Well, and Your Humble Blogger goes out of town for a few days and all hell breaks loose. Actually, Hell didn’t break loose at all. And, frankly, if it did, I think out of town is exactly where I would want to be when it happens. I’m thinking something like...
Hell broke loose today in Hartford, Connecticut, and our reporter Cindy Gonzales was on the spot. Our condolences go out to the Gonzales family, with our hopes that it was quick. The forces of the Lord are presently arrayed on Interstate 84 in Waterbury, and it is hoped that the breakthrough can be contained. We’ll be speaking later to a prominent environmentalist about the likely effects of the Connecticut River boiling into steam, and we’ll chat with an obscure local blogger who calls himself Vardibidian, who was well out of town with his family and several friends, and suffered no harm whatsoever. Also, we’ll have a spokesman for the undead to give their side of the story, and to eat the brains of our interns! All that, plus traffic and weather on the eights.
Anyway. Where was I?
Oh, right. Karl Rove resigned, Jenny Holzer has a Twitter page, Dennis Hastert resigned along with something like seventy-eight other Midwestern Republicans, Jenna Bush got engaged (to be married), police in the US are suffering bullet shortages, we’ve turned the corner in Iraq, and um. It rained. And I missed St. Cassian’s Day.
Anyway.
Here’s a question for Gentle Readers: have you ever had the experience of entering a large room containing a goodly number of people and thinking there are only [quantity] of [identity group] here? The specific instance I am thinking of would be entering a bar and thinking that there are only a handful of white people in it, but I would abstract it to coming into a movie theater and thinking there were only a few of us Latinos, or only a few of us women in this club, only a few of us parents in this restaurant, only a few of us Jews at this wedding, only a few of us young people at this lecture, only a few of us long-hairs at this rally, etc, etc. And to be clear: I’m not asking whether you have ever been one of a few members of a particular identity group within a larger crowd, but whether you have thought to yourself upon entering a crowd that the members of one particular identity group were outnumbered. I am curious about the specifics, but if you don’t want to provide them, feel free to just say yes, that often happens to me or no, I don’t think I’ve ever done that.
The question, by the way, reminds me of a moment in a Buddy Hackett stand-up concert (don’t worry, this isn’t the joke that begins “Two faggots were fucking a dead alligator on a bus...”) when he asked the audience for a show of hands, how many people at the show were Jewish. He nodded at them, seemingly pleased by the smattering of raised hands, and then asked how many Methodists were in the audience. The Methodists vastly outnumbered the Jews, of course, but when the hands went up Mr. Hackett’s eyes went round (in the particularly comic way Mr. Hackett could conjure) and he quickly said that you Jews had better behave yourselves around us Methodists. The laughter was not altogether nervous, but... not altogether free from nervousness, either. I suspect the Jews laughed louder than the Methodists.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
For starters, I observe the demographics of groups that I’m around all the time. As a teacher, I can say that the demographics of a class will affect the overall dynamics of discussion and will also affect the behavior of students in particular identity groups, so it’s important for me to be alert to those dynamics so I can lessen the dampening effects and support the enhancing ones.
As a result of being attuned to this question for my classes, I now tend to do eyeball demographic surveys of whatever group I happen to be in. I’m not sure that’s really the question you are asking, when you ask about thinking that one group is outnumbered, though.
If you mean that in the sense of, “Well the parents really had better watch their steps, ’cause there are enough toddlers here to take them out if things get ugly,” then no, I don’t think I have ever been in a situation and thought, more or less, “Well, that group’s in trouble if things get violent,” or in a less riot-oriented sense, “Being surrounded by aged relatives, those kids had better be on their best behavior.” I can articulate the sentiment, but it’s not something that crosses my mind when I observe groups, and I don’t think it ever has.
Sure–I noted in Chicago that I saw no Asians, and I felt much more comfy back in LA where there was more of a mix. I’ve also realized I’m the only woman in a group of however many men (that used to happen a good bit, though less often these days).
What I’m getting at is more than observing the demographics, and less than a fear of mob violence. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, and I’m not sure that describing it further will get more (or different) answers from Gentle Readers. I will add that by identity group, I mean your own identity group, or one of your own identity groups. I would say that jaipur’s example of only woman in a group of however many men is what I’m looking for, but no Asians in Chicago isn’t (assuming you don’t self-identify as Asian, J.)
Thanks,
-V.
At our wedding, we noticed how few non-Swatties there were. :^) Although more by implication of noticing how holy crap many Swatties there were, so.
Last week, on a streetcar in New Orleans: We are the only white people on this car.
In a pond in eastern MA: I am the only clothed person in this pond.
At such times I haven’t felt threatened, but definitely conspicuous, awkward, embarrassed.
I do notice that sort of thing fairly often. One thing that I find odd not infrequently is the demographic at my workplace. I work with a whole boatload of engineers (mechanical, electrical, computer – you name a field, they’re here – not civil, so much…), and:
An unrelated anecdote.
The day of the Rodney King verdict (April 29, 1992, as wikipedia tells me), some friends of mine and I went downtown to DC to catch some movie or other at some art house in Georgetown (I think it may have been Tetsuo I or II).
Anyway, we come out of the movie theater and start walking back to our car, which is all the way on the other side of Georgetown, and I had one of Those Moments. It went like “Me and my three friends are the only white people on the street. And there are lots of people on this street. Holy shit!”
So, we start walking through Georgetown and two notable things happened. A few blocks up, some kid runs by (must have been 13 or so) and throws something (a brick I think, but I can’t testify to that) through a nearby business window. A block or so later, we got to a corner, and someone yells “BOO!” and pops a balloon.
Now, this was a pretty common joke in DC, around that time, and I’d heard it before. With the tension and the weirdness palpable in the air, it was out of my mouth before I could think. I said “Eek.” Rather sarcastically.
The only sound I remember after that was someone saying, “Y’all a bunch of brave motherfuckers.”
We made it back to the car without further incident. I heard the next day that windows in several shops had been broken.
peace
Matt
PS “Buddy Hackett was quite funny,” he said nervously.