Everyday Racism

[poliphilo]

The guy has come to replace the boiler. The new boiler will be 31% more efficient, he says. He arrived on time and spent the first 20 minutes telling us about his friend the boffin and how his friend the boffin once made a artificial heart valve and how his friend the boffin used to fine tune motor bikes.

I thought, I don't know why you're telling us all this but maybe it's a ploy to put us at our ease. A technique.

Then he asked us- apropos of nothing- if we'd been "invaded".

I thought Ailz fielded it adroitly. She said we got on very well with our neighbours and since they were mostly muslims we didn't got bothered by drunks wobbling up and down the street on Friday nights.

It sort of killed the conversation though.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Who in their right mind wants to close down a corner shop? Corner shops are invaluable. What excuse is he using?

I'm intrigued by the icon. Western heroes/badmen, right? I'm thinking that's Wyatt Earp in the centre with Billy the Kid looking over his left shoulder. Are those the James boys to his right? As for the military man I'm going for Bloody Bill Anderson. What's my score out of 5?

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

He wants to close it down, he says, because it "attracts a bad element". That is, it serves the people in the neighborhood who do not have cars, which are, strangely enough, mostly black. But I do not have a car as well, and I depend on that store to make my life livable. So, it is pure racism anyway you look at it, as well as probably intended as a backhanded insult to me.

The icon is a picture of a band called Chariot. I don't know anything about the band, but I liked the picture because it had them all dressed in various Victorian era garb, which, in America is actually "Old West" or "Civil War" era.

Unfortunately, I am not sure what Chariot was thinking when they did the picture, but I think you have made good guesses. I would agree with them.

I chose it because I am in this Victorian Gothic kind of mood lately, and since I am an American, I thought it would be kind of cool to reflect that. Also, the guy in the center is looking out, but he is surrounded by all the other guys reflecting different aspects of the era.

I am a big fan of the Victorian Gothic novel. There is a school in Scotland that I would love to go to and get a Masters Degree in Gothic Literature.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I did a paper at university on Sheridan le Fanu- which involved reading one or two novels that most people haven't.

I've always loved the 19th and early 20th century ghost story. Le Fanu, Oliphant, James, James, de la Mare...

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Me too. People think I am nuts, but that's ok. They are probably right.