something serious for a change

Who would have ever thought a class offered by the history department would be the most progressive in my semester undertakings? I'm quite proud to be a historian trained outside of and in some ways in resistance to a history department; the short answer is that I'm a poststructuralist who questions notions like objectivity and single or absolute truths while history departments promote these notions (to varying degrees depending on the instructor, but as a field, they uphold concepts I challenge).

It's funny how certain things hit you in delayed and unexpected ways. I wanted to leave American Studies in order to be around people who study the built environment, but gradually it's revealed more and more to me how ignorant other fields (scholars, students, instructors) are of critical race, class, gender, sexuality, and other identity studies. Was it worth it? I've probably improved my employment opportunities, but I may have to suffer mental anguish for the next few years.

So it was somewhat of a surprise and a great relief to see the breadth and depth of my fellow students in my Los Angeles urban history seminar that meets at the Huntington Library. I'm really excited about the course, and it actually doesn't look to be nearly as demanding as I anticipated.

In celebration and with reference to an earlier experience this week in a course where one of the professors just didn't get the interconnections of race and class (especially as they are culturally specific), I want to provide you with two articles published in the most recent edition of The Next American City that discuss two sides of the same coin in the continuing struggle and oppression of race and class in urban America. They aren't as jaron-filled as my second paragraph (or even this one), so I wouldn't worry about getting lost. These are phenomenon you're more than likely aware of.

"Corporate Retailers and the American Ghetto: How Starbucks May Help Save South Central" by Josh Sides

"The Dilemma of the Black Middle Class" by Sheryll Cashin (focuses on Prince George's County in relation to the rest of suburban Washington, D.C.)