The Equity Project

The Equity Project
The homepage for the school mentioned in previous link.

WaHI charter school article

WaHI charter school article
Will this work?

Oh those rich folks…

Best thing I’ve read today, courtesy of NYC’s Plaza resident Suna Said (tried to find info on her, but alas, the internet was lacking this time). She is speaking in reference to the charity she founded called the Plaza Foundation:

“The Plaza has always been on the cutting edge of class. And what’s more classy and avant-garde than finding meaningful ways to give to those less fortunate?”

I imagine a slight (elderly) woman, in a skirt suit, wearing pearls, with unmoving hair, impeccable shoes, and accompanied by her Yorkie Poos saying this as if she’s the first person to think of helping the ‘less fortunate’. Someone should remind her that avant-garde means ‘unorthodox or daring; radical’ (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).

- suse

For the story from which I lifted the quote see ‘Eloise Sheds A Tear’ written by Evgenia Peretz in the January 2009 issue of Vanity Fair.

Unintentional Subversive Messages Sent on 14th Street

Somehow this post disappeared. We’re not sure how, but we’re bringing it back cause it shouldn’t be lost…

This is a purely anecdotal story but I thought I would share anyways.

I was strolling along 14th Street near Union Square last week when I started to notice tons of flyers scattered all over the ground. I stopped to read one and found that they all said ‘why are you white?’ in big capital letters. I initially thought to myself, ‘Yes indeed, what a relevant question to be posing in this day and age! Why am I white?’

I noticed someone passing the flyers out, so I walked over to get one, still thinking that maybe it was a flyer for a discussion on white privilege, or whiteness, or the history of race in general. I took one. And it was laminated. I thought ‘Wait a second, this isn’t right. Discussions on whiteness don’t usually have the budget for glossy, graphic-artist-designed flyers.’ Sure enough I flipped it over and it was an advertisement for a tanning place.

Anyways, I kept it and have it up at my desk now because I thought it was partially sad, partially funny: sad that whoever designed it didn’t seem to consider the meaning of the question, but funny that this tanning place is paying to have laminated messages spread over the streets of New York that question whiteness (at least when the flyer is picked up by white people).

- missingwhitewomanohmy

Get Out of Here America

So Good Morning America is doing a whistle stop tour where they’re visiting all 50 states and commenting on the state of the nation or whatever. Anyway, they stopped in the upstate NY town where my parents grew up and where I still have family – Rome, NY. Here is part of the video (uh, I guess wordpress doesn’t let you post videos from abcnews. ugh):

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5812243

Anyway, even though I think everything they said is true (it is kind of a shithole, in all honesty), residents are understandably kind of pissed because it showed them in such a negative and white-trash-ish light.  My mom emailed me a letter that the Chairman of the Board of the Rome Chamber of Commerce (whom my grandmother taught when he was in kindergarten, fyi!) wrote to the show:

Liveblogging: Obama, McCain Shutdown Morningside

Hey Friends,

I’m here at Columbia’s historic Morningside campus observing the leadup to the possibly historical discussion between presidential hopefuls and senators (question: who’s watching the senate if everyone’s gone?) Barack Hussein Obama and John Sidney McCain III. Oh, and Bollinger will be there too. There’s a jumbotron set up for all of us peons who didn’t get in by lottery or birth rite. Currently blank, but the masses have begun to assemble and stare at the looming, blank screen. Sooooo many people have gathered, like, an appropriate number for a protest, if Columbia protested. I guess this is more of a power-elite flash mob. Anyways, a few blocks and shut down, many campus entrances, and both GED and ESL testing services have been canceled (you need a Columbia ID to get even close to the wrought-iron fence). So many metaphors for Americana here.

But, I’m hopeful that something magical will happen. I’m hoping that, since this is not meant to be a debate, that reason may co-exist with rhetoric. Especially today, when, collectively there is much to think about and discuss.

Ok, off to class. See you at the after party!

-Ferrrosha

I think you mean “SoHa.”

From Overheard in New York:

The Occasional Hostile Stare, for Example

White girl #1: Do you live here?
White girl #2: Yeah.
White girl #1: We were thinking of moving here. How is it?
White girl #2: The super is okay. The building is fine. Good value, I guess.
White girl #1: I know! We were so excited to find a place on the Upper East Side for so cheap!
White girl #2: Uh, this isn’t the Upper East Side: this is Harlem.
White girl #1: Oh… I guess that would explain a lot.

–E 129th & Madison

There goes the neighborhood, I guess.

- Ferrrosha

Greetings from Flushing, Queens!

Sisterkungfuhustler, missingwhitewomanohmy, and I spent Sunday in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the Dragonboat Races. In short, the weather was perfect and the park was beautiful. It quickly became my favorite park in NYC. The lake area is beautiful and most of the people hanging out in the park seemed to be laid-back families enjoying their Sunday together.

The first thing we noticed (on the completely unnecessary shuttle busride there from the Willits Point subway stop!) was that the park was bisected by the highway. Our speculation that it was the doing of Robert Moses was correct, though he was also responsible for building the entire park up from the dumping ground (literally) that it was, just in time for the 1939 World’s Fair. The next thing we noticed about the park was the crazy Mad Max style crumbling structures (later found to be the Observation Towers) next to the Unisphere. Again, our speculations were correct, in that they were left over from the 1964 World’s Fair. Still – ultra creepy looking, especially with the elevator still attached halfway down one of the towers. We’re fairly certain the towers are being kept there because they’re housing wigs, a la the Spring Break episode of The Simpsons.

Observation Towers and Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park

So, anyway, I told my mother about our outing to Flushing Meadows Park and she excitedly informed me that she and my father played at the ‘64 World’s Fair with their high school band (they’re from Upstate NY). Later she emailed me this website, which houses a ton of pictures from the 1964 World’s Fair. I thought I’d put it up here since it’s pretty interesting to see how the structures were supposed to look. So far I haven’t found any pictures featuring my parents on that website, but I’ll keep my eyes open!

-Jaime

People and Their New York Dreams

So, can we be mean yet? I’ll start!

In the span of a 10 minute walk in Williamsburg (down Bedford and past the park) the other day, I overheard TWO different conversations where the people were trying to figure out how they could get their music out there and MAKE IT BIG (well, they didn’t say “make it big” but it was implied?). LAAAAMMMEEE. At one point I got stuck behind these two guys talking about how record labels work and how to put out their own cds as promo tools and/or record label bait. I wanted to shoot myself in the head the entire time.

Also, as a bonus, on the subway ride down there a group of 3 actors got on and sat in front of me and preceded to talk about acting stuff, including a story by one dude in which he namedropped “Michael Douglas’s son” about 15 times.

Why can’t everyone be as cynical as us and resign themselves to decidedly unglamorous jobs like public health?

-Jaime