You know you're from Oakland..., AC Transit passenger solidarity and #reading
>> Thursday, August 4, 2011
It was an interesting day at school Wednesday afternoon. Still dealing with the challenge of channeling the students' creativity into actually writing.
We started off having a discussion of the "You know you're from Oakland if..." Facebook phenomenon. It was an old trend rekindled. In fact, I even compiled a blog while working at AC Transit on this same topic.
At any rate, after the students recounted their generation's version, we transitioned them into writing them down. Sadly, many who were able to make them up off the top of their heads seemed unable to concentrate long enough to write many.
We also tried to unpack why would being from Oakland give people these shared ideas, experiences and culture. Conclusion: Smart children, just need better strategies to encourage writing.
* * *
On the AC Transit #40 from Fremont High to downtown Oakland, I saw another random act of bus passenger kindness.
A man walking down the aisle dropped $1. A woman said to him, "Excuse me. You dropped some money."
After he returned to pick it up, she half-jokingly asked, "How much is it? Shoot!" and started laughing.
The man then smiled and gave her the money. "Thank you," she said.
Despite much of the other craziness I've witnessed, and the reputation of AC Transit as a "ghetto on wheels," the passengers are god people.
* * *
It's hard to tell from the photo above, but I've nearly finished Manning Marable's "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention."
I can't say the jury is still out on this one–it's definitely, as author Karl Evanzz said, not magnum opus. There are major logical fallacies and some assertions that lack substantial evidence, but there are other points of the book that are informative.
I may attempt to write a review, although other more scholarly writers will be writing a "Black Writers Respond" critique later this year.
