The Racial Whisper

So for blog #2 I have chosen to write about the phenomenon I experience in my daily life that I like to call, "the racial whisper". It goes a little something like this:

Person 1: I don't know you you're talking about...
My friend: Oh you know Jenny, she's about 5'3, dark hair, dark eyes
Person 1: hmm...no I don't know who you're talking about
My friend: She has really curly hair, it's kind of below her shoulders
Person 1: No still don;t know
My friend: She's really athletic and has muscles....
Person 1: Still don't know....
My friend: She's the (whisper voice) 'black' one

Another instance, which I find particularly comical....

Lacrosse recruit parent (who is watching practice): Oh we love Jenny! we always watch her play.....which one is she again?
**mind you, I am the only athlete of color on my team**
Teammate: If you have to ask...you'll never know

Ok so after all this...my question is: why do people always whisper racial terms, as if it makes it any more politically correct to say it quietly than it does than to say it out loud? If anything, it draws more attention to the fact that you are using race as an identitfying factor. So, if in the future you find yourself doing this....just own up to the fact that I may just be your only black friend in attendance on a particular occasian and you may feel less awkward by just acknolwedging that I am African American from the get-go, instead of dancing around the obvious.

First One. Good One.

Some call me their black friend. Some call me their white friend. But those who know me best just call me Jenny

I decided that so many people do this blogging thing that I mind as well take a stab at it. And for those of you who do know me personally as Jenny, know from my journals that in my younger years I was an avid writer, haha. So for now I am going to just give this the old college try and see what comes of it.

So to start out, on my first day of class this year, my professor told me that 'writing should be like shitting...you do it everyday whether you like it or not"....however, I don't think this blog was what he had in mind. I think I am supposed to be doing scholarly writing and thinking new thoughts that change the face of physical cultural studies, but I don't feel I am at that point yet. To be truly honest, there are probably so many other things I should be doing right now that I have been avoiding like the plague. My thoughts are that in writing them down below I will either feel a) relieved that I at least have them in a list and can keep track of them or b) be overwhelmed but what i have not accomplished them, haha, so here goes:

In a perfect world the below tasks would already be completed:
1. monday's readings for class
2. a proposal for my final paper that was due 10 days ago
4. steam cleaning the carpets
5. giving lola a bath
6. buying new pillows
7. bring cupcakes i baked over to the neighbors
8. my thesis proposal
9. working out every day
10. decorating for thanksgiving
11. buying cheesecloth so I can use the mulling spices I bought like a 30 yr old woman from William Sonoma
12. taking my car to Nissan because my gearshift doesn't work
13. doing a 21 day cleanse
14. throwing away the halloween pumpkins
15. saving my receipts for taxes
16. not buying plants from whole foods because they always die 2 weeks later
17. Raking the yard and jumping in leaves
18. Eating my food in the freeer before buying more stuff
19. Going to the doctor to get ADD medicine because after reading over this list I made I realized that I definitely need it...especially because I decided to spontaneously create this blog while I was mid sentence and half-way through an article about post-modernism and Michael Jordan (scholarly reading is not typically a catalyst for this kind of thing)

Welp...looks like I have alot on my plate. I'll be interested to see if I complete these things. I think tomorrow I will take attempt #1, #5, #14 and #18 and within the week I'll aim for #8, #9 and the newly created #20: celebrating my 24th birthday.

On that note, let's talk birthdays. Every birthday after 21 has been kind of a let down. I'm not exactly sure why 21 was even really that cool. I think 21 was so exciting because I took 21 shots...actually 24 (quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself)...and my friends made me a cool t-shirt (see picture). So that leads me to think that if I want to have a good birthday I should take a lot of shots and wear an oversized white tee with a picture of myself on it. Perhaps I will try that this weekend and see how it goes. I just want to see if it really is the shots and the shirt that make the recipe for success.

So after that final thought, I think it is time to wrap this thing up. Back to post-modernism and MJ and sitting at home on a Saturday pretending to be studious when I am devoting at least 30% of the evening to some much needed facebook stalking of people I barely know. If that isn't the makings of a champion then I don't know what is hahah.

LYLAS (only a few understand the humor behind this)
Jenny