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

[Pete Forsyth]

Just want to poke my head up to applaud Rhodey for sharing a story that
makes me smile and prompts some thoughts. And also to generally commend the
practice of telling stories! I appreciate the spirit in which this one was
offered: with an effort by the storyteller (perhaps not perfect, but so
what?) to avoid generalizing or drawing conclusions.

Last night I had what I now realize was the incredible honor to see the
premiere of "Beauty in Truth," a film about Alice Walker's life. Ms.
Walker, the filmmaker, and Geena Davis (with her philanthropy hat on) were
among those who spoke and took questions.

One recurring theme in the film was the way various groups (ranging from
her family members to white America to the Black Power movement etc)
responded to Ms. Walker's various efforts to tell her stories. At one point
in the movie, following the explosive and vitriolic response to the movie
version of The Color Purple, Oprah Winfrey made a brief appearance saying
essentially, "This is *one woman* telling *her story*. Why is everybody
acting as though it has to be *the one, true, correct* story? Everybody
just chill out." (Yes, this is my paraphrase and not accurate!)

I had a similar reaction when I read some of the critical response to the
film Fruitvale Station.

So..I would just like to echo Oprah here, and encourage anybody with a
story to they see value in sharing to do so, and the rest of us to keep in
mind that telling a story is NOT necessarily the same thing as making a
generalization! Story does not equal data (or at least, not statistically
reliable data). But it would be silly to conclude that story is not useful!
It doesn't have to be data to be useful.

I appreciate reading all the thoughts in this thread -- even though it's
gotten heated, every one of you has had something thought-provoking to
contribute.

Pete


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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>
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