[sudo-discuss] Telling Oakland stories in Sudo space: my own part 1 of (?)

[Pete Forsyth]

Well, a combination, for sure.

I guess I'd liken the language aspect to learning any language. I took a
lot of French in high school, and did pretty well in it, but still found
myself kind of lost in the rare situations where I was among native French
speakers talking casually. When I started to understand better, I was
similarly unaware of the process; *after* a conversation one time in
Montreal, I had a sudden realization that it had been in French.

I guess my point, which may or may not be interesting to others, is that
the process of getting to know an unfamiliar culture can come in surprising
and unexpected waves, and it can be a challenge to maintain accurate
self-awareness. To me, this is not exactly a new concept, but I appreciate
reminders.

Pete


On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss at gmail.com>wrote:

> Oh. Lol. Then again it wasn't because you didn't understand Ebonics, it
> was because he didn't understand pool.
>
> Maybe I didn't read the story right, what was the Ebonics part about?
>
>
> On Wednesday, November 20, 2013, Pete Forsyth wrote:
>
>> Ah sorry, I was unclear. He was completely oblivious that any discussion
>> of significance had happened at all. There was talk all through the match
>> -- but this was actual disagreement about the substance of the game. For
>> somebody interested in competition, this is an interesting thing --
>> something to take note of if you are aware it's happening. A disagreement
>> about a shot that engages nearly all the players present is unusual and
>> significant. (I discussed this with my teammates afterward as well, who
>> were similarly surprised and amused that he hadn't noticed that there was a
>> disagreement.)
>>
>> In general, what you suggest is accurate -- I do, often enough, find
>> myself surprised and uncomfortable with heated discussion (generally it's
>> when I don't fully understand what's going on, I'm usually fine with it if
>> I have a good grasp of things.) But in this case, that wasn't the issue --
>> something significant happened, and there was exactly one person present
>> who wasn't aware of it.
>>
>> Pete
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 9:51 PM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>> It's passed him by, or he said, oh yeah, 'a disagreement,' but didn't
>> think it was remarkable?
>>
>> I'm trying to understand which "it passed him by" you mean, I imagine you
>> must mean that you both obviously saw the same thing - people playing pool,
>> a disagreement, a resolution, but that you thought it was serious or tense,
>> but thought it was unserious and unremarkable. Is that right?
>>
>> If it is, I don't think it's because you don't know Ebonics you didn't
>> understand that. Are you a WASP? More people will get mad at me, but
>> cultural heritages are real. Are you infrequently around people that yell a
>> lot for no reason?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wednesday, November 20, 2013, Pete Forsyth wrote:
>>
>> Sonja -- I'm glad my story captured your imagination, but sorry to
>> disappoint! :)
>>
>> Unfortunately I'm not sure how to capture the interesting discussion we
>> had after that -- it was a discussion between good friends, with reference
>> to past conversations and shared experiences and such. I gave him the
>> backstory I provided here (much of which I'd already told him) and we
>> shared our amazement that something so intense could happen while he was
>> paying close attention, and yet completely pass him by. We agreed that the
>> cadence of communication in that community can make it difficult for an
>> outsider to distinguish between mere animated, performance-like, boisterous
>> speech, and actual conflict.
>>
>> I'm sure there will be more stories coming out of this league --
>> hopefully with a grand *victorious* finale in a few months ;)
>>
>> Pete
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 12:18 PM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>> What's the rest of the story -
>> You: "What did you think of that?"
>> Eugene: "of what?"
>> You: ?????
>> What did you say, "the fight"?
>> Then what did he say ?
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, November 19, 2013, Pete Forsyth wrote:
>>
>> All:
>>
>> In the spirit of Rhodey's recent message,[1] I'd like to share an Oakland
>> vignette of my own, about a pool league I recently joined. But first,
>> here's why:
>>
>> I began to get especially excited about Sudo Room when I started to
>> realize it aspires to be more than just a bunch of computer geeks coming
>> together to hack computery stuff (awesome enough in itself) -- that it also
>> wants to be a community that hacks *life* together. Meeting chefs and
>> filmmakers was the first wave for me, and then I started hearing heatlfelt
>> and inspired talk about stuff like social change and engaging with local
>> government. Yeah!
>>
>> Many of us, though, are new, or newish, to Oakland. And we are people who
>> want to have a positive impact on the world around us. But Oakland is a
>> place with deep history and culture, and on a pretty basic level, it would
>> be...impolite...to come to a party and immediately start trying to change
>> what it is. So the desire to get to KNOW Oakland is one that resonates very
>> strongly with me, as an important first step before contemplating ways to
>> INFLUENCE Oakland. I think sharing stories is a powerful way (among others)
>> to get to know something complex and multifaceted.
>>
>> Anyway, enough of the philosophizing. I want to tell you guys a little
>> bit about the pool league I joined a couple months back.
>>
>> Apparently, there have been several Oakland/East Bay pool leagues over
>> the last 30 years or so (where each team has a home bar, and competes
>> weekly over a scheduled season). Right now, there's only one league (or at
>> least, only one connected with this community). It's coed, it's a 30 week
>> season (we're about 9 weeks in), it's run by a woman who has run an
>> all-women's league but just started this one, and it will culminate in a
>> trip to Reno for all participants. By now, having played against all the
>> other teams, and can say I am truly the only white person in the league;[2]
>> and I think I'm also unique (more or less) in my connection/familiarity
>> with Internet/hacker culture.
>>
>> I've played in a pool league before, but it's been 10 or 15 years.
>>
>>
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