So at like 11:30 I watched someone get shot in front of my apartment (and was about 30 seconds, and one decision to not go back for a lighter jacket away from being shot myself), and then at 5:30 I watched someone get ejected from their car in a crash on 134th. 

Stay away from me, I may or may not be cursed.

// ~//

A kid got hit by a 1 train tonight at 79th because he and his friends needed to get to the downtown platform, so instead of leaving the station and crossing the street, they decided to cross the motherfucking tracks.

He’s dead now.

// ~//

I just walked out of my room to take the laundry out of the drier and clearly heard my roommates fucking in their bedroom. I did my shit then went into the bathroom to wash my face. When I came out they were done, the door to their room was wide open and one roommate was lying on the bed naked. Being from Oberlin I was relatively unperturbed, but he jumped up and slammed the door awkwardly while other roommate was getting water in the kitchen. 

He then yells from behind the door, “Hi, Kendra!”

“Hi, Mike.”

“Sorry, but can I borrow the rest of the Preacher trades from you? I’m on book 5.”

“Indeed.”

Ah, my apartment.

// ~//

They’re pulling this shit with the 7 train too, so I sympathize with anyone who relies on the that one too even though we all know the 7 train’s only dependable when the Mets are actually winning.

// ~//

Fun fact: I’m inside on a Saturday night despite not feeling too exhausted after a full day of work only because the MTA decided that not only were they going to raise prices this week they were also going to shut down the 2/3 between 96th and 145th/149th

UNTIL MONDAY.

I was supposed to go to a friend’s bday party tonight, until then I also saw that there was a “police investigation” at 34th on the A/C/E line and that had stopped moving as well. Police investigation = someone jumped or fell on the tracks. 

Since the 2/3/A/C are my only dependable ways in and out of Harlem and I was not looking to be waiting for a shuttle bus at 3am on Broadway and 96th nor was I going to be paying $35 for a cab (because the party isn’t far enough east or far enough west that I can get away with a $20 highway ride), I decided no bday party for me. 

I’m so annoyed with the trains right now, I can’t even. How do you shut down the 2/3 for seventy two fucking hours?

And the signage around the stops is just so poor. I ended up in the Bronx on 149th and 3rd because, despite the fact that the bus is supposed to be replacing the trains and there is no express train from 96th to 149, there’s an express bus that skips all Harlem stops.

BUT THERE’S NO SIGN TELLING YOU THAT.

Just MTA workers screaming on undecipherable megaphones.

I left work at 3:30 today, should have been home at 3:50 by the latest. Didn’t end up walking back in until 4:45.

Fucking, MTA y’all. You can’t shut down a chunk of the subway for THREE STRAIGHT DAYS. 

// ~//

I went to a talk about integration in America witnh the author of Some of My Best Friends Are Black and the director of the documentary The Prep School Negro. I was mostly there to see the latter, because I wrote a review of the movie and his events in NYC never match up with times that I’m free. So I just wanted to finally introduce myself since he seemed like a very cool dude (and he was!), and I honestly wasn’t expecting all that much from the discussion.

A discussion about integration and socialised racism as seen through the eyes of a white dude. No thank you >.>

It went pretty much as expected. I learned some stuff and names I hadn’t heard before, but then they started discussing the author’s views on the term White Privilege and it kind off all went down from there. It boiled down to, he doesn’t think it should be used because poor white people don’t have as much privilege as we think they do, and the term itself makes white people uncomfortable, therefore shutting down productive discussions about race between blacks and whites.

He actually said that, “a group of Black Students sitting at an HBCU discussing racism using this term is just a way of turning Whites into an ‘other’, the as white people have done to POCs.”

Thanks. You tried. But no.

Anyway. Got to the Q&A and white people started getting up to express their opinions. The first question set the tone:

“When you go to hockey games, you only see white people, and when you go to basketball games you only see black people. It’s the same with broadway shows and rap concerts. When you see feild trips at the Met, all the groups of white children are in private school uniforms, and all the groups of black children are with public schools. Maybe we’re not segregated, we just choose not to be together because we like different things.”

Another white lady gets up and asks:

“Sometimes I feel like we’re creating problems for ourselves out of nothing. For instance, everyone’s making a big deal out of the politcian who dressed up as a sports star for pruim because he painted his face. My daughter painted her face green because she was the witch from Wicked and I took her to synagogue and no one cared. We’re just creating problems for ourselves instead of working for peace!”

Next white lady gets up and barks out:

“THERE ARE NO BLACK US SENATORS!!! NONE!!!! AND SO MANY FEWER HOUSE MEMBERS. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO FIX THIS?! HOW DOES THIS MAKE YOU FEEL?!”

That white lady was the worst, because she kept standing when no one could really answer her question because it was just awkward by that point. And then she resurfaced later when I was outside after everything was over.

I was introducing myself to the director and we were chatting (he liked my review and apparently it helped him book some workshops at schools with admins who heard about the doc via Racialicious. Woo!) when the same woman walks up to us and grabs him and is like, “YOU DIDN’T ANSWER MY QUESTION!!” and starts ranting and raving about the House again.

It was so awk, and he was obviously uncomfortable since she was, you know, assaulting him. And we both just kind of stood there silently until she gave up and went away. We were on the 6th floor of the midtown NYPL, but I took the stairs to avoid being trapped on an elevator with her or anyone else.

idk idk. Tonight was just some interesting insight into white people and race.