{"id":52115,"date":"2015-03-19T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=52115"},"modified":"2015-03-19T15:35:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T20:35:24","slug":"one-morning-at-starbucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=52115","title":{"rendered":"One Morning At Starbucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCENE: Mitch BERG walks into a Starbucks and approaches the order counter. \u00a0Moonbeam BIRKENSTOCK, the barrista, is behind the counter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Large light roast and some of that lemon cake, please.<\/p>\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0Sure. \u00a0But first – what do you think about race?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Huh?<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0When did you first become aware of your race?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0The race I’m in to get to work? \u00a0About 45 minutes ago.<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0What?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0It’s a joke. \u00a0Research shows that race is among the first things babies perceive about people in the world around them. \u00a0Even tiny babies are uncomfortable around people that aren’t the same race as their parents. \u00a0So a form of “racism” – being uncomfortable around people like you – is born into human beings.<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0White babies?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0All babies. \u00a0 And I think it holds true through peoples’ lives, and expands on itself. \u00a0People\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>more comfortable around people like them; they\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>uneasy around people who aren’t. \u00a0And it’s not just race – class is something babies learn later on – but race is a big one. \u00a0Some middle class whites are uncomfortable around blacks. \u00a0Middle-class blacks get nervous around blue-collar white people under certain circumstances. \u00a0Jennifer Lopez probably watches herself around people who still\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>“from the block”. \u00a0White MPR listeners avoid being around white people with leathers and Harley-Davidsons.<\/p>\n

Everyone on earth – including Barristas who went to Carlton…<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0…eeeew. \u00a0I went to Saint Olaf!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0 Exactly. \u00a0Now – could you leave a little room for cream…<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0What do you think about your privilege?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0My privilege?<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0White privilege!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0I think there’s a reason that black people – and white people with liberal guilt – talk about it, and Latinos, Asians, and African immigrants largely don’t.<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0They’re racists too!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0No, they and their ancestors largely came here of their own free will, while the African-Americans are culturally as well as geneologically descended from slaves. \u00a0And 150 years of emancipation and 50 years of full rights haven’t undone 500 years of cultural damage. \u00a0So the question is, what do you do about it?<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0Have I asked you about your privilege yet?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0The privilege is this: \u00a0I’m descended from a culture that, going back almost 1,500 years, was dominated by a patriarchal society that was ruled by a warrior elite and venerated fighting skill and still doesn’t have a word for “relax, man”, but had more words for “combat” than Eskimos have for “snow” or the Irish have for “vomit”. \u00a0And between geography, the market, and my ancestors’ skill at killing their enemies, nobody managed for the most part to enslave my ancestors. \u00a0And the biggest thing I have to say about privilege is that I’m sorry for those whose ancestors and their matriarchal, hunter-gatherer societies were\u00a0unable\u00a0<\/em>to protect their people from slavery.<\/p>\n

But what do you want me to do about it now?<\/p>\n

\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0So…do you think your choice of coffee is itself racist<\/a>?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0(Turns and walks out the door<\/em>)<\/p>\n

BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0Can I interest you in the new Cold Play CD?<\/div>\n
\n

(And SCENE)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCENE: Mitch BERG walks into a Starbucks and approaches the order counter. \u00a0Moonbeam BIRKENSTOCK, the barrista, is behind the counter. BERG: \u00a0Large light roast and some of that lemon cake, please. BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0Sure. \u00a0But first – what do you think about race? BERG: \u00a0Huh? BIRKENSTOCK: \u00a0When did you first become aware of your race? BERG: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-52115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ebony-and-ivory","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52115"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52137,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52115\/revisions\/52137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}