Comments on: Don’t Do It On Our Watch

By: Burn up devils

Burn up devils — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:28:07 +0000

I would say this to all of you who complain soo much about Muni. , smallApply for the job and give it a try. You will find out fast that you don’t have the balls to navigate the small 7mile by 7mile city, small streets, asshole in cars, cabs and bikes ying riders of SF. You Sorry crying Bastards! If you want to know it, every driver is in fear of losing their job because a fool will run out in the street, cyclist fools, and continues complainer with no patients, let alone being attacked by a phsyco. so you try, you try it and see what A driver in SF is dealing with. I’m a former SF Muni driver and I had to give it up. Why? the crazys and complainer pushed me to a point of Danger! Every day was like WAR. It caused PTSD. Can you emagine waking up everyday and praying you don’t “KILL SOMEONE”.

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: Trochee

Trochee — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:11:06 +0000

I’m grateful for calling this out. thank you.

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: eugenia

eugenia — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:19:51 +0000

Yeah I can agree with you to some extent…I don’t want boring and bland stories either! Our emcee Suzanne did say something after the story just to say that we don’t endorse etc. I’m glad to hear your point of view – makes me feel a little better to know that open mics are by nature an uncontrollable beast.

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: Tara

Tara — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:04:23 +0000

There were some buns in biscuits after the Asian-lady-chicken story from the first event, for sure.

Jeff, Eugenia, and a couple of us contributors determined that the use of race is often not relevant in a story, and we all stand by that. It’s a tough argument to make that getting slapped on the bus vs. getting slapped on the bus by a black lady, then further encouraged by a Hispanic lady, are that much different from a storytelling perspective.

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: AlexJB

AlexJB — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:15:07 +0000

I’d like to discourage you from “vetting more carefully” in the future. You’ll basically end up with bland boring stories that aren’t of interest to anyone. You’re not everyone’s mom, and aside from some basic screening for subject matter, it’s unreasonable for people to expect you to control an open mic.

Not having been there, all I can say is that if it made you uncomfortable, the right thing to do would have been to speak after the woman and say something simple to reinforce that you don’t support racial stereotypes and that you discourage folks from adding such ‘color’ to their stories. After that, everyone can just be an adult, right? “Words can never hurt me” and all that?

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: eugenia

eugenia — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:37:49 +0000

No, and I think for good reason because I wouldn’t want the event to turn into a mob scene where we are burning someone at the stake, you know? It’s up for debate whether she meant it in a racist way or not. The way she told the story made me uncomfortable, and I felt race was not used appropriately. But at the same time I didn’t feel that it was a case where I should be going up on stage to stop her. I am still on the fence about what I should have done in that moment.

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: Eugenia

Eugenia — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:12:24 +0000

Yes, something similar did happen at the last event, and that story gave us a lot to think about. I wrote about that incident right after the event here:
http://www.munidiaries.com/2009/06/16/about-the-chicken-story/

It is a fine line when the use of race is ok in a story and when it is not. And I think that if you were at the event, you would feel that the use of race in this story, and the tone with which it was used, were overly suggestive and inappropriate.

I am not saying that people can’t use race as a descriptor. It should be used when it is relevant. And it should not be used as a shorthand.

I would say that 99 percent of stories submitted to Muni Diaries are published as they are. About the same percentage of comments are published as well. We are far from the kind of people who would, “get Huck Finn banned from schools” as you suggest. One obvious indicator of that is the fact that your criticism of us is published here for everyone to see.

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: Eugenia

Eugenia — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:05:01 +0000

Brock,
We missed you at the event! And yes a racially tinged episode did happen last time as well, which is why it bothered me even more this time. Last time after the incident I wrote this post to discuss it:
http://www.munidiaries.com/2009/06/16/about-the-chicken-story/

I too wonder why we consistently run into this problem. I think that riding public transit means people of all races in one place, whereas this may not be the case in many other areas of our lives. We talk about race in our daily lives and sometimes inappropriately, but to have that in a public venue (online or on stage), it becomes a bigger issue of: are we going to provide a space for that?

Hope you can make it to the next event!

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:46:12 +0000

No one interrupted her and told her about the irrelevance of race in her story?

Like or Dislike: 0 0

By: jeff

jeff — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:29:48 +0000

Points taken, but as to the so-called Chicken Story, I refer you to a post we did a few days after the fact: http://www.munidiaries.com/2009/06/16/about-the-chicken-story/

Like or Dislike: 0 0