff like that. my uncles were all old, that's probably why i associate uncle with old.

they call me "wise uncle" or "uncle eagle", or "great one" or "uncle beard" usually. sike.

one time, though, my brother-in-law (i have like 11 of them) was explaining to his daughter that my tattoos were just like pictures (she was like 3 or 4) and i was like "she's never seen tattoos before!?"...i hope that doesn't mean that helena is gonna have tattoos on her face or get the bridge of her nose pierced because she is so desensitized to that kind of stuff.

pushy pushy

i hate it when people are trying to get you to do stuff that you don't want to do. like looking for a house. i really could say to the listing agent "sorry that you've wasted my time, but i can totally tell that this house is a piece from the outside. i really have zero interest in being inside of it. i can see that the one wall is 'fake rock.'"

"no, no" they say "i want to see the inside. oh, now, look. this is cute. a 2 ft long bathtub."

and i'm all like "there is a thing called square footage, and this one is half of what i asked you to find."

the nkcdc house is like a rain cloud, we know that it's coming eventually, but just not sure when. we kinda need to get sure.

motion picture soundtracks

what's it called when the trees by my house have flowers on them? i don't mean to sound like an ignoramus, but that is happening. i liked that it happened on norris street before anywhere else. thank you chuck norris.

i think i am anti "motion picture soundtracks" right now. i used to think that footloose, the crow, and top gun were exceptions. let's vote soundtracks off the island. if you were stuck on a desert island and you were allowed to bring one "motion picture soundtrack" with you and that was the only recorded music you could listen to, which one would you bring? i guess i would pick "the crow" for nostalgic reasons. helmet, the cure, nine inch nails, FOR LOVE NOT LISA, rage...i used to think it was the greatest thing.

fishtown? zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz

me and martha decided to go to boston instead of MD> lobstah instead of crabs, i guess. kevin and megan (and ephraim) moved up there a couple months ago and we are gonna check them out.

i love little 2 night trips with just martha.

martha is obsessed with the potential of this nkcdc house on dauphin st. there has been a bunch of back and forth with it, but now it looks like next spring it would be ready. it's on the spensive side, but huge (2300 sq ft), mungus yard, all new everything, nuff space for us and the bow wows...ryan and rach really want to get out of their house pronto, though. i'm conflicted. i think that i want to keep looking, but with that style of looking where only something that blows my mind will make me switch.

that house, though, is right where we want to be at (between amber and coral on dauphin). mixed income, mixed racially, mixed age, pretty, close to CT and to the el, in martha's words "it's not kensington kensington, but it's kensington enough". i'm tired of living in fishtown, though. sleepy of living in fishtown.

get ready

free movie tonight (Hero with jet li) at 2007 frankford ave (above circle thrift), 7pm. we'll talk about it afterwards.

tomorrow there is a lot happening. if you didn't know...dan rhodes is getting a dumpster to clean out his first floor. the kenzo farmers are clearing out a lot for their first project on frankford ave, and rod is painting at the new counseling bldg on woodland ave.

maybe you want to do some of this stuff.

rural PA rules

i got to go to manheim, PA this morning to hang with other BIC pastors. i love that. i love going to the sticks and i love the people that i get to hang with. i can't go to anywhere near lancaster without getting lost at least once, though. and i did that today.

one time while trying to go to new joy (nice name, right?) in ephrata, i was looking for the place in these back country roads and was totally lost. i saw this community rec center near these woods so i stopped to ask for directions. as i walked up the hill to the building from the parking lot, i noticed some targets, like for shooting things at on the side of the building (bad idea for me to be wandering into some weird place in the sticks where they shoot things). i knocked on the locked door of the place and this old white dude answered the door with a puzzled look on his face. i asked if he knew where new joy was and he was like "heh?" (it was like i just said "large talons" or something).

he asked his other old white companion (there were 3 total) and none of them knew what the heck i was even talking about. they had quivers of arrows strapped to their legs. they had composite longbows on the ping pong table and they weren't all that into having company at that moment. as soon as the words "i'm not sure where that is..." came out of the gamesman's mouth i was all "thanks for your help...have a great day (or something)."

pilger was all about this lady joanna newsom. i saw bvolt@ listening to her today, too...so i thought i'd check her out. i like.

march showers bring april awesome stuff

i think i'm gonna start posting here again.

me and martha set the date for a little getaway. here is something pathetic and funny. she and i have both had about 4 nights of video game vegetation. one time back in like 01 i was really sick and she bought me a copy of the Sims...and she's busted it back out. i don't even care about that game anymore since i have my franchise on madden. i set the concessions, $1 beers. whoo hoo.

my mom and baby brother are coming down this month now. that is gonna be awesome. it's weird that she is coming down to visit the graces but jonny, too. i love that he is down here (don't you!!!?).

the frankford ave arts corridor meeting was this morning in our bldg. there is a bunch of new stuff happening on our block, that should really help the store. that christ that we and the "rockin' cat" won't be the only bastions of life on this block. nothing against viper kahn or anything, but the old style of this block is whack. new life in the spring.