Sunday

Jen and I went to The First Presbyterian Church on West 12th Street on Sunday for Easter with my sister, her fiance, and her friend Lauren. I liked the church and their open policy-- on the website part of the church mission states, "When you come, you will find a wonderful array of God's children, rich and poor, gay and straight, people from every walk of life with a joyful blend of ethnic heritages."

Then we went to the restaurant Rosa Mexicano and Michelle's friend Wes and his boyfriend joined us there. I loved this restaurant, the interior has bright colors and I had a delicious french toast with pecans and maple syrup. It was delicious!

After the brunch, Jen and I went to El Museo Del Barrio by Central Park. The museum is really great, with the most activist driven art with creative statements I have ever seen I think. I would like to go back and read through the art work descriptions, there just wasn't enough time to do that when we were there.

The weather was beautiful and we had some lovely walks in Central Park nearby the museum. There was a nice garden and lake we walked along...Spring was in the air with buds on trees and small baby tulips. This was one of my favorite moments of our trip together.

Saturday

On Saturday Jen and I walked through Prospect Park to Grand Army Plaza for the farmer's market and then went to the Brooklyn Museum to look around and especially to see the Dinner Party works by Judy Chicago, part of the feminist center. On the way there, we saw the white sculpture which I love. It looks like very skinny people with long legs dancing. The photo above that is Jen in all her cuteness.


Tiles in the Brooklyn Museum subway station.

Good evening!

St. Patrick's Day is almost here!

It was so special hearing bagpipe music floating along the street while I walked home.

Here is a unique variety of four-leaf clover! It's a black one.
Trifolium repens var. atropurpureum Dark Dancer

Ghada Amer.

Today I went to the Ghada Amer exhibit titled: Love has no end
at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in
The Brooklyn Museum.

On the pavement next to Prospect Park.

Did you know you can find hearts all over New York City on the ground?

Love.

Racism, sexism, heterosexism: why do the privileged care?

I read an interesting piece by Peggy McIntosh titled, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack". She discuses a topic that is not discussed often, but very real. The other side of racism, or maybe the main side. In our society, the victim is blamed and the non-white people are seen as the "problem" and are left to carry the burden of racism. It is okay for white people not to think about race on a day to day basis, because their survival does not depend on it. And they are not forced to carry race in a bag on their backs, crushing them.

Peggy McIntosh talks about all the ways in which her race gives her a pass to privilege. After reading this article, I thought about a discussion my class in Ethnocultural Issues in Social Work had after watching the film The Color of Fear about a focus group discussion on race and racism between men of different ethnicities (i.e. African American, Asian American, Caucasian, South American, Central American). In our class discussion, the main thing most people brought up was that one of the participants in the focus group (an African American man) got angry and they didn't know why he did. He was trying to convey the point that minorities carry the burden of racism in our society and the majority race does not notice this because their lives are not bothered by race.

Then someone in the class (Asian) brought up that minorities in our society are not on top, and do not feel in turn that they can assert themselves in this society like white men feel they can. And all the white people in the class (of soon to be social workers) had no idea that this happens or how it could happen.

I found the class disturbing not only because of the ignorance and conscious oblivion of the white people in the class, but more so that these are up and coming social workers. They are working for minorities and the disenfranchised and yet they do not understand their half of the story of racism. Without understanding their half, they do not understand racism at all, and I do not see how they can counteract it.

Does it take someone extremely self-aware and willing to let go of their possessions and privilege for a moment to realize how they got them and where they stand?