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

[Sonja Trauss]

what are you saying David - all black people are robbers?


On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 7:50 PM, David Barthwell <david at vergegraphics.com>wrote:

> To all the people sharing fun stories and uplifting anecdotes about
> encountering black people in Oakland:  Let's not forget that there are
> actually some on this list.  In fact, I'm one of them!
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 7:36 PM, rhodey <rhodey at anhonesteffort.org> wrote:
>
>> Oh yes, it is worth noting that I'm a white male in his early 20s.
>>
>> --
>> -- rhodey ˙ ͜ʟ˙
>>
>> On 11/18/2013 07:12 PM, Sonja Trauss wrote:
>> > 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
>> > <mailto: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˙
>> >     _______________________________________________
>> >     sudo-discuss mailing list
>> >     sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org <mailto:
>> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org>
>> >     http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>> >
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> sudo-discuss mailing list
>> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> sudo-discuss mailing list
> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://sudoroom.org/pipermail/sudo-discuss/attachments/20131118/3ed413a6/attachment.html>