Birthday, Long Beach, Race

Beth’s birthday!

Our daughter’s birthday is today. I sent a text message in the morning on my way to the airport. And we mailed a lovely birthday card a few days ago. She called while I was in Salt Lake City Airport waiting for the flight to Long Beach; she was sitting in traffic on her way home.

I forgot to call her once when I was at the Unitarian-Universalist General Assembly. Friends are there now. This year’s General Assembly in in Portland, Oregon.

But I’m on my way to the U.S. Committee for UN Women board meeting, my first. I’m eager to learn more about the campaign HeForShe with Emma Watson (of Harry Potter fame) as the spokesperson , encouraging men to sign up as supporters of rights of women and girls.

Queen Mary

Now I’m in the hotel where I look out on Long Beach Harbor and the Queen Mary which is docked here, I guess permanently. Raul who checked me in gave me a complimentary upgrade so I’d have the view. Internet is working. The TV says Welcome, with my name. I had a chatty taxi driver. On first glance Long Beach looks a fun place for a vacation.

I think the meetings end at 5, so there will be time to explore.

Goodreads

Do you use Goodreads? I’ve been using the site for three years or so, and created my author page a few months ago.

I just posted a review of Alexandra Fuller’s book,

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight. Here’s what I said: “I loved reading this book. Some of the scenes of Africa were completely familiar to me, even though she writes about another part of Africa and an earlier time than my experience in Nigeria. Her descriptions of family members are especially rich, but other people and scenes too are so clear from her writing.

“Dysfunctional family life is a deep topic; she doesn’t hide from the reality but doesn’t dwell on it either, so it provides an intriguing setting for her story.”

Yesterday I watched a webinar on how to use Goodreads to promote my book. One of the suggestions was to ask my readers to follow me and write reviews.

So I’m asking! If you are on Goodreads, will you write a review of Nigeria Revisited My Life and Loves Abroad? And then follow me if you haven’t already.

Race in America

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about racism in America today in The Atlantic. He asks, as do I, how can we still be experiencing the horrific crimes of white police shooting unarmed black men, and then the murder in Charleston.

He says, “The answer is in our past . . From the days of slave patrols, through the era of lynching and work farms, into this time of mass incarceration, criminal justice has been the primary tool for managing the divide between black and white. We’ve done this for so long that we’re now almost on autopilot. . . .Our long history of viewing African Americans through the lens of criminal justice is a kind of programming that demands [these events] keep happening.”

And Claudia Rankine wrote on Monday in The New York Times that a friend told her recently, “the condition of black life is one of mourning.” Mothers of young black men live in a state of fear unknown to us who are white.

She says, “The spectacle of the shooting [in Charleston] suggests an event out of time, as if the killing of black people with white-supremacist justification interrupts anything other than regular television programming. But Dylann Storm Roof did not create himself from nothing.”

She quotes Toni Morrison’s comment recently: “I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back.” She added, “I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, ‘Is it over?’ I will say yes.”

How sad that we have to think this way. But yes, Black Lives Matter because for too long, black lives have not mattered, and still today, too often, black lives don’t matter.

Vigil in Westport

TEAM Westport and The Interfaith Clergy Association held a vigil on Monday evening to commemorate the victims of the Charleston shooting and to raise awareness of the need to take action against racism.

The vigil took place on the lawn of the Saugatuck Congregational Church where the Rev. Alison Patton is the minister. She is an outspoken advocate for social justice and against racism.