real-life application attempts

Last night, Chloe and I left her apartment at 10:00 p.m. because it was our last night together in NYC (of course, we'll be living together in a week anyhow) and it was adventure time. I had meant to explore some of the areas the people in the report talk about, like the areas where police harassment occurs, and it was my last unscheduled night. What followed:

- Joined up and had bubble tea with an NYU friend to prepare us all for the evening

- Said goodnight to said NYU friend and walked the full length of Christopher St. in the West Village. It's often mentioned in the report, and I wanted to see it for myself. It was cold and late on a Wednesday night, and I had a feeling the walk would be anticlimactic. In parts, Christopher street was bustling, and there were gay bars and rainbow flags, and Chloe laughed at me for enthusiastically saying, "my people!" as we passed by. In other parts, the street was desolate except for a couple people at a time, and it did seem kind of sketch but it was hard to tell if that was just a projection of our expectations. Which was when I realized - I could never experience Christopher street like the people on the survey did. Because of my background, and my naiveté, and the time of night, I could walk down the same street and see it completely differently than someone who took the Welfare Warrior's Research Collaborative survey. At the same time, or maybe because of this, our Christopher street walk felt somewhat like a museum tour - the mood felt reverent and we were trying to understand it like you might try to understand what it was like for a sculptor creating her art back in the 19th century.

-Walked all the way from the West Village to the East Village, and decided it was time to get a bathroom. In some 24-hour sketch pizzeria, a man came up to me while Chloe was otherwise occupied. I don't know why these things always happen to me. He started gesturing wildly, and I couldn't understand what he was trying to communicate. He kept pointing at his ear, so I gathered he was deaf, and then he ran to the counter and brought back a napkin. "CAREFUL" he wrote on the top, "NIGHT LATE." He turned it around, and then wrote "WORLD DANGER." It was disconcerting. A couple of people came over to make sure everything was under control, and I assured the man as best I could with hand motions that it was going to be fine, but Chloe and I left as soon as we could and took the subway back to her place.

Unrelated - I came across a quote in a report I read for some background knowledge, which I really liked: “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, then let us walk together.” -Lila Watson. I like it because it's so important to remember that oppression, even though it visibly hurts minority populations, hurts and stifles us all, and that we should all be working toward its end.

Ok, enough theorizing - here are pictures from last night.