Race and Public Space

Been thinking a lot about the recent arrests of two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. This isn't a full post on the matter. I'm just starting to build a class session in my head for the next time I teach my Social Psychology course. Race and public space. Race and racism in everyday life. Here's what I have on file for now, to be developed into a class session.

1) Robin Roberts' interview of the men (Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson) on Good Morning America.

2) Jamelle Bouie's article "White Spaces," in Slate. He quotes Elijah Anderson in the article.

3) "Being Black in Public" - also in Slate, an interview featuring Jamelle Bouie, Gene Demby, Aisha Harris, and Tressie McMillan Cottom.

4) "Beyond Starbucks: How Racism Shapes Customer Service" - Alexandra C. Feldberg and Tami Kim. In this New York Times article, the authors state: "Over the past two years, we have investigated discrimination in customer service by conducting large-scale field experiments in the hospitality industry. We have repeatedly found that front-line workers exhibit racial bias in the quality of customer service they provide."

5) "Who's Really Welcome at Starbucks?" by Vince Dixon

6) "Race, Space, and Belonging" by Neeraj Rajasekar. Includes a listing of pertinent academic articles.

People Are Surprisingly Nice On Occasion (The Claw Machine Edition)

Since the tine my kids became old enough to ask to play the claw machine, I have worked hard to tell them it's a scam and a waste of money. Sometimes you gotta be a killjoy parent. When the moon might be blue we'll give each of our kids a dollar and let them have at it. Today was one such day. Our kids ran across a restaurant and were back in thirty seconds flat after predictably not retrieving a stuffed animal that they would have forgot about thirty seconds later had they happened to grab one. I digress. The point of this is that a couple was sitting near the claw machine, and, apparently having observed our kids experience the agony of defeat, gave them two dollars to try again. This was two more dollars for the claw machine to enjoy for dessert but there was winning in the losing. You see, this was an act of kindness from strangers (albeit within the constraints of late capitalism) and though our kids were twice disappointed, my wife and I were happy to point out how nice it was for these kind folks to try to help them achieve the thrill of victory. Across the room we hollered thank you and thanked them one more time when they left the restaurant. The weekend is only half over but no matter what happens the rest of the way, it has already been a good weekend.

Hipster Alert

Leaving Tops today on Elmwood Avenue, I saw a person that might be called a hipster. He was a bit too cool for school. The way he carefully wore his cap so that it was slightly askew, along with other hip clothes you won’t generally see people wear to the grocery store, made me think “hipster.” He looked straight ahead to avoid all eye contact—this was a man on a mission (what kind of mission, I can’t guess). He made me think of something radio host Jeremy White recently said on WGR 550. He made a remark about hipsters on Elmwood Avenue who can’t bother to talk to you. I got a good laugh out of that one. I know what he meant. I like to think I know something about hipsters. I used to live around them. I very briefly lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is a hotbed of hipster activity. Those hipsters definitely walk without smiling, nodding, or doing anything that could be construed as friendly. I guess being aloof is part of the hipster code. I’m not sure what’s cool about being unfriendly. This all sounds awfully stereotypical, so allow me to make the obvious point that everyone on Elmwood Avenue or in Williamsburg is not a hipster, nor is every hipster on the planet unfriendly. This is only to say that the person who we are inclined to call “hipster” seems to be unfriendly to strangers and appears to take great care in crafting a careless appearance. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what hipsters do or figuring out what a hipster is (although such topics are fun to discuss). What does matter, I believe, is why people in general can’t be friendly to the people around them. When walking around in public space, is it so hard to crack a smile or manage a nod?

Update on 2/13/2013:
For a more sophisticated sociological consideration of hipsters, see this post at The Society Pages. In the post, Andrew Lindner makes several good points, including this one: "hipster" is a broad category that encompasses so many different groups as to be utterly worthless. He also says: "We can continue to use the adjectival “hipster” to refer to the aesthetic style, but social scientists would be better off being more specific about the group of people they’re describing (e.g., young, rich, educated, fashion forward, liberals, bohemians, music fans, etc.)." Agreed.