Listening Post Visit #1

Saturday afternoon, around 2pm, I ventured out to visit my chosen listening post, Peg's Pocket billiards/bar.

I had absolutely no real idea what to expect, because it is impossible to see inside the place, so I didn't even know what it looked like inside. I'll admit that after I parked, I sat in my car for a minute composing myself. Instead of diving straight into the assignment, I decided I would just do some reconnaissance, just seeing the inside is step #1.

I walked in and it was not particularly bright in there. It did not give off a "clean and sanitary environment," per say. There were a couple of pool tables, and a bar, with some various machines about, including change, poker, some kind of candy things.

I noted a sign for the bathroom in the corner, which I silently hoped that I would never have to see what those look like.

I also noted that there was no one there. I guess other people don't think it should be socially acceptable to drink earlier in the day.

In the hopes of looking inconspicuous and not just randomly wandering in there with nothing to do, I went over and sat down at the bar.

The bartender was cleaning something on the other side of the counter, but I did not want to interrupt to call his attention, so I just waited and stared at all the liquor signs advertising drinks like Corona and Budweiser. He looked about mid-late 30s.

He finally came over and asked if I'd like anything, with a super suspicious look on his face. I am used to this look though, because I am very aware that I do not look old enough to drink. I ordered a Heineken and waited for the imminent "ID?" question. I gave it to him while he scrutinized my picture and calculated if my birth year made me legit or not. I handed over the $4 in exchange with my ID he handed back, then he went to get a bottle from the freezer behind him. He opened it up with a bottle opener and gave it to me with a cocktail napkin. Then he went back to his cleaning duty.

I half turned around on my stool to look around some more while I drank my beer. After another good look-through, I thanked the man, hopped off my stool, and left.
I left there knowing that gathering my courage just to come out to this place by myself was a job well done, and I knew that I had completed part 1 of this project.

assignment

My talking post for the project is Peg's Pocket, which is a billiards bar that looks super shady from the outside. There is one door, with no window, and all the windows are dark so that you can't see inside. The sign "Peg's Pocket" has a drawing of a woman from the back in a miniskirt playing pool. It look seedy and I've always wondered what the heck is inside there. I guess I am soon to find out. Wish me luck.

embarrassing newcasts

In class, we discussed some news stories and broadcasts that seemed a bit biased. The biggest one was the story on how 2 "urban" Popeyes restaurants ran out of chicken and interviewed many irate customers, all of whom just so happened to be black. The kind of blacks who get pissed that Popeyes ran out of fried chicken to go with their collard greens and purple drank. Yeah.

Popeyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek-CwbiPeZI

Someone in class also brought up Antoine Dodson, a black guy who stopped a rapist in his sister's bedroom in Lincoln heights. In the news segment, he was rather flamboyant and, while no doubt serious about the warning for everyone to "hide ya kids, hide your wife, cuz they rapin' everybody up in here" it WAS pretty funny and most likely NOT AT ALL what the anchor/camera guy/whoever is responsible expected. But, is it their fault that the victim's brother happened to act and talk that way? Absolutely not. Another instance that I have seen of completely unexpected answers at a live interview for a news segment is this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y

While this boy is not black, it is clear that he was "different" than what the reporter expected. It is not always black people that get caught in news stories! They really are not the only ones who can act less than the best...case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww&feature=related

Antoine Dodson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54yESyq6Io

While the whole world is trying to be so "PC" all the time, it is just impossible to not somehow offend somebody, somewhere. Although, sometimes, you can't be too careful.

article response

The first article I read was "Examining the Cross-Race Effect Using Racially Ambiguous Faces," which was a study done by scientists in Texas. When I began reading, I agreed with the premise that people can usually distinguish someone's race if it is your own.

Personally, I cannot tell anyone's race, really. I can see the color of your skin, sure, but usually that doesn't mean anything. My mom has white skin, but she is 100% Cuban. My own skin is brownish, but nobody has ever correctly guessed that I'm actually white/black/Mexican. People of all other races always think I am Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, even Egyptian, but they do not know my race just by looking.

I think that the reason people can tell people of their race is because that is what they're used to seeing. If you are Cuban, and your entire family is Cuban, chances are you have some Cuban friends too, and most likely you all share some similar features/characteristics that make that Cuban-ness known to you.

The second article was in the same vein as the first. It also spoke of my theory about when growing up, the look of your family, Cuban was my example, is what you are most familiar with and therefore what you identify with best.

For example, I don't recall growing up with many Asians around, which is probably why I am not very familiar with the differences between Chinese, Japanese, Thai, or Vietnamese people. To this day, I don't know nearly enough Asians to be able to tell them all apart. OK, even if I did, I probably still wouldn't be able to.

explicit or implicit?

In class, we did an activity at implicit.harvard.edu. It was a test designed to demonstrate if we have a preference towards certain racial groups. Disclaimer: While I don't believe all stereotypes and I know they are not applicable to everyone of whatever race/religion/color/ethnicity, I do believe they are mostly derived from fact. Sue me.

I took 3 tests: african-american/eastern europeans, light-skin/dark-skin, and muslim-arab/other people.

The first demo revealed "slight preference to eastern european." This did not surprise me that much, because while I don't think that's necessarily true about me, the pictures of blacks that they put on there all looked like big black scary men! Call me racist or whatever, but I think my test results would have yielded a different answer if they had used pictures of Taye Diggs or Tyrese instead of scary looking potential rapists that would make me wants to hide my kids and hide my wife.

The second one was slightly confusing to me, because the pictures were like cartoon/drawn instead of real faces. Some of the "dark skinned" people had straight hair that looked the same as the lighter skinned pictures, which slightly threw me off. Yes, I know white people can have curly hair, and dark skinned can have naturally straight, but still. It was weird.

The third one said I have little to no preference between Other and Arabs. That one really did surprise me. While I really don't care about that, I do know that I don't know much about Arabs, and from what I personally know, some of them can be kinda smelly. Not all of them, I know, and no, I am not stereotyping because I have literally been around them and some do smell. I can tell you the same about most Europeans because I have been to many countries over there and I found that stereotype to have come slightly from fact. I also know that my religion is completely different from theirs. While this doesn't change what interaction I would have with any, I have not experienced much of it, so I really couldn't say.

All in all, I thought it was a really good class assignment for Multi-Ethnic Reporting, and I do agree with Prof. Reisner that in order to be a reporter, especially in a multi-racial area like ours, we need to be equipped to handle all kinds of groups, even ones that we know nothing about.