Archives for October, 2006

I was in my second year and living in Kingston with my family when I grew tired of hearing my sister say she wished she had blond hair and blue eyes and seeing the ways my brothers, each in their own ways, made themselves as inconspicuous as possible.

On a mission, I hunted the used bookstores downtown looking specifically for children’s books whose protagonists were not white. I returned, successful in that I was loaded with an armload of literature, ranging in geography the world over. For the most part, however, it was a failed endeavour, as my siblings resisted my attempts to spoon-feed them, and the books gathered dust travelling with us as we moved, away from Kingston, back to Toronto.

Last week my seven-year-old neighbour left for a three month tri-national vacation. She left with us a library book to return for her and I found it a few a days ago entangled in my bedsheets.

Anyone who reads this book will be perfectly happy.
- Ursula K. LeGuin

“Anyone who reads this book,” proclaims the inside cover, “will be perfectly happy.” This is a testimonial from Ursula K LeGuin; a tall order by any measure. Eyebrows cocked, poised to throw the book away from any moment now, I started to read Younguncle Comes to Town.
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A bunch of people down at the University of Alberta are hosting the Broad Album Daylight Tour, featuring Amir Sulaiman and BeLikeMuhammad (aka Anas Canon).

So if you’re in the vicinity you should check it out.
Also, I made the site. (:

About a week ago I read Ali Eteraz’s article, “Muslim Experience At Ann Coulter Chat Forum.” It was a powerful read, if only because it has forced me to realise that I am guilty of consistently stereotyping the right wing. Other parts of his post also made an impression on me, but I’d like to focus on the following passage (emphasis mine):

What hurt most was the way in which I was blatantly excluded from the conversation as if I were completely invisible. There were postings and conversations in which the commentators spoke to each other about “he,” “the guy,” “the Muslim apologist,” “this experiment.” It was as if I was not there. I was not Ali Eteraz. I didn’t have a name. They described and discussed me without acknowledging me. I was no more to them than a vague idea. Not a person, but a pronoun. It was the most blatant case of linguistic exclusion I have ever experienced because even when a man has called me sand-nigger, it has been to my face and I have felt his spittle hit me and felt the actual tangibility of the moment. This time I felt brushed off like I was a husk. Non-existent.

Besides the fact that I could relate, I had just recently read Cornel West’s essay “The New Cultural Politics of Difference”¹ and was strongly reminded of his statement that “[t]he Black diaspora condition of New World servitude … can be characterised as … natal alienation. This state of perpetual and inheritable domination that diaspora Africans had at birth produced the modern Black diaspora problematic of invisibility and namelessness” (261- emphasis his). Eteraz’s experience of “linguistic exclusion” (a beautiful phrase) perfectly mirrors West’s concern with Black “invisibility and namelessness.” Continue reading this entry »

This was supposed to be the year I gorged myself on literary theory, grew fat on subjectivity, exploded under the intensity of my thought and the splattered everyone around me with ideas that would change their worlds.
Yes. This was the year I would put finishing touches on The Plan. The one that would Change The World. A major part of this plan was my application to grad studies. I had vague ideas of what I wanted to study; they involved ethereal words like diaspora, identity, and youth. Their very vagueness ensured their ethereality. I was able to spin intricate webs with those thin connections, was able to see potential in everything. Continue reading this entry »