Once again, you have introduced me to truly wonderful creative work. Absolutely blown away. Great writing on the social issues too. I'm not at all surprised by your description of microaggressions. Even moving from one region to another within the same country seems to attract these behaviours, which are so magnified when migration is across borders. Reading your article reminds me that the local authority in Whitechapel, East London just decided to celebrate the contribution of the Bangladeshi diaspora there by adding Bengali to the Whitechapel station sign. It created such a storm of controversy that it was debated on the BBC.
Thank you, Phil! I am really glad you like Pacita and Firelei's art. I, too, was blown away when I saw them in the galleries. I could stare at them for hours and thought about them long after we had left.
These are sad, shocking, scary, and disgraceful times here in the States. Thankfully, we live in a sanctuary city in a sanctuary state where common sense and decency for human beings and human rights are still valued!
I love the way you blend your own immigrant experiences into this piece. The microaggressions you describe surprised me, although they shouldn't have. When we sailed around the world, we were always treated as outsiders, as we expected to be, but kindly for the most part. We experienced a sense of privilege as Americans in some parts of the world, but we were scorned as a poorer class of tourists in other places, since "yachties" typically spent less money ashore. And the European yachties, when we all got together, patronized us a bit because we could only converse fluently in English, and yet they kindly indulged us, switching to English when we came ashore.
The artwork you feature is striking and intricate, and I love how colorful and textured they are. The last artist's work reminds me of the work of Maria Berrio, a Columbia native, whose mythical collages I find so fascinating. I wrote about her on another blog site. I'll have to migrate that post here.
Thank you, Deborah. I should say that I loved my time in the UK and every time we return, I feel at home. However, I did always feel like an outsider in my second home. Just as my wife often does here in America. Living abroad gave me a new insight and perspective not just of a different culture, but also of myself and my own culture. I am sure you feel the same way, and your experience, no doubt, makes you feel very different than most Americans!
I'm also glad you enjoyed Pacita and Firelei's artwork. They are two of my favorite art shows that I saw last year.
Thanks for sharing the beautiful, vivid artwork! Your comments remind me of the five years I spent working on the South Side of Chicago. I worked in health clinics in Chicago's most notorious housing projects, often as the only white person on staff. It was an eye opening experience being a minority and I also experienced a multitude of microagressions. My coworkers were generally courteous but never open, it's not like they ever invited me to their houses or anything. A couple of examples of microaggressions: a staff person at lunch pointing at my long frizzy hair and saying "that one has hair just like us"; or the time I made a mistake asking a coworker their opinion of the TV show "Roots". He bristled that I had the nerve to ask this question, but excuse me, at least he had roots to locate. Any record of my roots was destroyed by the Russians and the Nazis. Sometimes it was funny. I often ordered chicken breasts at a local fried chicken place, and it got to be every time I walked in, they'd shout "white meat for the white person!"
My clients, primarily black teenagers, were friendlier. They recognized me as an advocate. I didn't make any effort to "relate" (my dress and mannerisms were blatantly white) just engage with them as a fellow human being. Eventually I worked in a clinic with some white clients. They opened up more with me personally but were dealing with the same issues: crime, drugs, absent men, the constant degradation of poverty.
Probably my favorite moment at the clinics was a Christmas party one year. The party at downtown headquarters was a buttoned down affair but this one featured soul food, bottles of whiskey, and lots of R and B music. There were two quite bigoted white nurses there, and, afraid of being overwhelmed by "black music", brought their teenage son's heavy metal records. Some patients showed up, unaware the clinic was closed for the party. Everybody danced together and passed the bottle of whiskey around and for a couple hours ethnic identity was irrelevant.
Really interesting piece on Baez and Abad. What vibrant, gorgeous, and provocative work.
I had the same experience as you did in the UK, where I lived for 17 years. It rather shocked me and I spent years trying to understand it. Not sure I've ever understood it completely!
Thanks, Ellen. That is exactly how I felt. I think moving back to the US allowed me space to process, and as you say, I, too, am still processing and peeling back the layers of that onion!
Don't get me wrong, I loved living there, and London is probably my all-time favorite city because of my time and memories there. I also love the city's culture, diversity, and history. But I definitely always felt like an outsider for multiple reasons.
I am also glad you like Pacita and Firelei's artwork! They were both fantastic art shows.
By the way, what took you to the UK, and where did you live for 17 years? My wife has now been in the US for 17 years (18 this summer)! Time flies...
I went to the UK for a job in Lancashire, stayed there for four years and then moved down south and lived in Hertfordshire and North London the rest of my time there.
I had lived in other countries before this and expected culture shock, but I think I wasn't expecting so much in the UK given how much culture flows back and forth across the Atlantic. Nor was I prepared for the class system and the way it plays out in the workplace and in relationships.
That said, like you I love London and miss it, miss the beauty of the UK, my friends, the humor, the ability to get anywhere within a day or so, British TV, so many things. But being back in the US, I'm no longer a square peg and don't feel bewildered and confused as I often did in the UK workplace. I guess I feel able to interpret things here and understand the subtext in situations, whereas I often felt like all kinds of subtexts were happening there that I just didn't realize or understand. I think people from the EU knew the subtext and dished it back, whereas Americans didn't see it and also didn't know how to deal with it. Not part of our normal operating system. But who knows?!
Once again, you have introduced me to truly wonderful creative work. Absolutely blown away. Great writing on the social issues too. I'm not at all surprised by your description of microaggressions. Even moving from one region to another within the same country seems to attract these behaviours, which are so magnified when migration is across borders. Reading your article reminds me that the local authority in Whitechapel, East London just decided to celebrate the contribution of the Bangladeshi diaspora there by adding Bengali to the Whitechapel station sign. It created such a storm of controversy that it was debated on the BBC.
Thank you, Phil! I am really glad you like Pacita and Firelei's art. I, too, was blown away when I saw them in the galleries. I could stare at them for hours and thought about them long after we had left.
These are sad, shocking, scary, and disgraceful times here in the States. Thankfully, we live in a sanctuary city in a sanctuary state where common sense and decency for human beings and human rights are still valued!
I love the way you blend your own immigrant experiences into this piece. The microaggressions you describe surprised me, although they shouldn't have. When we sailed around the world, we were always treated as outsiders, as we expected to be, but kindly for the most part. We experienced a sense of privilege as Americans in some parts of the world, but we were scorned as a poorer class of tourists in other places, since "yachties" typically spent less money ashore. And the European yachties, when we all got together, patronized us a bit because we could only converse fluently in English, and yet they kindly indulged us, switching to English when we came ashore.
The artwork you feature is striking and intricate, and I love how colorful and textured they are. The last artist's work reminds me of the work of Maria Berrio, a Columbia native, whose mythical collages I find so fascinating. I wrote about her on another blog site. I'll have to migrate that post here.
Thank you, Deborah. I should say that I loved my time in the UK and every time we return, I feel at home. However, I did always feel like an outsider in my second home. Just as my wife often does here in America. Living abroad gave me a new insight and perspective not just of a different culture, but also of myself and my own culture. I am sure you feel the same way, and your experience, no doubt, makes you feel very different than most Americans!
I'm also glad you enjoyed Pacita and Firelei's artwork. They are two of my favorite art shows that I saw last year.
Thanks for sharing the beautiful, vivid artwork! Your comments remind me of the five years I spent working on the South Side of Chicago. I worked in health clinics in Chicago's most notorious housing projects, often as the only white person on staff. It was an eye opening experience being a minority and I also experienced a multitude of microagressions. My coworkers were generally courteous but never open, it's not like they ever invited me to their houses or anything. A couple of examples of microaggressions: a staff person at lunch pointing at my long frizzy hair and saying "that one has hair just like us"; or the time I made a mistake asking a coworker their opinion of the TV show "Roots". He bristled that I had the nerve to ask this question, but excuse me, at least he had roots to locate. Any record of my roots was destroyed by the Russians and the Nazis. Sometimes it was funny. I often ordered chicken breasts at a local fried chicken place, and it got to be every time I walked in, they'd shout "white meat for the white person!"
My clients, primarily black teenagers, were friendlier. They recognized me as an advocate. I didn't make any effort to "relate" (my dress and mannerisms were blatantly white) just engage with them as a fellow human being. Eventually I worked in a clinic with some white clients. They opened up more with me personally but were dealing with the same issues: crime, drugs, absent men, the constant degradation of poverty.
Probably my favorite moment at the clinics was a Christmas party one year. The party at downtown headquarters was a buttoned down affair but this one featured soul food, bottles of whiskey, and lots of R and B music. There were two quite bigoted white nurses there, and, afraid of being overwhelmed by "black music", brought their teenage son's heavy metal records. Some patients showed up, unaware the clinic was closed for the party. Everybody danced together and passed the bottle of whiskey around and for a couple hours ethnic identity was irrelevant.
Really interesting piece on Baez and Abad. What vibrant, gorgeous, and provocative work.
I had the same experience as you did in the UK, where I lived for 17 years. It rather shocked me and I spent years trying to understand it. Not sure I've ever understood it completely!
Thanks, Ellen. That is exactly how I felt. I think moving back to the US allowed me space to process, and as you say, I, too, am still processing and peeling back the layers of that onion!
Don't get me wrong, I loved living there, and London is probably my all-time favorite city because of my time and memories there. I also love the city's culture, diversity, and history. But I definitely always felt like an outsider for multiple reasons.
I am also glad you like Pacita and Firelei's artwork! They were both fantastic art shows.
By the way, what took you to the UK, and where did you live for 17 years? My wife has now been in the US for 17 years (18 this summer)! Time flies...
I went to the UK for a job in Lancashire, stayed there for four years and then moved down south and lived in Hertfordshire and North London the rest of my time there.
I had lived in other countries before this and expected culture shock, but I think I wasn't expecting so much in the UK given how much culture flows back and forth across the Atlantic. Nor was I prepared for the class system and the way it plays out in the workplace and in relationships.
That said, like you I love London and miss it, miss the beauty of the UK, my friends, the humor, the ability to get anywhere within a day or so, British TV, so many things. But being back in the US, I'm no longer a square peg and don't feel bewildered and confused as I often did in the UK workplace. I guess I feel able to interpret things here and understand the subtext in situations, whereas I often felt like all kinds of subtexts were happening there that I just didn't realize or understand. I think people from the EU knew the subtext and dished it back, whereas Americans didn't see it and also didn't know how to deal with it. Not part of our normal operating system. But who knows?!