— पांच हजार तीन सौ एक —
So, at Tracy's suggestion last year (it may even have been 2020), I subscribe to an email newsletter called
Anti-Racism Daily. I'm not going to pretend I read each one every day, but I do fairly regularly read ones that catch my eye more than others. Today's for instance, has the header
Don't appropriate this Halloween. Not only did I read the entire email today, but I read the entire first article it links to, a
Bustle piece from last year entitled "
10 Halloween Costumes That Are Actually Racist, Even If You Might Not Realize It."
Unfortunately, I know plenty of people (all relatives, to be frank) who would have little patience for a lot of what's in this piece. Such people are literally why the problem of white supremacy persists.
But, this passage from the email itself really stuck with me:
Did you once wear a Halloween costume that was inappropriate? Spend this weekend learning the real history of the community it comes from.
I got an email from a friend in 2019 telling me about how he had forgotten that he actually dressed in blackface for Halloween in 2005, and I had photos of him in that costume on my account and was asking me to delete them. (I just made them private.) He was really ashamed of it and didn’t want it public. Honestly, until I read the above passage from today's newsletter, I never thought to check my own history of Halloween costumes for cultural appropriation or insensitivity.
As far as I can tell, I
passed with flying colors. In 25 years of Halloween costume history, I have never dressed up as another race or ethnicity. The closest would be my 2002 costume "Jesus on Acid," given the likelihood the real, historical Jesus was not white—but I consider Jesus easily fair game, mostly because Western depictions of him as a deity have always been as a white man anyway, and my costume was not dressing up as "Jesus the man" (which I actually think he was) but "Jesus the Son of God" (but also: on acid). Furthermore, no one would look at that costume and assume it was Jesus anyway; I had to tell everyone what I was supposed to be.
Beyond that, there's a lot of examples of playing with gender, and I do wonder if one day people will decide that's not acceptable either. If so, it will likely be a very long time, and besides, given my long history of unconventional gender expression (if not outright nonbinary identity), as far as I'm concerned when it comes to that I can do whatever the fuck I want.
I'm not necessarily trying to pat myself on the back here, mind you. Given the evolution of attitudes around these sorts of things particularly over the past decade or two, it struck me as entirely possible I did something with a Halloween costume once that I didn't realize was in some way culturally insensitive. Finding basically nothing of the sort in my costume history was, honestly, more of a relief. I make enough mistakes in other arenas, so I was glad it appears I never did in this one. Certainly nothing along the lines of "ironically" walking around in blackface, which no conscientious white person (or non-Black person of any race) would even think of today.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ एक —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ एक —
In other news, last night was a return to social engagements, although it was an easy one: all I had to do was go over to the neighboring condo, to join Alexia for the 11th and final film in our Star Wars movie marathon:
The Rise of Skywalker. That movie really is kind of a turd. I told Alexia last night there are maybe two movies in the entire franchise I like less, and upon reflection, I think even that is wrong. I have developed an affection for
The Phantom Menace, and there are some great action sequences in
Attack of the Clones even if it is otherwise a hot mess. And I did admit
The Rise of Skywalker has some great shots and cinematography in it. So really,
Attack of the Clones and
The Rise of Skywalker really vie for the bottom slot out of the whole franchise for me right now. Either way, it was really a downbeat way to finish off the marathon, especially after I felt
The Last Jedi held up so well. That one is truly great.
We were supposed to meet at 6:00, but Alexia texted amidst heavier traffic than anticipated and asked to push it to 6:30. I made myself a smoked gouda and veggie ham sandwich (still nowhere near as good as the previous grilled cheese sandwich dinners, actually) and then made myself some hot chocolate spiked with three shots of peanut butter whiskey to take over when she was ready at 6:30.
I've been very good about my snacking this week, and have actually shed four pounds since last weekend. The rate of loss is already slowed considerably. Yesterday, I had some popcorn at work; made that hot chocolate; and allowed Alexia to offer me one single, delicious, raspberry jam cookie sandwich from Trader Joe's. The fact that I weighed in this morning at the exact same weight as I did yesterday—no further loss, but also no gain as I had feared—is something I am considering a win.
Anyway,
The Force Awakens is 142 minutes long, and it was paused only one brief time for Alexia to go use the bathroom. And still, she shared some more frustrations about her dad and stepmother in Houston, compounded by the recent passing of her mother, among other things. We wound up chatting until well after 10:00, when the move must have ended somewhere around 9:00, maybe even a few minutes before. When it's just her and me, we often get sucked into the kind of conversation where we lose track of time. We talked a lot about the effects of aging, which naturally took things to the topic of her parents, and even herself; she had a recent birthday and turned 60 this year.
Then, even after I got into bed, I stupidly got sucked into TikTok and wound up not getting to sleep until 11:51. Getting up at 5:11 this morning, I slept only 5 hours and 20 minutes last night. Not great when I have tickets to a show I'll be going to with Shobhit and Tracy and Tracy's sister tonight at 9:00. We'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll find time for a nap this afternoon, but it seems doubtful. Shobhit already said it's going to be a busy afternoon; he wants to submit his lottery tickets which are already filled out. The powerball is currently up to $825 million. The minuscule odds of winning never deters him (as far as I'm concerned he might as well just be lighting his money on fire—just a few dollars at a time, but still.
Anyway, basically as soon as I post this I'm leaving work early today, to go get him from the airport. I had sent out an Outlook announcement that I'd be leaving at 1:00, but with his scheduled landing at 1:25, that's probably cutting it close—the long time it takes to get through customs and go to baggage claim notwithstanding. I still need to get home via transit, and drive the car half an hour from home to the airport, so it's probably best that I post this now and get going.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ एक —
[posted 12:20 pm]
