PHOTO OF THE DAY:

WOMEN IN FRANCE PROTESTING THE BURQA BAN.

9/14

Listening Post *UPDATED* FLOSSIES BIKER BAR

Last night, Sunday, September 26, I went to my listening post. A "biker's bar" called "Flossies" located in Dania, FL. I found this particular bar on an actual site called "bars4bikers.com". It lists all the places in FL that are designated bars for bikers alike. I chose this particular location because it was located not too far from my home. Upon arriving, I was in for quite a surprise. I had actually set myself up to think that upon arrival, the bar would appear to be NOTHING as I had imagined. And boy- was I wrong. Or rather- I was RIGHT.

Flossie's Biker Bar was PACKED with parked bikes, inked-up people, and of course- not a SINGLE "ethnic" face around. I was dressed in all black since the website said "We allow club colors." Now, as a young woman who spent many summers and winters inbetween 3 out the 5 main boroughs in New York, I knew that the safest color to sport in any territory was "all black". However, I most definitely came "over-dressed" in black and gold heels, black skinny jeans, and a ruffled, v-neck blouse.

I made a u-turn, pulled over, and called my father in New York.

"Dad- I am SO scared. This place is everything I thought it would be. There is not a single black person in sight. I'm not going to survive!"

My father found this EXTREMELY amusing and laughed in-between explaining to me that I would be fine. See, my father used to be a cross-state truck-driver and has found himself at truck stops in many rural central Florida areas. He said the people at the bar would be of no harm to me.

I immediately parked and walked up to the location in which I was greeted with MANY stares. I went straight for the bar and sat down. The bartender, Sandy, was very pleasent- as she asked me for my drink order.

Upon ordering, an older, white male- "Ross" found his way over to me and asked me:

"You do know you're at a biker's bar, right?"

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph- I had no clue if this question was rhetorical. I thought if I didn't answer quick- his next statement would be "We don't like your kind!"

Now- I am not proud of all these terrible stereotypes I conjured up prior to my trip. I am not proud at all. But I am also not too proud to admit that these infectious thoughts did in fact lie within me.

I answered in-between a shy laugh that I was in fact very aware of where I was.

Ross took a seat next to me and said "I was just asking."

When our drinks arrived he asked me what brought me out there. I was honest and told him about our class assignment. He was extremely intrigued and said I was a "brave girl" for coming out there.

I found this as the perfect opportunity to ask him why. And I'm glad I did.

For starters, I want to make this clear. "Ross", 71 years old (72 on October 27th. However, he looked like 55.) kept confusing and joking that I was "investigating" the place. I explained to him in-between laughs and serious moments that this was far from the case. I told him the objective of the project and I said I was "observing", not "investigating". Investigating would mean that I am looking for something bad- when in fact, I was simply there to observe and not disrupt the environment at all.

Anyway- back to our conversation.

When I had asked Ross why is it that he found it admirable and brave of me to come out alone to Flossies, he explained "because of what the media and movies make these places out to be". He said that Flossies is in fact, an extremely friendly environment. He mentioned that out of the three years he has been there, he has never seen a fight or anything close to a public display of confrontation.

He introduced me to another man at the bar, "Miguel", who was the first to show befriend him upon his initial visit to Flossies. Clearly, these people were regulars, and that was comforting to know. Miguel was extremely friendly and Ross explained to him why I was there. He was far from offended and in fact asked me about coming back, in which I said I would be.

During the entirety of our conversation, I began to be more and more intrigued and thankful for Ross's uncandidness towards me. It was great to learn so much more about the bikers at Flossies. He explained that many people are war veternarians that come in to discuss a number of stories, successful business owners who find biking to be a hobby (he himself has owned a Fork-lifting company for 30+ years), owners of other large machinery (he and Miguel are boat-owners), and overall- many of them were humanitarians. As a matter of fact, many of the bikers will be up In Tallahassee for a charity event as well as West Palm Beach for the months of October and November, in which I was invited to the West Palm Beach charity / riding event.

So much more that I could blog about- but honestly, I'd be rambling. I plan to discuss more in class as well as answer ANY questions in my comment section.

Overall, I beyond enjoyed my visit. A friend of Ross's (whom he claimed he only met that same day. A lady by the name of "Shiela") said that Ross was attracted to me because of my "gorgeous, juicy lips". The compliment flattered me and made me very aware (and ok) that it was no secret to these people here that I was black. Clealy, my fuller lips is one of my many "racial" features that seperates me from the white race- but it was nice to know that being black was welcomed- since I doubted it before.



Listening Post



 My listening post is TBA as far as its specific location, but for now it is offical that it will be a biker's bar. I'll be honest- I was amused at my reaction upon receiving this news. The fear invoked within me only showed that there is something I have yet to overcome in life. I do enjoy enlightenment, even if it means displacing my comfort level for weeks at a time. Actually, I'm looking forward to the day when I will look forward to going. Hopefully, this will be as soon as "trip 2" because I already know "trip 1" has me so uneasy, I had to google "black people at biker bars" to get the following search results. Call it what you want, but doing this did in fact give me a bit of hope that I will not stick out like the sore-thumb I intend to. I knew I was typecasting by even doubting black people don't find themselves in these places, but we were in fact told to enlighten ourselves more on the place that we're going. I'm going to actually read more into biking as a hobby to understand why people gather around these places as a "common folk". I guess there really is some type of freedom in this leisure activity because "meet-ups" nationwide are held for bikers, and all the pictures I saw seemed to be of people having a good time. I'll keep you all posted!

Are You Islamophobic?

Upon reading "Is Islamophobia the New Hysteria" , an Opinion piece by NY Times writer "Nicholas Kristof", I realized that there is in fact a name for the unfortunate mentality many people have towards the Islamic people. It's sad that things have come to a point in which one can actually rationalize their irrational fears by simply "google-ing" a couple key terms in search of what in fact is simply just a personal problem. It seems that as the years go by, people have more ways of justifying their ignorance and making stupidity into a science. Let's just face it- many of us are discomforted by things and people foreign to us for inexplicable reasons.


Prejudice is unjustified, so why try to justify it?


Not to say that it is anything to be proud of, but it is what it is. It is wrong in all its shamefulness. Making sense of it is one thing, but bringing sense to it is another.


 I do believe prejudice comes in all forms and on various scales. It is safe to say that we are all prejudice when placed in certain situations with people who are not familiar to us.This may be a result of how media portrays a certain group or class of people, or due to a certain isolation in our own lives, but when most people find themselves as a minority in a place of worship, a neighborhood, or even at a social event, a feeling of discomfort comes over and overwhelm us all to a certain degree.


Kristof's piece makes for an interesting read. Not because he is attempting to defend those who 'suffer' from Islamophobia, but because he actually looks at the idea of such phobias for the little bit of ignorance or prejudices that they indeed they are- nothing more to it.


As he states, the piece is about "the long history of fear-mongering about newcomers and non-traditional religious faiths."


I welcome all to read it. Me personally, I enjoy looking a little deeper into myself and my flaws. The safest and most dangerous place is our minds. Fortunately, I seek a lot of humility through myself before that of any other person because I can admit that I am scared to perhaps sound ignorant or not too well-traveled if I express certain concerns regarding my own "phobias". Not to mention, I try not to fog my own mind with someone else expressing their own opinion strong enough to the point of sounding factual.


Kristof also gives a bit of suggestion or insight for what we can do to overcome such fears rooted in the 'unknown'. Enlightenment, of course, is idea. I actually took it upon myself to do one of the things he suggested (years back) , which was go to another place of worship not that of your own and get a sense of what the followers are like. I can honestly say that as a Catholic woman who went to a Buddhist temple for a class assignment, I went in praying to God for forgiveness and left thanking him for the experience. The man whom I spoke with at the temple actually told me that I am more than welcome to come back and bring "my God" into my heart.


The experience really left a mark on me on further breaking down any stereotypes I was unbeknown of were wrong beforehand.


Take a read at the small article below:


http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/is-islamophobia-the-new-hysteria/#more-6377

THERE IS NO GREY AREA BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE.

 On Wednesday, we took an Implicit Association test (IAT) in class. I won't go into detail regarding the politics behind the test and the purpose it is intended to serve (if any) since we did all read the same disclaimer prior to starting it. However, I will discuss my results with you all as well as my feelings towards them.


For starters, I took two tests, the first being the 'RACE IAT'. My results indicated that I have a moderate preference to white people over that of black people. I found this interesting for a number of reasons.


For one, when I was younger, I had always felt more comfortable in the presence of white strangers than that of black strangers. For example, I was raised in Plantation, FL in a rather middle-class, predominately white, suburban area. As ironic as it sounds, I did feel comfortable being one of the three black families in my neighborhood living in a city called "Plantation" of all things, where the high school mascot for 'Plantaton High ' was none other than a colonel. So if ever I went to stay in North Miami on the weekends with my cousins and aunts, or in NY with my brothers, and if dragged to any local functions- I always looked for a white face, usually an adult, that if anything- would be my outlet for help if I felt I needed to seek any.


I realize now that the reason behind this may have been more or less "black and white" than it was a "social-class" thing. I lived in what most would call a "good neighborhood" while growing up, and it just so happens that the faces that comprised of it were white. For heaven's sake, we had a neighborhood crime watch- of course I felt protected. Thus, for years, unless it were faces that I new and trusted, I felt more comfortable around the company of white people than that of most blacks.


 However, as I got older, I quickly began to wean off the company of my close family when going to visit areas "foreign to me" and made friends of my own who were mainly blacks of all nationalities. Not to mention, the mother of my best friend "Nina" had brought a new boyfriend home who told Nina that he preferred her and I not be friends because I was black. We were 9 years old then, and she came up to me at school and told me Harvey was an "a-hole" and that she was upset because she felt pressured to cancel my trip to her house for the weekend. Although Nina's mother and mine had discussed the issue and issued us both an "apology" to what was deemed to be "a misunderstanding", the tension still existed between us nonetheless as we were both very aware of how different we in fact were.


 By the time I was a pre-teen, I had made friends with the neighborhood girls uptown and in Washington Heights after frequent trips to visit family in NY annually. I  definitely had grown to be a regular in the North Miami area and acquired a taste for the lifestyles of my cousins and the girls around me- who just so happened to either be black (of Hispanic or non-Hispanic descent) or "white" of Hispanic descent. I realized I much rather enjoyed the security of "blending" in to the neighborhood rather than sticking out. And that this alone would allow me to not be anymore victim than any other person the same shade as myself (as far as being ostracized as a result of my race.)


Basically, I do feel the test provided some accuracy to feelings that I harboured in myself when I was much younger, but perhaps subconsciously those same feelings reside in me today. In reality though, I do often find myself in the company of many black people more often than that of non-blacks. And although I feel no type of way in regards to others dating inter-racially, I myself have yet to successfully do so without a bit of discomfort on my end. So with that said, I am unsure what my results really had to say about who I am now- but I do the test did not offend me or impact me one bit.