[sudo-discuss] my experiences with "crime" in oakland [part 1 of ?]

[Sonja Trauss]

this reminds me of a comment I overheard on the bus when I lived in st
louis:
"I'm getting that government money man, fuck street money, it ain't even
worth it."

ps are you a boy or a girl?


On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 6:55 PM, rhodey <rhodey at anhonesteffort.org> wrote:

> Receiving and contemplating the perspectives of others is one of my
> favorite ways to burn metaphorical CPU cycles. The level of respect I
> show for differing perspectives is something I hope to never be
> content with, that is to say I believe it's an endless process and I'm
> still working on it. I have a tendency to keep my head stuck in
> projects and have realized is that I've been holding out on sharing
> many of my most valued perspectives, more specifically my experiences.
> It is my hope that through sharing experiences we can better
> understand how to conduct ourselves within Sudo Room and how we Sudo
> Room can better conduct ourselves within our local community.
>
> I arrived in the "bay area" May 1st by way of some airport in New
> England, in search of hackers, activists and uncomfortable
> experiences. After subletting an apartment in the mission for all of a
> month I moved to West Oakland. Since arriving in Oakland I've been
> robbed three times, to me each experience has been indescribably
> educational in its own way. However, my first crime related experience
> in Oakland was not a crime at all.
>
> There is a corner store within ~6 minutes walking distance from my
> apartment by West Oakland BART called Happy Times. To me it is usually
> a liquor store, but this day I felt like working through the night so
> I bought 2 large redbull energy drinks. Walking home holding the
> redbull as best I could in one hand I passed two African-American
> youths, one female, one male and both no older than 17. We passed each
> other and at this time I was about 20" from home then from behind me I
> heard "hey man, can I get a redbull?".
>
> I turned around to face the two of them with a bit of a guilty smile
> on my face, after all who the fuck really needs 32oz of redbull?
> Caffeine, other energy drinks, productivity and I all get along
> swimmingly, all the better if I can help someone else get things done.
> "Sure" I said, followed by "make good use of it" in an attempt to make
> the situation more casual. I walked up and handed him the redbull, his
> face lit up, he went nuts.
>
> **and I quote** "Oh man! Asking is so much better than stealing!"
>
> The smile stayed on his face as he continued celebrating, exclaiming
> all possible iterations of the above statement as I stood their
> dumbfounded. This continued for minutes until we parted ways, up the
> stairs and into the house I could still hear him talking with his friend.
>
> This was certainly not the first time he'd been told of this
> sentiment, but after ~17 years of living it was the first time he had
> ever believed it. There are at least 3 other experiences I would like
> to share in time, but for now I'll leave it at this.
>
> --
> -- rhodey ˙ ͜ʟ˙
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