B'ham is ... different. My brother lives near Trussville but works downtown. Driving from the airport to, well, anywhere, you get an acquaintance with southern poverty. He used to live in a beautiful, but crumbling, house in the old city. On the edge of gentrification, but the outside edge. The poverty and racism were laid bare there. It has it's beauty, but.
They want to leave. I won't lie about that. It isn't just their sons having accents, it is the racism laid out before them, unhidden because they are so very white. And both don't want their kids to grow accustomed to that.
I just rewatched Obama's acceptance speech. Will be puffy eyed again tomorrow. GODDAMNED. It was as lovely as I recalled. And I kinda adore the Obamas' casual affection, whether between family and husband and wife, or MIchelle stroking the hair of (I presume) Biden's granddaughters. It's just so ...normal and kind and natural.
Anyway. I've pretty much decided I WILL go to this inauguration, even if only to stare at the backs of other peoples' heads. msbelle, you should join me.
yeah, I was thinking of making the trek, but I am not convinced that it won't be better to just watch it on TV.
The puppy with the purple collar is a big trouble maker, knawing on the others and stirring them up.
Yeah, there's that. But I'll feed you! And extra kitten! OK, we need someone with connections...
it is the racism laid out before them, unhidden because they are so very white. And both don't want their kids to grow accustomed to that.
As a native Alabaman, I'll say that's a very strong reason why we don't want to return there. I have more and more friends moving to Birmingham, emailing us that it's different, it's getting better, all that sort of stuff. But every time we're there, I hear casually racist comments all the time and feel positively Marxist when dealing with the overbearing, unthinking privilege of the rich white Mountain Brookers.
My parents lived in Trussville when they lived there, but they moved to South Alabama about six years ago.
It's kinda freaky. I watched the rental dude treat me with a lot more caution than the black guy before me. And I was the cheapass! He was going all out for features and shit! Alabama has been good to my brother's family, but. Yeah, that "but." They aren't black. They've seen the shit their minority friends face in everyday life there. And the thing is, where they lived before, in TX? If you got outside city limits, it was even uglier. However, next door was the mammoth Ft. Hood and Killeen, and that made up for some of the scaryass small towns. Because even if those areas were certainly not liberal bastions, they shat upon even casual racism. They haven't really found a safezone in ALA.
I should note, I feel bad consigning a whole state to UHG. But that's been their experience.
A lot of people from high school have found me on Facebook. I don't really want to revisit the feelings I had when I was growing up, but I find all these people - some former friends and some who hated my guts for reasons that have never been clear - fascinating. Most have been trumpeting how hard they spent the last few weeks praying for a McCain win. Some of the women - who, like me, are in their mid-30s - have been planning a botox party where a doctor will pitch what botox can do for them. I feel like I grew up in a foreign country that's become stranger over time.
NE Florida is bad enough, thanks.
I was making the point to Lewis that even though we've lived in a myriad of places, including Nashville, we've always been around university communities, our circle of friends sort of naturally evolving from that proximity.
Jacksonville is the first place we haven't had that and it's the most isolated we've been and I HATE it. It's one of the most stultifying places I've ever lived. The one saving grace is that one of my best friends who is also a liberal/left-leaning writer type who has two kids very close in age to mine, lives less than a mile away.
Thank goodness, because otherwise, y'all might see me in a clock tower.
I totally want to go to the inauguration. I wonder if I can call Close Up to see if they need Program Instructors for just that week.
