Star Trek: Resolutions

Episode: "Resolutions"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 25

Original Air Date: May 13, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Janeway and Chakotay have been infected with a terrible disease when insects bite them during an away mission.  The Doctor fails to find a cure.  On the bright side, as long as the two stay on the planet, the effects of the disease are kept in check.  On the down side, that means they must be abandoned as Voyager carries on without them.  

From this point, two separate but equally interesting narratives play out.  On the planet, the castaways build a new life.  Well, Chakotay, at least, is determined to do everything possible to make the situation comfortable but Janeway is equally determined to find a cure for the disease so they can leave.  Inevitably, they also need to sort out the realities of their quickly evolving relationship under new circumstances.

Meanwhile, back on the ship, Tuvok is left in charge.  Making a deal with the dreaded Vidiians for a possible cure seems a logical move, at least to most of the crew.  Tuvok, however, loyally follows Janeway's parting orders to stay away from the Vidiians and continue the journey homeward.  Tensions mount.  Kim openly challenges the acting captain on the bridge.  Later, he appeals to him in his quarters.  Tuvok doesn't budge.  Finally, Kes convinces Tuvok that while he may be unwilling to let emotions cloud his own judgment, he still has a responsibility to the emotional well-being of his crew. 

Go, Kes!

Long term, the episode is probably best remembered for the will-they-won't-they question posed regarding Janeway and Chakotay.  It was 1996, deep in the age of Ross and Rachel.  Will-they-won't-they was seemingly all anyone wanted out of television.  NextGen deftly avoided it for the most part but there's plenty of it in both DS9 and Voyager.  With "Resolutions," the writers left it to the viewers to decide what happened between the two while stranded on the planet.  I think Kate Mulgrew was right to fight against the over-sexualization of her character and this story respects that.

Plus, the brief return of Danara, the doctor's former sweetheart, is a welcome treat.  She clearly still loves him.  He's predictably officious.

Acting Notes

via Criminal Minds Wiki

Bahni Turpin played the role of Ensign Swinn.  "Resolutions" was the second of two appearances in the part.  Turpin was born June 4, 1962 in Pontiac, Michigan.  Films include Daughters of the Dust, Rain Without Thunder and Malcolm X.  Other television guest appearances include Seinfeld, ER and Criminal Minds.

A lot of actors do audiobook narrations as a side gig.  Bahni Turpin, on the other hand, is one of the best in the business and she has the accolades to prove it.  Her industry awards include 9 Aubie Awards, 14 Earphone Awards, 2 Odyssey Awards and induction into Audible's Narrator Hall of Fame.  Her narrations include The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.  

Squiddies 2025

The Armchair Squid turns sixteen years old today.  It's time to hand out some hardware.  The Squiddy goes to...

Biggest Surprise: Casablanca

Morocco wasn't even the point of our late-February/early-March trip.  Royal Air Maroc had the best airfares for getting to Andalusia.  Why not extend what was already a long layover in Casablanca?  We could add another country - indeed, another continent - to our life lists.  Is Casablanca even that exciting a city?  According to the guidebooks and the websites, not really.  But if we're going to go at all, let's not spend half the time trying to get somewhere else.  Let's make the most of where the plane lands.

Well, wouldn't you know it.  Casablanca knocked our socks off.  No, it's not a tourist trap and that was perfectly fine after our more conventional adventures in Spain.  It's just a city where people go about their daily lives - people who let us walk in their midst for a while, mostly ignoring us, to be honest.  My friends, it was grand.  That's what real traveling is - not gawking but simply being.  Fly on the wall rather than sightseer.  No long lines.  No tour guides.  Just life.

I'd live there for years given the chance.  It's been a long time since I've felt that way about a place.

Biggest Disappointment: Trump's Second Term

Is disappointment even the right word?  Donald Trump's narcissistic lust for tyranny is not exactly a secret.  And yet, my country voted him back into the Presidency.  I guess that is my disappointment.  I'm still amazed and deeply discouraged that so many people aren't horrified by him.  They want this.  All of the bigotry, misogyny, contempt, incompetence, recklessness, dishonesty, crassness, arrogance, pettiness, the near-daily betrayals - they aren't dealbreakers.  Folks, that says a lot more about us than it does about him.  

And the feeble response of the Democrats in Congress has been appalling.

I fear for the present and the future.  Even if we can turn this around, the mess to clean up will be huge.  Plenty of the damage can never be entirely undone.

And that is what they want.

Best Read: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

We're living in interesting times.  It can be difficult to know what to say to people.  The Right is so... programmed.  They all watch the same news shows, visit the same websites, watch the same TikTok videos, stick to the same talking points as if they are gospel.  Even imagine they are gospel.  Even when they're in clear defiance of gospel.  

I'm veering off point.

If you're looking to make solid progressive arguments, Reni Eddo-Lodge's book is a great reference.  More importantly, it's an essential read for white people to better understand the racially-framed experiences of people of color.  Systemic racism is real whether you believe in it or not.  So is privilege.  The question is what you do with truth once it's presented to you.  

Thanks to my ex-pat time in Japan, I still have several British friends.  A few of them believe racial injustice is an American problem and not a British one.  I really want them to read this book.

You should, too.

Best Comics Find: Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez

via Wikipedia

I've been aggressively exploring the comic book medium for over a decade now and practically the instant my curiosity took me beyond Marvel and DC, I started hearing about Love and Rockets.  First launched in the early '80s, L&R is considered by many to be the most important and influential indy comic in the American industry.  I'd never read it until this summer.  Now I'm hooked.

Why is L&R so good?  The characters are so real you can practically smell them.  You experience their love, their pain, their shame, their thrills, their lusts, their losses because you are sitting next to them on the couch, feeling awkward as Maggie and Hopey start making out right in front of you, forgetting you're there.  It's the same reason Scorcese films are amazing.  These aren't strangers.  They're the young squatters in the house next door with sketchy friends stopping by all the time.  They occasionally ask you to buy beer for them because they're not old enough yet.  They're the rowdy group of young men talking too loudly in the street late at night outside your front door.  Or it's even closer.  You're in the street with them, annoyed by the stuffy old geezer who keeps telling you to shut up and go home.  

This intimacy is achieved so elegantly you don't notice until after you've been absorbed.  Every storytelling experience should be like this, yet it rarely is.  Without question, L&R is a masterpiece.

Athlete of the Year: Ichiro Suzuki

via Wikipedia

The Armchair Squid began life as a sports blog but I rarely return to the subject anymore.  Of the athletes I did mention over the past twelve months, no one had a better year than Ichiro Suzuki.

In late July, Ichiro became the first Japanese-born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  Ichiro was simultaneously the greatest contact hitter, the greatest leadoff man, the greatest outfield arm and the most internationally beloved player of his generation.  Just one unbelievable stat of many: for ten consecutive seasons, Ichiro had at least 206 hits.  Ty Cobb can't claim that, nor Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew nor any of the other great contact hitters.  In fact, no one else has even come close.  Pete Rose also had ten seasons with 200+ but never more than three in a row.  Sports fans are forever talking about "records that will never be broken," then Alex Ovechkin surpasses Gretzky's once-unassailable career goals total.  I feel 100% safe saying that Ichiro's ten consecutive years with 206 hits or more is untouchable. 

During his career, there was discussion of whether Ichiro could truly be considered one of the all-time greats, having spent so much of his early career in Japan.  In the end, the Major League numbers alone were plenty: 3,089 hits, .311 lifetime batting average, 509 stolen bases, 10 All-Star Games, 10 Gold Gloves.  The years in Japan only pad the already sterling resume.  Without a doubt, he was one of the greatest athletes in American sports for nearly two decades.

Best Family Adventure: The Alhambra

The Alhambra in Granada, Spain was the main target for our aforementioned February/March trip.  The Alhambra, a UNESCO heritage site considered by many to be the most beautiful man-made structure in the world, has been at or near the top of my travel wish list for as long as I have known it existed, over 30 years.  With such high expectations, a let down is practically inevitable.  Even while we were there, I worried I wasn't doing enough to appreciate what I was seeing.

I needn't have worried.  The Alhambra is an experience that invades your soul.  Now, just a few months later, it feels like a dream.  Were we really there?  I remember our last day in Granada, already wistful over the fact that we had to leave.  Already thinking of how to make the most of the next visit, knowing full well it might never happen because life is like that.  

So, yeah.  I read all of that and it sure looks like I had a great year.

Apart from Trump.

Fuck Trump!

Squid Flicks: Mississippi Masala

Title: Mississippi Masala

Director: Mira Nair

Original Release: September 18, 1991

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Amazon

Mississippi Masala is an unusual film for the fact that it explores an interracial romance that doesn't include any white people.  Mina (Sarita Choudhury) and Demetrius (Denzel Washington) fall in love in rural Mississippi after meeting each other in a traffic accident.  The affair complicates matters for both of their families.  It was the first movie for Choudhury.  For Washington, it was a stepping stone on his meteoric rise to Hollywood royalty, after Glory and Mo' Better Blues but before Malcolm X and Philadelphia.

Food plays an important role in the story, both literally and metaphorically.  Masala refers to the Indian spice mix, a metaphor Mina uses to describe the relationship.  Demetrius invites Mina to a birthday party for his grandfather involving loads of soul food.  Yum...

I first watched the movie on VHS back in the early '90s.  The Vermont International Film Festival hosted a screening a few weekends ago.  Evidently, I'd forgotten quite a lot of the details in the intervening years.  Running parallel with the Mina/Demetrius tale is the history of Mina's family in Uganda.  They were kicked out when Idi Amin expelled all Asians from the country.  Mina's father Jay (Roshan Seth) has been working for years to get back and reclaim the family's property.

I'd forgotten the Uganda story entirely.

Overall, the acting is excellent - loads of character actor types.  The movie's very pretty, too, even beyond the two glamorously beautiful leads.  For scenery, Africa outshines Mississippi but both are presented lovingly.  The racial politics of the Deep South are exactly what you'd expect, though not portrayed as heavy-handed as they could have been.  The Uganda story takes an unfortunately colonialist view but is interesting nonetheless.  In both cases, the unusual Asian perspective is a refreshing change.

On the Coffee Table: Reni Eddo-Lodge

Title: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Author: Reni Eddo-Lodge

via Amazon

In February 2014, British author Reni Eddo-Lodge posted a blog entry that changed her life, entitled "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race."  Essentially, she was tired of many (not all, she's quick to clarify) white people's defensiveness or outright hostility whenever she talked to them about her racial experience.  They were too often unwilling to accept the idea of systemic racism.  Racists wore white hoods and Nazi uniforms.  Kind, well-intended, color-blind white people weren't racists.  They didn't listen to her or believe her even when they did.

The post set off a political firestorm.  Basically proving Eddo-Lodge's point, numerous critics took exception - though of course, most of them simply bristled at the title without actually reading the post.  The brouhaha brought the author national attention and eventually inspired her to write a book by the same title.

2014 was a pivotal year for racial activism in the United States, particularly.  In August of that year, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer.  Protests erupted and the Black Lives Matter movement found a global platform.  Most of the news focused (and still focuses) on the United States.  But, of course, other countries wrestle with racial issues every day.  In the UK in particular, such cultural anxieties eventually led to Brexit, the nation's departure from the European Union.

There are so many important reasons to read this book.  The examination of the issues in a nation other than the US is high on the list.  Because of my time in Japan, I have many British friends with whom I still enjoy meaningful social media contact.  Many (but again, not all) white Britons are blind to the issues faced by black- and brown-skinned people in their own country.  Just as in the States, they see the issues as economic rather than racial.  Just as in the States, many see reforms as bringing advantages to POCs at the expense of white people.

Just as in the States, it's all bullshit.  And that's the point for Reni Eddo-Lodge.

One by one, the author tears down the arguments against anti-racism.  For me, the most powerful chapters are "The System," in which she details how a POC in the UK is disadvantaged at every life stage from birth to death, and "The Feminism Question," in which she reveals the intersectional relationship of race and sex/gender.  In the latter, she tells her own struggle to reconcile her positions in two separate though obviously (to her) intertwined struggles.  Those are my favorites but trust me, there are meaningful revelations on every page.

Probably (hopefully) many of you reading this has been through DEI (diversity equity inclusion) training in recent years.  One of the most common questions asked of white people in these exercises is "When did you first become aware of your own race?"  It's not easy to answer.  Because it's about your own race, not your awareness of the race of others.  What made you aware of whiteness, period?  Eddo-Lodge's thoughts have made me wonder if "When did you become aware of your own racial privilege?" might provoke a more meaningful discussion.  I find it easier to answer.  But would it just make people angry, proving the author's thesis.

Of course, the whole point of asking the question is to clue white people into the fact that they don't think about their race at all the vast majority of the time whereas a POC living in white-dominated culture is aware of theirs constantly.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is a must-read, plain and simple.  If you're white, it will probably make you uncomfortable and that is deeply important.

On the Coffee Table: Sarah M. Broom

Title: The Yellow House

Author: Sarah M. Broom

via Amazon

The Yellow House is Sarah M. Broom's memoir regarding her connection with New Orleans East, the community where she grew up and where she has sought reconnection as an adult.  Her story revolves around the titular yellow house, the family home.  The book provides a history of a Black family in a largely neglected area of New Orleans, one whose suffering during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath is just the tip of the iceberg of its troubling history.

Sarah, known as Monique to her family, is the youngest of twelve children.  She and most of her siblings moved away from New Orleans after "the Water" with no intention of returning permanently.  Indeed, much of Brown's personal story is about building a life away from the city yet feeling the powerful draw back, even after the house itself is demolished.  The book made me think about how relationships with places define our lives, including my own.

A "hometown" has always been a complicated concept for me.  I spent 15 years of my childhood in Chevy Chase, Maryland so that's the one I usually claim but my own mother has expressed surprise that I feel that way.  Even though they've spent nearly half a century living there, neither of my parents is from the DC area.  They both grew up in the Midwest.  And then they lived a Peace Corps/foreign service nomadic experience for about a dozen years after college.  They haven't lived in my childhood home for 24 years and neither feels a long-term connection with our boring Maryland suburb.  Their current city apartment is home for them.

But not for me.

I don't know where they'd say I'm from.  If not Maryland, where?  I can't claim Japan, the nation of my birth.  I know I don't post many photos here and that's intentional.  But I can assure you I could hardly look more Northern European if I tried.  Japanese?  Not a chance.  I used to tell people I was from DC because it was easier to explain (and maybe sounded cooler?) than Maryland.  But I stopped doing that once my parents moved.  Now, I'm a proud Maryland native.

What's more, I wasn't exactly encouraged to stick around.  I realize as I write it that may seem resentful but that's not how I mean it.  My sister and I were encouraged, for instance, to try a different part of the country for college and we both did.  We were encouraged to travel and even live abroad.  Neither of us was expected to settle nearby.  Our parents both live far from their childhood turf and I think they more or less resigned themselves to the same for us.  I wonder how they feel about all of that now with my sister and me in opposite corners of the country - I in Vermont, she in California.  But given their own life choices, they're in no position to complain.

Of course, Broom's family ended up scattered, too, though for different reasons.

New Orleans and my parents' city of Washington, DC are both predominantly Black.  DC is no longer majority Black as it was during my childhood.  That is partly because of the ever-growing Hispanic/Latinx population, though gentrification has also played a role.  White Non-Hispanics are still the minority.  The two cities also share this: the vast majority of the millions who visit both annually would have no sense of these demographics.  For both, segregation's long legacy is preserved in entirely separate racial communities.  If one only visits the museums and monuments, it would be very easy to see Washington as a white city.  I've never been to New Orleans but from Broom's description, I get the sense the same is true for the French Quarter.  What representation there is of Black culture is often exoticized.

Why does this matter?  Portraying the United States as a white country is a deeply racist lie.  The story of our country is a story of race.  Everything that separates American culture from European cultures is attributable to people of color.  Black people, Hispanic/Latinx and Native Americans can all usually trace their "New World" lineage back several more generations than most white Americans can.  The othering of non-whites is not accidental.  Through segregationist policies, non-white culture is often remote if not invisible to white Americans - certainly in the South (and DC counts in this regard) but in the rest of the country, too.  The story of New Orleans East is a story of such invisibility.  The overwhelmingly Black community doesn't even turn up on most city maps.  

New Orleans East got plenty of worldwide exposure for tragic reasons during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.  Broom's family was far from the only one that didn't return and the city government didn't do much to encourage them beyond lip service.  Insurance payouts for Black homeowners were much lower on average than they were for whites and were generally far lower than the rebuilding cost.  

The subject of race is not the entirety of Broom's memoir but the subject is also impossible to ignore.

The Yellow House is excellent.  The form is episodic, befitting a family history.  I got more caught up in some chapters than others.  But taken as a whole, it's a solid read.

On the Coffee Table: Ibram X. Kendi

Title: How to Be an Antiracist

Author: Ibram X. Kendi

via Amazon

This book has been banned in some school districts which, of course, means everyone should read it.

How to Be an Antiracist is as much memoir as treatise.  Ibram X. Kendi leads us through a personal history or his own racial attitudes.  Kendi grew up in New York City, then spent most of high school in Virginia.  He was raised by veterans of the civil rights movements.  He was educated first at Florida A&M, an historically black university, then Temple University where he earned an MA and a PhD in African American Studies.  We get an intimate view of his own philosophical evolution, some of it surprising.  His vulnerability in admitting his own shortcomings along the way lends more credence to his ultimate conclusions.  

Kendi's definition of an antiracist has spread wide since the book's publication: "One who is expressing the idea that racial groups are equals and none needs developing, and is supporting policy that reduces racial inequity."  The goal is not to change attitudes but to change the policies, systems and structures that prevent equality - redlining, for instance - and boost the ones that encourage it - affirmative action, for one.  He acknowledges that the racial attitudes of white people have changed over recent decades.  But he points out, rather importantly, that attitudes tend to change after the policy changes, not the other way around.  

I hope no one is surprised to know that I am fully on board with this line of thinking.  Conversations about race are rarely easy.  Here in Vermont - still 92% white - the challenge is often convincing people that we have any responsibility at all.  8% non-white is small but it's a lot more than zero.  I work in education.  Our students of color are few and, complicating the statistics, quite a lot of them have been academically successful.  But that doesn't mean we're doing everything we can and should to ensure they're thriving fully as members of our school community.  What is their experience walking down the hallways?  Do they have the same access to extra-curriculars as their schoolmates or are some teams and clubs more inclusive than others, even unintentionally?

And folks, we hold enormous responsibility for teaching our white students about race.  I agree with Kendi that attitudes aren't everything but they do matter.  If I were to ask most of my white students to define their own culture, many - if not most - would say they don't have one.  They see their own experience as the default - "normal."  They have no concept of their own foreignness to others, indeed to most of the world.  I don't know how we fix that but I know we must find a way.

I have responsibilities as a blogger, too.  Star Trek, in particular, is worthy of scrutiny.  From the beginning, the franchise has been about changing our approach to "the other."  Trek deserves a lot of credit for diverse representation but the racial rhetoric is still often problematic.  I'll do my best to call them on it when I see it.

I'm definitely up for reading more of Kendi's work.  I hope you will, too.  More importantly, I hope you'll take up the antiracist cause yourself.

Star Trek: Interface

Episode: "Interface"

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Season 7, Episode 3

Original Air Date: October 4, 1993

via Memory Alpha

The USS Hera, captained by Silvia La Forge (Madge Sinclair), Geordi's mother, was gone missing and is presumed lost.  Unwilling to accept her death, Geordi takes unnecessary risks with a virtual reality probe, clinging to the slimmest hope that in doing so, he can rescue her.

This was the episode that made the writing staff realize they were running out of ideas for NextGen.  The basic concept of "Interface" is fine and a La Forge back story is long overdue.  But the pace is painfully slow.  Sound and music are noticeably minimal, fostering a too mournful atmosphere.  It all feels like a missed opportunity, yet another Geordi episode that falls flat.  I mean, they enlisted Ben Vereen to play Geordi's father - Ben Vereen, for crying out loud! - and in his one, brief scene, he never gets up from his chair.  

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Ben Augustus Middleton was born October 10, 1946 in Laurinburg, North Carolina.  He was adopted by James and Pauline Vereen who raised him in Brooklyn.  Ben Vereen didn't know he was adopted until he was 25 years old and applied for a passport.  He went to the High School of Performing Arts where he studied with giants of the dance world: Martha Graham, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.  He struggled to find professional work at first but boy, once he did...

There's no other way to put it.  Ben Vereen is a Broadway Titan, on a short list of the all-time greats.  He made his name in two of the biggest shows of the early '70s, playing Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, then the Leading Player in Pippin.  He was nominated for Tonys for both, winning for Pippin.  The television resume isn't exactly terrible either.  He was a guest host on The Muppet Show.  Vereen, Madge Sinclair and LeVar Burton all starred in the mini-series juggernaut Roots.  

It hasn't all been roses.  Vereen has already lost two of his five children.  His daughter Naja was killed in and auto accident at age 16.  His son Ben Jr. passed away at age 55.  In January 2018, Vereen was accused of sexual harassment by four actresses in a Florida production of Hair he was directing.  He apologized for his misconduct.

On the Coffee Table: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Title: Americanah

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

via Amazon

Ifemelu and Obinze fell in love as teenagers in Lagos.  Life paths lead in separate directions, as they do when you're young.  Ifemelu went to the United States where she became a successful blogger (huzzah!) and a Princeton fellow.  Obinze went to Britain where his undocumented status never allowed him to settle comfortably so he went back to Nigeria and got rich in real estate.  That's the story in short but the summary hardly does it justice.

Adichie paints vivid pictures of all three countries, particularly the Black experience in each.  As whenever I read anything about Africa, I was quickly reminded of the breadth of my own ignorance.  For starters, I have failed to grasp just how many people live in Nigeria.  "One in five Africans is Nigerian," a cab driver says to Ifemelu.  It's actually closer to one in six but point taken.  It's bigger physically than I imagined, too: 10+ hour drives to get from one part of the country to another.  Adichie describes some of the things one expects of a developing nation: corruption, cronyism, run-down buildings. (Hmm, is the US really so different?)  But she also shares details about the food and the music she clearly loves as much as her characters do.

She also writes wonderfully about the foreignness of both the US and UK, so easy to forget for those of us who have lived in either country for most of our lives.  In fact, with all three nations, she demonstrates that it often takes an outsider to see the truth.  Even in Nigeria, Ifemelu sees her native land quite differently upon her return.

The prose is wonderfully intimate.  Halfway through, I was rather surprised to realize the entire book is written in third person rather than first.  That's how intimate it feels.  I have lived some of it, though the expat experience of a White man in Japan is considerably different from that of a Black person pretty much anywhere.  I have a couple passages to share.

First, from Obinze's experience at a dinner party in London:  "They would not understand why people like him, who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction... were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for choice and certainty."

Later, from one of Ifemelu's blog posts:

The simplest solution to the problem of race in America?  Romantic love.  Not friendship.  Not the kind of safe, shallow love where the objective is that both people remain comfortable.  But real deep romantic love, the kind that twists you and wrings you out and makes you breathe through the nostrils of your beloved.  And because that real deep romantic love is so rare, and because American society is set up to make it even rarer between American Black and American White, the problem of race in America will never be solved.

On Goodreads, I gave the book a 4, though it's a high 4.  I didn't lose myself in it quite as much as I wanted to but there's no denying its quality.  Highly recommended.

On the Coffee Table: Nancy Isenberg

Title: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

Author: Nancy Isenberg

via Amazon

My usual disclaimer: I honestly try to avoid both religion and politics here on the blog.  But sometimes it's unavoidable.  And in truth, Isenberg's book isn't about politics.  It's about a history we've chosen to ignore in the United States.  Here we go...

The American Dream is a sham.  Yup, that's more or less Isenberg's thesis and she makes her case quite convincingly.  Our government and economic structures are not built to encourage social mobility.  They never have been.  Don't believe me?  How about our ongoing debates over paying for healthcare and higher education, problems other industrial nations have sorted out?  Or how about reproductive rights?  Or consumer debt?  It's all about keeping everyone in their own social stratum.  The rich get richer.  The poor get poorer.  Everyone in the middle wonders why it's so hard to make ends meet.

It's nothing new.  Isenberg goes all the way back to the first white settlements in Jamestown and Plymouth.  Those with land had all of the power.  Everyone else was exploitable and expendable labor.  It's been more or less the same story ever since, through wars, Reconstruction, red lining and all the rest.

The stars, as it were, of Isenberg's historical narrative are poor southern whites.  They've been scapegoated and forgotten.  They've been exploited, seduced and duped politically.  They've been the primary targets of the New Deal and the War on Poverty.  They've been a voyeuristic attraction of our reality television-loving 21st century culture.  And they're still poor, neglected and undereducated.  And they're consistently fooled into voting against their own interests.

The story of America is the story of race.  Our country was built on the backs of not one but two genocides.  I don't think Isenberg would disagree with my assertion but she does offer a nuanced perspective on race, particularly in the South.  Even before the Civil War, the rich and powerful in the South used the fear of an empowered freed slave population to scare poor whites into supporting secession and, most importantly, becoming soldiers.  After all (and I honestly never thought of this before), the only people in the South who actually benefited from slaves were those who owned them.  Most people didn't.  And all those rich people needed someone to fight the war for them because they sure weren't going to do it themselves.  What's more, they were able to use the same fear to suppress the Black vote and cement Democratic Party control of the South for the next 100 years.

That's right, folks.  Let us never forget that the Dems were the segregationist party until LBJ signed the Civil Rights Bill.  Back to the book...

Without question, I've learned a lot from White Trash.  I have a new perspective on class in America.  I guess I've always naively believed that poverty is a bad thing and everyone else thinks so, too.  I mean, I know that many Americans live in denial of the fact that social class exists in our country.  I know that too many see poverty as a moral choice - "Get a job! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!" - rather than an inescapable reality of capitalism.  I always thought that was all merely a matter of short-sightedness.  

But Isenberg has shown me a darker truth: many believe that others deserve to be poor.  In order for some to have plenty, others must lack.  And those who lack are lesser humans - indeed, trash.  And it's not just a few "bad" people who see things that way.  It's enough to perpetuate the same cycles over multiple generations.  I don't want to believe it's true.  I want to think better of my country and its citizens.  But the evidence is damning.

So yes, you should read the book.  Just don't expect it to improve your opinion of humanity.

Squiddies 2021

The Armchair Squid turns twelve years old today.  It's time to hand out some hardware.  The Squiddy goes to...

Biggest Surprise: Chartreuse

Chartreuse is a liqueur which has been produced by French monks for at least four centuries.  There are two varieties: a sweeter yellow and a more intensely alcoholic green.  The flavor is wild, like psychedelia in a glass.  Different hints are emphasized depending on what it's combined with.  Sometimes anise prevails, other times mint, other times cinnamon, other times... I don't even know what.  It ain't cheap but on the bright side, a little goes a long way.  Without question, it was our most rewarding mixological discovery this year.

Biggest Disappointment: Chadwick Boseman's Passing

Actor Chadwick Boseman passed away last August of complications from colon cancer.  Only 43 years old, he'd already compiled an impressive film resume, having portrayed T'Challa/Black Panther, Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall among others.  May he rest in peace.

Best Read, First Time Category: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

via Amazon

Yu's novel about the life of "Generic Asian Man" Willis Wu is written in screenplay format.  Willis is an actor - or is he a character? - on a cop show called Black and White.  The leads are a Black man and a White woman.  Willis and all of the other Asians are background characters.  Of course, it's all an elaborate metaphor for the ways race plays out in American society, especially for those of East Asian descent.  While the weaving in and out of "reality" can be a little confusing, that's sort of the point.  Even Chinatown itself is simultaneously the reality and the metaphor for the compartmentalization of Asian culture in the United States.

The time to educate ourselves about race is now.  I can't recommend Interior Chinatown highly enough.

Best Read, Re-Read Category: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling 

via Amazon

The penultimate volume of the Harry Potter series is an intensely emotional experience.  Our young hero confronts both loss and love with greater intensity and immediacy than ever before.  The stage is set for the amazing ending.  Good as it is, the final book suffers a little from pacing issues.  So, Year 6 gets my nod in this category.

Best Comics Find: Frank Miller's Daredevil

Daredevil is a fascinating character, one of Marvel's best.  Industry titan Frank Miller started drawing for the series in May 1979.  Eventually, he would take over writing duties as well.  It was his breakthrough gig.  Miller brought darker sensibilities to the medium, both literally and figuratively.  His style was a fine match for an emotionally remote protagonist and his gritty Hell's Kitchen world.

Athlete of the Year: Willie Mays

via Wikipedia

This summer, I read Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend by James S. Hirsch.  If I'd previously had any doubts about Mays's superiority over all other baseball players in history, Hirsch's book erased them.  Mays turned 90 years old in May.  He's a living national treasure.

Best Family Adventure: Zooming Christmas

This year, COVID circumstances forced (sensible) people to be creative during the holidays.  Thanks to the ingenuity of family and friends, we enjoyed several of what I hope will become new annual traditions.  English Prof hosted a reading of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for over 30 people from her home in Massachusetts.  My sister and niece organized Jolabokaflod (explained here) for Christmas Eve including 15 people over six households, three US states (plus DC) and two countries.  My wife inspired an Æbleskiver Breakfast for three of those same households Christmas morning.  We connected with her family later Christmas day - five people, three states in that case.  Even under normal circumstances, coordinating any of those gatherings would have been challenging.  Zoom, for all of the headaches it brings, made it all possible.

On the Coffee Table: Cornelius Minor

Title: We Got This.: Equity, Access and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be

Author: Cornelius Minor

via Wal-Mart

Cornelius Minor, a middle school literacy teacher by trade, advocates a radical idea: the solutions to the problems of education can be found through listening to students and what they need.  While student voice is hardly a new concept, Minor's book is unusual, in my experience, in that it offers thoughtful processes for problem-solving.  I've been a teacher for over 20 years now and I've heard loads of complaining from my colleagues and lots of pie in the sky philosophy from professional development.  What I haven't seen often is concrete thinking on how to get from where we are to where we want to go.  Minor offers the structures he has used himself:

• How do I transform my own philosophical vision into classroom action?
• How do I articulate the need for change with colleagues, administration, parents, the school board, etc?
• More generally, how can I approach problems - any problems - in a methodical way?  

That last one may not seem like a big deal but it is.  It's not the way people function most of the time.

In particular, Minor tackles the matter of equity and the institutional racism, sexism, ableism and classism that stand in the way.  He puts it as succinctly as anyone I've heard or read:

When we think of race-, gender-, ability- or class-based oppression, we often think of individual acts of personal bias.  Our minds fill with images of a villainous past -- "back when things were bad."  We consider Klansmen and burning crosses or we remember the men who spat at suffragists and the police officers who arrested them for attempting to vote.  We use words like racist or sexist to describe those people as if the words were merely personality types or character flaws.

They are not just character traits.  Racism, sexism, ableism and classism are systems.  They are the rules, policies, procedures, practices that govern a place and lead to consistently unequal outcomes for specific subsets of people.

Minor presents another radical idea: it's okay to reinvent your curriculum in order to meet the needs of your students.  In fact, it's more than just okay.  It's our responsibility.  As much as we talk the talk of personalizing education, we are often fighting against our own systems in order to do so.  Teachers are typically, by nature, rule followers.  We worry we'll get in trouble if we bend the rules.  Minor not only poo-poos that resistance, he offers guidance on how to make it move past it.

I have had to reinvent my practice numerous times.  There was a part of me that always feels like it's a form of surrender, of giving up - even though the changes have always brought significant rewards.  Minor reminds me that such reinvention is not a sign of weakness.  It is, in fact, the very heart of teaching.

Liberating stuff.

I do have one quibble: the print on some of his sample forms is way too small and that's not just my middle age talking.  Fortunately, he has resources online to download as well.

Family Book Swap: Interior Chinatown

Title: Interior Chinatown

Author: Charles Yu

via Amazon

Yu's novel about the life of "Generic Asian Man" Willis Wu is written in screenplay format.  Willis is an actor - or is he a character? - on a cop show called Black and White.  The leads are a Black man and a White woman.  Willis and all of the other Asians are background characters.  Of course, it's all an elaborate metaphor for the ways race plays out in American society, especially for those of East Asian descent.  While the weaving in and out of "reality" can be a little confusing, that's sort of the point.  Even Chinatown itself is simultaneously the reality and the metaphor for the compartmentalization of Asian culture in the United States.

Along the way, Willis navigates the complications of his relationships with his aging parents, falls in love, becomes a parent, gets divorced and reconciles with his ex-wife.  All the while, he works out his place within Chinatown and beyond it, against Asian-American expectations and those of the broader society.  Beautifully and convincingly, Yu makes some important points:

• Not all Asians are Chinese.
• Not all Chinese are of the same culture either.  He references the numerous dialects flying around Chinatown several times.  Willis's own family is Taiwanese.
• Asians have been in the United States since 1815, that's earlier than any of my own paternal-side northern European ancestors arrived.
• There has been a long history of laws restricting the property, immigration and citizenship rights of Asians in the United States, the last of which were not repealed until 1965.
• Asians are not the only ones who feel unseen in White male dominated society.  
• The societal relationship between Asian Americans and Black Americans is complicated.  Asians know their history of oppression pales in comparison to those of Black people and as a result are often reluctant to complain.  The "Model Minority" status of Asians only complicates that.  But the cop show metaphor demonstrates that Black Americans, at least Black men, exceed Asian Americans in terms of cultural visibility.

The final analysis: Asians are the permanent guests in American culture.  Even though their presence predates that of many European immigrant groups, they can only ever hope to exist within the defined parameters of White expectations.  Yu, through Willis, pleads no innocence for himself.  He admits to fetishizing the coolness of Black culture and romanticizing White women.  However, he has little choice but to live within the box in which society has confined him.  In Chinatown, be it reality or metaphor.

Interior Chinatown is excellent and it reads quickly.  I'd say this is the first book I've read in a while which I can see recommending to anyone I can, starting with my daughter.  With the targeting of Asians in the age of COVID and the recent, horrific murders in Atlanta, understanding the plight of Asians within American society has never been more important.