Racism in an Elevator

I haven’t posted in a while because stuff’s been happening. Let me leave it at that. But here’s a post that I put up on my husband’s blog (getting married was one of the “stuff” that was happening), and I thought I’d start things back up here with this rather lovely video and post.

See below.

I went stark raving mad after seeing this video posted in a module of my Ethics course at Felician University covering multicultural counseling. Irfan and I have long talks about how upside down things are not only in the media, but in the social sciences where the truth of what one has to say appears to relate more to the color of their skin than what the person actually says.

The effect of the type of “reasoning” engaged in not only in the two paragraphs below, but in the video as well as the article on “white privilege” (just click on the link to see that article) was going to send me to the psych ward on suspicion of homicidal ideation if I did not speak up. So, I felt it best to do so in the interests of everyone’s safety. I didn’t have a lot of time to write this response so it’s rough, but it makes the points I wanted to make in essence. I think Irfan will follow-up with more to say.

So, here’s a couple of paragraphs from the online lecture material that introduce the video and the article on privilege:

Do you assume or judge people? Remember what they say about ASSUMPTION, it makes an ASS out of U and ME (i.e., to assume). As counselors we should NEVER assume. For example, when I am working with a person of color I do not ASSUME (Feel free [and I encourage you to] post about this video in the Lounge) that s/he is African American or Black, and I do not just assume someone with an accent is not American. Our clients are the experts, ASK, ASK, ASK!

Before we move on, check out this video. Warning: this might make you uncomfortable, and that is the point. This is privilege as was defined by Peggy McIntosh in 1988 and is highlighted in this article!! While I do not want to just glance over these issues, these two resources and these four lines in this lecture are, in my opinion, the most important in a counselor’s career. I strongly encourage you all to post in the Lounge and discuss some reactions related to these videos and articles. 

Before you read my response below, note that I was asked to provide my internal dialogue on another page, and that this last paragraph specifically encourages students to post their reactions. So, I posted my reactions (see below). In case you can’t tell, I was so fucking angry, I could barely contain myself. I have had it. In New York City, one learns to keep one’s mouth shut about these issues because, typically, if a white person has views like this, one is not listened to, and the finger-pointing and accusations of racism start before anyone has bothered to listen to what you actually have to say, let alone discuss the issue. I am tired of moral relativism, and the notion that this type of thinking “solves” the problem of racism (rather than continuing it and creating an even more dangerous situation). We left New York City for many reasons, one of which was the daily aggression that a blond-haired, blue-eyed white woman experiences living in a minority neighborhood. It’s much safer to go after women, particularly for angry men of color like this who don’t feel threatened by a woman’s ability to fight back. I found this video to be despicable, and to illustrate, simply imagine that the roles were reversed, or that the woman here is not white but Hispanic or black, imagine that the man is white, and the woman black, any number of combinations other than the one you see. What you will see is that it appears rather convenient to now string up white women as if that’s some sort of solution. And, not only that, we are expected to be willing targets of this sort of despicable aggression, hostility, and misogyny.

I guess I could be wrong here like the “dumb bitch” that I am, but I don’t think so.

If Progressives want to understand why they’re giving Trump a very good chance at a second term, perhaps the dumbasses might want to watch this and read what I have to say. But then, they’d have to read, reason, discuss, and stop politicking, I mean pandering, for just a moment or two (like that’s going to happen).

My Ethics course post (that nobody has read — or are too scared to read and comment on (can’t say I blame them):

Racism in an Elevator? Really?

I’ll say it right off the bat: I have many problems with how social science in general handles issues of race, culture, and ethnicity, and with how it is currently dominating public discourse and mainstream media. In essence, I find that race trumps sex, and women’s issues have been relegated, so to speak, to the back of the classroom. Our text displays little sensitivity to the reality of patriarchy, and at times, even suggests that we ought to be “sensitive” to patriarchy rather than challenge it. I understand that it is not my job as a counselor to change the values of my client; but it is not necessarily my job to collude with patriarchy anymore than I ought to collude with racism. Yes, this needs to be handled delicately, but I think we are only at the beginning of the work of addressing these topics correctly.

I realize that this is a complex topic, and multi-faceted and multi-layered and there simply is not room here to discuss it in full, but I will simply make a few observations about my reactions to the text, the video, and the article on white privilege.

As a white woman, I found the video “Racism in an Elevator – PSA ‘And Now You Know’” highly offensive and troubling. Not troubling because I’ve ever worried about my purse around a man of color. I have — and this statement is not going to be heard and taken well because it usually isn’t — been more concerned about my safety, at least in the United States and in particular, in two major cities, Los Angeles and New York. In these cities, when I was harassed on the street, and I was harassed often as most women are, it was primarily men of color who harassed me. This has been my experience; in stating this, I ought not to be expected to apologize for being victim to male harassment regardless of the color or culture or ethnicity of the offenders. My wide-hipped, small waisted body type simply did not attract white males.

To illustrate, when I first came to New York, a Dominican man in a bodega “kindly” offered me $3000 to spend the night with him. Honestly, he was being charming and sweet and he was rather enthusiastic, and I do not think he meant to be disrespectful. He was delighting in what he considered to be my beauty, but there was an ugly truth beneath that laughter.

Cultural competency in this context tells women to set aside their concerns about patriarchy and the oppression of women, and to be more concerned with the oppression of the oppressors of women from other countries. In fact, in Chapter Four, we have an example of such when Corey et al. (2019) present the case of Talib (p. 121). Perhaps this case ought to be considered from the perspective of questioning why any woman ought to be “sensitive” to, or perhaps more specifically, to collude with, patriarchal values. This is the problem we have when we assert that values are entirely subjective, and there are no universal truths. There is one I can think of right now, and that is that women have been subjugated from the beginning of time, and throughout the entire world.

As a Canadian woman, I find that my experience is not seen or heard by Americans. I am lumped into a class of white Americans. Americans simply do not understand that Canada does not have the horrific history of slavery that the United States has, and in fact, people escaped slavery by coming to my country. We are proud of that heritage. My personal life has always been diverse; I don’t need a textbook to tell me to have a diverse life. It has always been the case. My first boyfriend was black, and my best friend was Korean. This is not unusual for Canadians as our country embraces different cultures more than the United States ever has.

And yet, because I am white, I am supposed to feel this apologetic and collective “guilt” that Americans feel about their racism when I was not even born in this country. A small portion of Ms. McIntosh’s “I can” statements of privilege apply to me, the statements that can be universally applied to most white women. But, I have experienced poverty, homelessness, hunger, a broken home, and the loss of my entire extended family at ten years of age, both maternal and paternal members. I have experienced disability and isolation for over ten years of my adult life. For two to three years, I could not walk into the public environments Ms. McIntosh refers to. This was not “privilege” by any meaningful definition of the word.

I do not offer up these facts to elicit sympathy, but simply to illustrate why I find the phrase “white privilege” to be a useless concept, and ultimately, I believe it has been harmful not only to white women (who are now targets in the elevator for different reasons). America appears to have forgotten that half of white American women didn’t vote for a racist president. Perhaps they have forgotten themselves in all the confusion. I have more than once been called to account for my “sisters” who voted for Donald Trump. How is this cultural sensitivity? How is this not lumping me into a category of oppressors, a category I adamantly reject? The half of American women that did not vote for Donald Trump appear to have been forgotten. They have fallen into the same category as the “dumb bitch” the “gentleman” in the elevator is referring to, the dumb bitch he’d like to beat to the ground. This is why claiming a “collective guilt” is dangerous, and is only adding to the current climate that is becoming increasingly violent and threatening to us all.

As social scientists, we have to work much harder than this, and we have to be much more nuanced. It’s a start to try to address these issues, I acknowledge this. But we are doing a very poor job of it, and we’re not changing things for the better for anyone.

AL FRANKEN…???

I don’t know if Al Franken should resign or not, and this may be a controversial thing to say, but in my capacity as a psychotherapist, I have listened to countless women tell me about sexual abuse they suffered as children. In that context, I have also learned of the the further abuse they suffered at the hands not only of men in their families but women when the children spoke up — including their own mothers. I do feel compelled to say something that might be viewed as controversial, and that is that the current political environment seems like a hysterical pile on.

I remember an 8-year-old who was sexually abused by a number of boys being told by one of the boy’s mothers, “Boys will be boys, and the sooner you realize that, the better.” That woman’s child went on to be a serial bully, and that’s the least that I know about him.

There seems to be more nuance here than is being talked about. I can’t help but wonder how long that picture of Al Franken has been around and laughed at and joked about not only by men but by women. And I can’t help but remember how many times women have told me when I complained about sexual abuse at the hands of men, that it “all depends on how you handle them.” In other words, it was how I acted and reacted that determined the situation, not the man’s actions. I have been bullied by male family members while their behavior has been ignored and/or rationalized by women in the family. How many women have experienced these types of betrayal?

We should keep in mind that some women have used their position as victims to put forth false accusations, and we are not considering the danger of such accusations and the damage that they do. What about the lack of due process afforded male students at universities? What about anonymous complaints that result in an innocent man detained by police, putting not only his freedom at risk but his employment? Does no one remember the McMartin preschool case?

I like Kirsten Gillibrand, and I understand “Enough is enough,“ but I’m just not so sure that Al Franken should resign given other serious issues we are facing in the current political climate, and what valuable contributions he might have made in the future. It is not only women who are at risk right now. I am as sensitive as the next woman to sexual abuse. Every woman knows that practically every woman has been abused sexually in some way or another. It has been part of our culture for centuries, and some women have colluded with men in allowing it. Women have also discouraged other women from coming forward. I think I would have preferred that Franken stick around if I look at both the negatives and positives of what he could have contributed.

The numerous instances of workplace harassment that have gone on over decades I find despicable. But in any case where there is any doubt, people should be considered innocent unless proven guilty, and that’s just not happening right now. It really doesn’t matter the number of accusers. The McMartin preschool case demonstrated what can happen to innocent people when mass hysteria grips the populace.

“We’re Not in Wonderland Anymore, Alice” (Charles Manson)

I’ve contributed to The Health Care Blog a couple of times and follow its posts to stay on top of issues relevant to health care. Dr. Al-Agba wrote this article recently in relation to the recent shooting at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx (see link here). I think Manson was wrong; I think we are, indeed, still in Wonderland as it pertains to mass killings.

Dr. Al-Agba makes the very good (and one might argue rather obvious) point that organizations we work for have an obligation to take threats to our personal safety seriously. Today, if an individual threatens suicide, most people know that such threats should be investigated. Lives have been saved as a result.

Still not so with homicidal threats despite the carnage (and I’ve been maintaining this to anyone who will listen since I studied school shooters in the late 1990s while a student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice; it has been discouraging to know that not many have listened). This is the most pertinent line from Dr. Al-Agba’s article: “After his resignation, Dr. Bello warned former colleagues he would return someday to kill them.” Bronx-Lebanon did what in response to this threat? It’s not clear but so far I have found no evidence to suggest they took any action (i.e., reporting it to police? Seems like that would have been a good place to start).

Dr. David Lazala, who worked with Dr. Bello, described him as “very aggressive, talking loudly, threatening people,” and said that he had been threatened by Dr. Bello via email after Dr. Bello had been terminated. I could not find out if Dr. Lazala told Bronx Lebanon about these threats. But even if he had, consider what Bronx Lebanon would have done after you read about my experiences working as a clinician in New York City since 2003.

I studied mass murder and spree killing in depth in the late 90s while a student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I found that almost all of the school shooters made threats prior to their murderous rampages, and that those threats were mainly ignored. This was true of Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon in 1998, and the infamous Columbine killers in 1999. One of the Columbine kids was essentially advertising what he was about to do on the internet.

I maintain if one makes a homicidal threat, one should not expect one’s home or person to be sacrosanct. At minimum, the home ought to be turned inside out for weapons and such weapons ought to be confiscated. The person should be taken to a hospital, and be evaluated psychiatrically. Not all lives will be saved, but some will. Those lives matter. It makes no difference if the alleged threat was simply someone “venting” or a “joke.” One ought not to vent or joke about such things, and if one does, one ought to be prepared for the consequences.

I challenge anyone to take an in-depth look at the preceding events of most mass murders. What one will often find is that the individual or individuals involved made threats beforehand. During my studies, I had always seen such threats as subconscious cries for help that authorities ignored. And I’ve always maintained that we should treat homicidal threats exactly as we do suicidal threats. The problem is that, all too often, when one does sound the alarm, one is punished for sticking one’s neck out.

This happened even within my own family when I was concerned about an emotionally-disturbed family member who made a threat to do violence to another. I was punished for acting on that concern to ensure the safety of the intended victim. It was seen as a betrayal. I was not willing to take a chance with a young person’s life, and to this day, I know I did the right thing. Despite this, my family has never forgiven me for taking action that essentially ensured our troubled family member did not get into even more trouble than he was already in. We can’t know if my family member would have done anything, but what we do know is that a threat was made, it was paid attention to, and both parties are alive today.

What if he had meant what he said, and I had ignored that threat? What if I had buried my head in the sand as the rest of my family did? I should add that he went on to again make homicidal threats directed towards family members years later, and I again took action by calling police (I’ve been told since I was wrong to do that as well). So, one can imagine the message being sent to those who commit homicide in such circumstances. If the messenger is persecuted and blamed, what message is being sent to the disturbed person who intends to kill?

That said, this was my response to Dr. Al-Agba’s well written article:

I worked for many years as both a mental health caseworker and a community mental health clinician in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and in Manhattan. My life was repeatedly put at risk by the non-profit corporations I worked for, corporations whose clinics or case management operations were either licensed or certified by New York State. My OHSA complaint against a so-called “non-profit” case management agency went nowhere. That agency was sending me into the homes of suicidal and/or homicidal patients with NO safety plan or backup whatsoever. My employer rarely knew where I was or if I was safe and apparently could have cared less. I was sent into homes in the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. OHSA’s Washington lawyers refused to prosecute what their own NYC-based investigator thought to be a solid case.

When I worked with the developmentally disabled, I had to work in a closet, alone, with male adults one of whom acted out sexually with women. Had he chosen to rape and kill me, no one would have heard my screams for help. Since the closet was in a noisy work center, nothing that happened behind that closed door would have been heard. I was often petrified but what could I do? I needed a paycheck. I had already learned that a state-certified agency was allowed to put my life at risk and then fire me for complaining about it. I already knew that the State did not consider my safety worthy of its attention. So, I had no choice but to allow yet another state-licensed clinic put my life at risk every day (the other “choice” was to stop eating). Eventually, I couldn’t take the abuse and neglect anymore, stuck my neck out again, and that time, since I was an independent contractor, my contract was suddenly “terminated.”

I then worked in community mental health with the mentally ill chemically addicted. As one can imagine, with that population, we often had to deal with drug-seeking individuals who were extremely dangerous and threatened staff. There was no security even with such a dangerous population, and it was not unusual that our patients attacked each other. The police were called afterwards, but there was no one to stop these attacks when they happened.

When I was threatened by a client and fighting against being locked in my office with him, the only person I could count on to help me, our janitor, laughed. To be fair to him, he wasn’t a security guard. He was probably very nervous, and didn’t know what to do. I think, though, that he didn’t choose to believe that it was possible I was at risk in that moment because then he would have had to take responsibility to make a choice and actually DO something. And that something might have cost him his job if the client had complained. So better risk my life than his job or the client’s rights or dignity.

We often get our heads chopped off when we stick our necks out in situations like these. Dr. Al-Agba is right on point. I blame New York State for the Bronx-Lebanon deaths and injuries. My entire career in New York showed me that the state turns a blind eye to the constant danger healthcare employees are exposed to. New York State cannot possibly have any type of requirements that these facilities have adequate security because if they did, I would not have been placed in such needlessly dangerous situations across the board and in every single agency I worked with.

Profits came before protection, and it’s not much of a leap to assume that they still do. Let’s not kid ourselves about that. It will take a motivated legislator who actually cares about constituents for this to change. Who could that be I wonder? Denial is a powerful thing, and so is inertia.

There’s only one thing we can all be assured of and that’s that more people will die.

 

 

THE CANADIAN CUNT

Yep, that’s me!

Before you stand in front of me appalled that I use such language, ce n’etait pas moi (it wasn’t moi)!  It was a Porter Airlines customer service representative at Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport on Easter Sunday, no less! On Easter Sunday, he chose to direct hate speech at me. Now, in the interest of full disclosure and to be fair, I did say to him, “You know, you’re kinda being an asshole right now.”

So I’ve been told that because I told this fellow that he was being an “asshole,” I deserved to be called a “cunt.” I’ve been told that by a woman, not a man, but by a woman, and a woman who is supposed to be my friend. I won’t go into a lot of detail about how I feel about that conversation but I’m fairly certain you can imagine how I feel. When I told the Porter Airlines representative who looked into my complaint that I would grant that I (perhaps) shouldn’t have called the guy an asshole, she said to me, “Well, but maybe he was.”

Surprisingly, this airport, which is on a small island in Toronto’s harbor just south of the bustling downtown area, was not that busy on Easter Sunday. I assume there aren’t many Canadians living in the New York City area who go to Toronto over Easter.

I was there to fly home after a weekend with my Canadian family. I went to the counter to drop off my luggage, and as I’m walking to the counter with my boarding pass, it’s only then that I realize, idiot that I am, I don’t have my passport! I hadn’t even thought about its existence since I arrived in Toronto on the Thursday prior. I say to the representative, “I just realized that I don’t have my passport. What do I do?” He tells me that I won’t be able to board the plane without my passport.

I show him a Passport Card and ask if it’s possible to use it. For those of you who don’t know, a Passport Card allows one to cross the border between the U.S. and Canada or Mexico on the ground but not in the air. So, I could have used it if I was boarding a train or driving over the border, but I could not use it to get on a plane. The rep tells me they can’t take my passport card. He then suggests that I move out of the way and take a look for my passport in my luggage. He motions to the floor to the side of the counter. I think that’s a good idea, and at that point, I have no problem with his behavior. Perhaps the passport is in my luggage somewhere and I’ll find it.

The fellow wasn’t particularly helpful but he wasn’t rude either. He seemed indifferent. He could have been a little more sympathetic, but one can’t have everything. So I move out of the way, and I park myself approximately 20-30 feet away from him and on the floor. He assists a couple of other passengers while I rummage through my suitcase. I am unsuccessful.

So, I tell the rep that I can’t find my passport, and at this point, I’m rather distressed because I have to get home, looks like I’m not going to get home, and I don’t know what to do. I’ve never lost my passport before. I try to ask him what to do, but he won’t answer me and he appears to be totally unconcerned, and not that willing or eager to help me out. At that point, I’m not asking to get on the plane because I understand there are laws they have to abide by, but I am asking what I should do because since he works for an airline that I use roughly 2-3 times a year, I suppose he might help me out with a little bit of information. And perhaps he might give me a little bit of sympathy because I’m not feeling so great at that moment. I’m not going home that night, and I have to work the next morning.

Nope, that’s not forthcoming. In fact, not much of anything is forthcoming. I’m being ignored sitting on the floor wondering what the heck to do. He just plain doesn’t care, and he doesn’t try to hide it. And that’s when I say to him, “You know, you’re kind of being an asshole right now.”

That was it! OMG! He exploded. And honestly, that was the extent of our interaction prior to the explosion and the verbal assault that began with him calling me a cunt. When he did that, I was incredulous, and I said to him — and this was still from the floor no less — “Did you just call your customer a cunt?” I’m kind of laughing right now because I couldn’t believe it then and I can’t believe it now. Not only was a minor conflict escalating to something major, I’ve rarely been called a cunt ever in my 53 years of living in Canada and the United States. Cunt is a word right up there with the “N” word, and even the most misogynistic men seem to know it’s not a word to use.

So, this guy continues to spazz out and to be honest I don’t know what he’s saying because I’m in shock at that moment. But then I hear, “I’m going to call a guard!” Then, I’m fucking terrified because all I can think at that moment is what happened to that fellow on the United Airlines flight just a few days earlier. You know, the one who was dragged off the flight and wound up with a bloody nose, missing teeth, and needing surgery? You know the guy, right? That’s the guy I’m thinking about at that moment.

I ask for a supervisor and I’m still fucking terrified because I don’t know what’s going to happen next. And the fellow’s male co-worker isn’t doing or saying anything.

Realize that this entire time, I’m on the floor and no threat to this man whatsoever. I’m nowhere near him, and I’m not continuing the conflict because he is so agitated, so over the top, so crazed that I’m scared to death. And I don’t scare easily. I’m the type of gal who says “fuck off!” right out the gate to any man who catcalls me or tries to come onto me. And that’s on the streets of New York City. I start with “fuck off” instead of something tamer because I’ve learned that’s the best way to get rid of these guys. It’s the most efficient way to get them out of my way and to be secure because they don’t want trouble. These guys are bullies, and they’re hoping to harass a woman who will let them. So, right off the bat, I let them know they’re going to have a hard time with this piece of ass. Because that’s what I am, isn’t it? I’m a piece of ass. I’m not a person; I’m tits and ass. That’s all I am. Where do tits and ass come off expecting to have human rights?

To illustrate, the last man who tried something with me, who catcalled me, who reversed direction so that he could follow me, who caught up to me and grabbed hold of my waist was told the following: “My boyfriend is just up the block, and if I don’t fucking kill you, he will.” Needless to say, he disappeared quickly.

So that tells you I don’t mess around and these guys don’t scare me. Well, let’s be honest here. The truth is that I’m actually frightened all the time. It’s shocking to me that any man thinks he can put his hands on me in broad daylight, without my permission, and with witnesses around. Just the fact that a man can do that, and bystanders do nothing most of the time tells me that I am NOT safe. No one’s going to do anything if a fellow decides to go further. How many times have you read articles about women being raped in broad daylight? And not that far away from a populated area?

In those moments when no one does anything on my behalf, no one objects for example, in those moments, I am scared. And I’m even more scared since October 2016 when the United States elected as its President a man who bragged about doing that very thing. But I try not to give into that fear, and I let my inner wolf out to rip these guys a new one. And my inner wolf is no puppy. Or shall I say, my inner wolfess? She’s pretty badass. You’d like having her on your side. You’d like having her there if you were in trouble. Trust me, you would.

But I digress here. Back to Billy Bishop.

The man’s co-worker comes and stands over me. He’s bending over so he can talk to me, it’s not clear to me what he actually wants to say but I ask him, “What’s wrong with that guy?” In a rather wheedling and I would say just plain weird tone, he says, “Everybody handles stress differently.” I stare at him, and then I look around at the near empty airport and I’m like thinking “what stress? Where’s the stress?”

I’m stunned and I’m also wondering why he’s making excuses for his co-worker instead of telling the guy to shut up and stop what he’s doing. I’m wondering why I’m not getting an apology or some kind of protection from the co-worker. And I’m also wondering why he’s standing over me the way he is. I haven’t moved since the episode started, and I’m not planning on it. I’m staying down there on the floor where it’s safe! But this guy continues to stand over me and I’m not understanding what in the world he wants at that moment. He does so even when the supervisor who I’ve asked for arrives.

When the supervisor comes, the rep still doesn’t calm down and continues to spazz out. It takes the supervisor a good 3-5 minutes to get the guy to stop the outburst. I assume, since I’m a psychotherapist, that this guy was already angry about something else and I just happened to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I mean maybe. Maybe it wasn’t that. Maybe it was that I’m a woman and I dared to call into question his behavior, and while I did so, I insulted him. I really don’t know why he reacted so strongly but his use of the word “cunt” gives us a hint, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure what bothers me more — that this man thought he could use hate speech OR that his co-worker sought to excuse his behavior. And then there’s the idea that this crazy guy had the power to call a guard. Fortunately, no guard ever came. Eventually the supervisor calmed the guy down, and then he came over and talked to me.

The supervisor was helpful and explained to me that I would have to go to the embassy the next day, and he explained to me why they couldn’t take my passport card. It had something to do with there being no U.S. customs unit at Billy Bishop (I think). I said to the supervisor after he had provided me with some information — which was all that I asked for — “You do know there’s something wrong with that guy, and you guys need to address it? He called me a cunt.” The supervisor didn’t apologize for the behavior, but in fairness, he didn’t defend it either. I told the supervisor I knew that he was doing what he was trained to do which was to not say anything because he had to look out for his employer, the airline.

But who was there to look out for me in that situation? Apparently, the Porter Airlines rep had the authority to call a guard. Did I have the authority to call a guard? Could I have called the police? What would the guard do if the guard did come since I didn’t pose a threat in any manner? Was I going to be hauled out of there by my ass? Porter Airlines later assured me nothing would have happened had a guard shown up. But given what I’ve seen on the news lately, I’m not sure I believe that.

When I’m in the middle of an airport in Canada, who is there to look out for me? Are there police there? Or are there just guards that the airlines can call? Could I have called the police if I felt threatened by the guards? Who was the guard this rep felt entitled to call?

The only protection I believe I had in that moment were the cameras. Thank goodness for cameras. I left the airport knowing that the cameras would verify my story, and I immediately filed a complaint with Porter Airlines.

I received a phone call from a female customer service agent the next morning. I have to say that I am very proud of Porter Airlines for the way they handled this situation. I’ve always liked flying on Porter, and had very few reasons to complain about the airlines or its representatives. In fact, I’ve always been very complimentary of their customer service. I think it’s some of the best in the airline business.

This representative, who happened to be a woman, did not excuse the behavior at all. In fact, she told me that the rep had admitted to his supervisor that he had called me a “cunt” immediately after the conflict, that there hadn’t been a need to even consult the cameras. She told me the CEO of Porter Airlines had been told about the incident, that the management of the entire airlines was aware of the incident, and wanted the situation handled properly.

I did wonder why the rep so readily admitted to such egregious behavior. Was it because there were cameras there and so he knew he might as well admit it? Was it due to the fact that his co-worker had witnessed the entire episode? It’s not clear to me that his co-worker would have backed up my side of the story to be honest. I still am not sure, to this day, what the co-worker’s “deal” was.

Or did he admit what he did because he was still agitated and felt entitled, still, to behave the way he had? Turns out that was true, that even after I left the airport, the fellow continued to rage on. He was taken aside and he then volunteered the information. He didn’t deny calling me a “cunt.” I’m not sure if he defended it or not, but the airline informed me — because I wanted to know what they were going to do about this man’s behavior — that they had suspended him for five days AND referred him to anger management.

I expressed to the airline my fears at that moment, that I had felt utterly alone and completely vulnerable to this man’s hatred and rage, that the idea that he had the power to call a guard after using such language with me absolutely terrified me. There was no one there who I could go to for help. At least, no one I could see. I don’t know what would have happened had the guard come. I don’t know why the guard didn’t come.

The Porter Airlines representative told me that the guard would not have harmed me, and that it’s not unusual to call a guard when there’s a dispute with a passenger. I have to wonder about that because this wasn’t much of a dispute and I was nowhere near the rep physically so what purpose would a guard have served except to intimidate me? And how did this man have that kind of power when he was NOT under threat in any manner whatsoever?

Porter Airlines suspended the man for five days, and they referred him to anger management.  They gave me credits of a little over $330, and the nice lady representative told me that because Porter wanted me “to come back,” they were giving me “a free roundtrip voucher” to use anywhere they fly in Canada within the year.

I am grateful to Porter Airlines for their immediate action, their denunciation of this man’s behavior, and their representative’s clear understanding and empathy. She understood how scary this situation was for me, and she was clearly disgusted by the man’s behavior. Her reaction was a far cry from the reactions of the by-standers that evening (I’m speaking of the male co-worker and the supervisor).

She was the first person in that situation to say to me that what the man did was wrong, and that Porter Airlines was not going to allow their employee to engage in misogynistic hate speech without taking action. Sadly, she was the first person to say that. There were two others before her who knew what happened. They were both men, and neither said anything to that effect to me. As far as I knew — and if I hadn’t complained — they weren’t going to do anything, and this man would have gotten away with what he did.

I’m still left with thoughts about this whole by-stander issue. I don’t know that I should have had to complain to the airline — via an online form — to get my moment, to get that moment when somebody said to me that it wasn’t right that that man to call me a cunt. It should have been said immediately, right then and there. I can say with confidence that I would feel a lot safer and more protected in general if bystanders did more in situations like this. Instead, I left that airport shaken and confused.

While I am happy with the action that Porter Airlines took, I’m not happy with the actions of the bystanders. And I think we know from history what happens when good people don’t act, don’t we? It’s happening now, people, and it’s happening to women every minute of every hour of every day, and it’s happening in public, on our streets, in our airports, in our offices, and in our homes.

The question I ask the reader is this: are you saying anything when you see things like this happen or are you staying quiet? And if you are staying quiet, what price do you think women are paying for your passivity and inaction?

And what do you think your silence is saying to the abusive men you know? You know, the ones in your own family? What do you think your excuses are achieving, you know excuses like “Well, his father abused him,” or “He’s just of that generation,” or “He just gets wound up; he doesn’t mean anything by it.” What do you think those excuses are achieving?

It’s either silence or excuses, but how often is it condemnation, condemnation that is followed by consequences? Too often we see men rewarded for their misogyny. And so it continues as it has through the centuries and throughout the world.

We’ve already seen a lot of excuses made for our current President’s misogyny not only by his family, but by his friends and his political supporters, not only by men but also by women. What price are women paying for the silence and the excuses? I would argue it’s a pretty high price, one that is practically inestimable.

 

Indeed, what is your complicity saying?

 

My first slideshow (Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA)

 

Discovering Jack White

It’s an understatement to say that I have become a huge fan. The acoustic recordings referred to in the New Yorker article (see link below) are, in a word, spectacular. I encountered White first as an actor when he was cast as the character Georgia in the film “Cold Mountain.” He wrote much of the soundtrack for the movie and, since this introduction, I have slowly “discovered” this guy (who has been around for quite some time). Brilliance in the eyes of an imp!

 Jack White as Georgia (Cold Mountain)

At 21 years, he owned an upholstery shop. He wrote invoices in black crayon on yellow paper (because black and yellow were the colors of Stanley tools). He said, “The bill itself was a poem. No one understood it–‘I just wanted my dad’s wing-back chair fixed,’ they’d say. The presentation wasn’t good for business.”

Employees at his current firm that sells vinyl record albums wear black outfits with yellow accents.

I’ve a mind to go there wearing a black outfit with yellow accents (or a yellow outfit with black accents?). Certain Jack’d get it!

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/jack-whites-infinite-imagination

Winter is coming…July 16, 2017

http://www.hbo.com/data/content/global/videos/embed/data/1457958.html?width=640&height=360Season 7: Sigils Tease

You are equally as beautiful as the universe.

Another “enough said” moment.

In defense of Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s film “The Great Wall”

I have always been puzzled that Zhang Yimou’s films have not received proper recognition in the United States. IMHO, Yimou is the greatest filmmaker on this earth, and Gong Li, his former muse, the greatest actress of her generation. Li  can be seen in his first film, Red Sorghum, in Raise the Red Lantern, a more renowned film, and To Live, an indictment of policies and campaigns of the Communist government. To Live was banned in mainland China by the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. This film  was and is a tribute to Yimou’s courage. It was was banned in mainland China by the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television^[3] due to its critical portrayal of various policies and campaigns of the Communist government.

I have seen every film Yimou has ever made, and when Gong Li was his star, I would say to myself, “She makes Meryl Streep look like an amateur.” Li could convey, with the subtlest of glances, a world of emotion and mystery. Yimou has always taken on feminist themes, something most American filmmakers have not. To illustrate, ponder the machismo works of Scorsese, Coppola, and Kubrick, all filmmakers to applaud and whose work I enjoy. However, do they take on the inherent destructiveness of polygamy (Raise the Red Lantern)? And do their films universally  embody strong female characters (think of Hero, House of Flying Daggers, To Live, The Flowers of War, and now The Great Wall)?

I have not yet seen the machismo of American film directors in any of Yimou’s films. I don’t think there is an American director who appeals to the feminist side of me more than Yimou. Add to this colorful and dramatic cinematography, the best film editing, wondrous musical scores, and the most perfectly directed cast and casting (I know, redundant but I had to say it that way to make my point), and I just don’t see the problem with a big film such as The Great Wall.

I took it for what it was — a legendary fantastical film about fighting monsters on China’s Great Wall. I would have thought any film made by an American filmmaker about the Great Wall would have a militaristic and machismo theme with few female warriors, if any. The Great Wall was a spectacular sight to behold, and I feel a great urge to write to Yimou to thank him for all that he has done for filmmaking. And to say, “I’m sorry, dude, but Americans just don’t get  you. If it counts at all, I do!

I think it is absolutely no accident that Donald Trump has felt free to criticize Chinese policies out of envy for all that the Chinese have accomplished. Criticism of their system of government, draconian perhaps yes, cannot be made without also condemning the flaws and hypocrisy of the American political system. Chinese artists are not responsible for their system of government. The Great Wall made me want to learn more about Chinese history and culture, something that is addressed in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series of books, an historical reimagining of the Napoleonic era complete with aerial corps of flying dragons.

As an aside, iIn Novik’s books, the Chinese treat sentient dragons with respect and honor and dignity; the English treat sentient creatures no better than dogs to be used only for their own militaristic ends and hegemony. There is something to Novik’s point of view. Her books are worth a read, by the way, and the great director Peter Jackson has optioned the series; I hope he goes ahead with the project(s). There are seven to eight books in all. If you like fantasy, heroism, and the love of an ultimate companion, a sentient dragon, you ought to take a look at Novik’s work. If Jackson doesn’t make the series, perhaps Yimou will?

If I had to make a list of the people I’d want to sit down for lunch with (for about a week), Zhang Yimou would be at the very top of that list. Perhaps I can get him to join the Over-Rateds. Qu’est-ce que tu penses?

I have been financially supporting the White Helmets for the last few months out of desperation to support the people of Syria (as you can see, I have placed a “Support the White Helmets” picture on my header for about a week). This documentary I have not yet seen but I’m thrilled it won an Oscar!