I am for
Truth.
Freedom.
Fairness.
Our government doesn't need to engage in censorship. [Big] Business does it more than adequately.
Cover-up.
Censorship.
Power.
What do cover up and censorship have in common? How do they work in tandem in the United States? What is the missing link?
"One night in October, an Army private named Danny Chen apparently angered his fellow soldiers by forgetting to turn off the water heater after taking a shower [my underline] at his outpost in Afghanistan, his family said.
In the relatives’ account, the soldiers pulled Private Chen out of bed and dragged him across the floor; they forced him to crawl on the ground while they pelted him with rocks and taunted him with ethnic slurs. Finally, the family said, they ordered him to do pull-ups with a mouthful of water — while forbidding him from spitting it out." -New York Times, Dec. 21, 2011
Later that year Danny Chen put a bullet in his own mouth in Afganistan.
The Facebook group for [Justice for] Danny Chen has <2,000 members. That for Michael Brown or for Travyon Martin has probably hundreds of thousands if not millions.
So much for equality or the statement that "Blacks Lives [don't] Matter."
"Did you take a shower before you came down to the swimming pool?"
So much for equality or the statement that "Blacks Lives [don't] Matter."
"Did you take a shower before you came down to the swimming pool?"
[Astonished], "...yes, I did..."
"I mean...did you take a F-U-L-L (waving her arms wide and pretending to thoroughly scrub her torso and arms) cleansing shower? We need to keep the pool clean, you know?"
-white lifeguard to this former member, a person of color, in 2011 at the downtown Seattle YMCA
At the end of the swimming pool lane, I stopped, looked up at the lifeguard, and asked:
"Would you tell me what time it is?"
Silence. Silence. Silence. Bewilderment. Shame.
Two minutes later:
"Could you tell me the time?"
[Finally saying something] "8:25."
"Thanks."
The above conversations, and others, were recounted in my Yelp reviews of the downtown Seattle YMCA, where they were widely read for over four years until recently when they were removed without notice or explanation.
Attempts to hold my Yelp reviews responsible for "bad business" at the downtown Seattle YMCA are misguided. I recognize now when I am being scapegoated when, in fact, bad management is responsible. People may have cancelled their membership for reasons not entirely dissimilar to many of the complaints contained in my reviews but this does not mean that my reviews were necessarily instrumental in any way in their decisions.
A case for libel could only "work" if and if the content were untrue, which, in the case of my reviews was emphatically not the case. The conversations recounted with Y members or staff were almost verbatim transcriptions.
"They" (the Y top brass and its mouthpieces) could never argue with my recollections, which were close to being simple statements of fact, as I wrote them down usually a day or at most a few days after the respective "incident."
A case for libel could only "work" if and if the content were untrue, which, in the case of my reviews was emphatically not the case. The conversations recounted with Y members or staff were almost verbatim transcriptions.
"They" (the Y top brass and its mouthpieces) could never argue with my recollections, which were close to being simple statements of fact, as I wrote them down usually a day or at most a few days after the respective "incident."
Friends, please get the word out...
Inequality of power is a prerequisite for censorship.
You've got to have a lot of this in the United States of America to have a real voice. Or the equivalent in political power. (The two make such good partners).
In the American system, you can silence anyone without having to fire one shot (and risk going to jail, if you get caught). My father once said to me, "This is how it works [in real life]. You live in an ideal world that does not exist except in your imagination. You will get nowhere." He was right. The American game is all above getting two things: Money and Power. Everything else is a means. Living in a [corporate-style] democracy doesn't change that fact.
The Young Men's Christian Association is no different: a business by any other name is still a business, one run by businessmen (and women). Its selling point happens to be that it offers social services that other businesses will support as a gesture of community responsibility. The fact doesn't mean that it necessarily treats people well, as a assiduously constructed and maintained facade here eminently serves the purpose of concealing what lies behind it. Who calls the shots and why: Well, that is not public information.
It's not about truth, it's about power. And a 14-year-old understands this. S/he says one thing--as we are all taught to--and does another. We don't work to find "the truth," we work to acquire power. That is where corporate donations come in: a gesture to the higher life, something the Medicis--the bankers of Europe--well knew back in 15th century Italy.
Thank you, Yelp.
Yelp has now removed ALL of my negative reviews--at least half a dozen--of the downtown YMCA, including the one you pasted above. In essence, they're going to keep removing them one by one until no more remain. It's punishment (for reposting).
It also reveals that the downtown YMCA has support from powerful figures in the civic and business community of Seattle. (A certain former King County Executive, among others).
Silly me, I thought we were living in a society where people were equally deserving of respect and the right to be heard.
Of course, the idea that Yelp is a credible arbiter of ethical behavior--one that can judiciously determine whether a Yelp review violates "the terms of service"--is a patently absurd one.
This is, after, a business which many believe engages in forms of extortion. My reviews of Yelp, I think, provided some insights as to why Yelp became so successful.
Many people really liked my review updates of the downtown YMCA. They were witty, veracious, and insightful...
For the YMCA to exclude a person because of what s/he has truthfully written about it smacks of what happens in Morocco or Thailand when the regent feels offended by what a citizen or a journalist writes about him. Behavior outside of the premises of the Y should not be punished or used as grounds for "letting that member have it" in a meeting set up ostensibly to discuss another issue (a disagreement over a lifeguard's conduct).
Racism is in the eye of the beholder. Often the people who insist on calling others racist are often the most racist people there are.
In any case, this does not justifiy the director of the downtown Seattle YMCA "really letting me have it." Or anyone treating another human being that way. I don't think I've ever been treated with as much scorn and meanness in my whole life.
I find it ironic that there might be accusations against a person of color simply for stating that s/he felt that there was a racial hierarchy at the downtown Seattle YMCA, in which s/he felt at a disadvantage compared to African-Americans, for whatever reasons, as well as pointing out shifting racial demographics (2002 versus 2015, a fact).
Furthermore, at a gym, this is especially relevant, as, as my own personal attests, there is a machismo or hyper-masculinity prevalent in African-American culture that is not found to the same degree in other cultures. Some people do not feel comfortable with this; that does not make them racist.
I do find, in general, that there are more African-American men who are cocky, aggressive, and overbearing--percentage-wise--than there Caucasian men. There is a huge cultural difference and a divide, and I don't the way to bridge the divide is for everyone to start accepting the norms of African-American culture and imitate blacks.
There.
I should not feel obligated to hide this opinion. And I won't.
No white person has the right to tell me what is or isn't racist. I have experienced prejudice and been assaulted by blacks and whites.
The incident in July at the downtown YMCA and Yelp's handling of my review(s) was the last straw for me.
Some people are offended by hearing, or, rather, reading, the truth. The person who recounts his experience is, clearly, not guilty of any misconduct. I am not Edward Snowden, although I may be closer to Matthew Shephard or Danny Chen.
For Yelp--alerted and abetted with a little assistance--to take down previous reviews and leaving only two, both four-star, is unethical.
No, I will let people think that I enthusiastically give it four-stars!
And as I continue to repost, Yelp will remove other reviews undoubtedly, perhaps the ones I spent countless hours writing and rewriting.
A bunch of 20-somethings sitting in their cubicles one floor of an office tower on Montgomery St. in San Francisco, being whimsically given the authority to decide what stays on Yelp is a joke. These are kids that don't know what racism is, first-hand, that can barely write English that is distinguishable from what is on display from the majority of the Yelp reviewers, "elite" or not, who drink and eat till their puke listening to loud loud music in bars on weekends because that is their religion and raison d'etre.
The government in the United States doesn't censor freedom of expression as in some countries; business does. Government is the latter's handmaiden.
* * * * *
Mom and Dad, I did what I thought was right, that you would have thought too difficult and dangerous to do. In the end, I think you would have respected me for standing up for what I believe in and in being scrupulously honest about the things that have happened to me.
I let the world know.
We will not end bullying among our youth as long as adults do it, are unaware of when they do it, and are too scared themselves to report it (to whom?). And as long as our civic institutions engage in and cover up such behaviors within their ranks.
Bullying is as American as apple pie.
Google "Danny Chen" and "Matthew Shepherd" and "Bradley Manning." Or "Edward Snowden," if you don't know who he is.
Do not forget.
The success of censorship and its intended cover-up depend on Power.
Their failure relies on the courage of at least one individual to tell the truth (as he or she sees or has lived it).
It is axiomatic that Power by its very nature does not want to be challenged and will rarely yield by calls to reason or ethics.
And this holds as true for the United States as it does for Syria: human nature is the same across countries, centuries, and cultures.
I havewitnessed experienced this.
I let the world know.
We will not end bullying among our youth as long as adults do it, are unaware of when they do it, and are too scared themselves to report it (to whom?). And as long as our civic institutions engage in and cover up such behaviors within their ranks.
Bullying is as American as apple pie.
Google "Danny Chen" and "Matthew Shepherd" and "Bradley Manning." Or "Edward Snowden," if you don't know who he is.
Do not forget.
The success of censorship and its intended cover-up depend on Power.
Their failure relies on the courage of at least one individual to tell the truth (as he or she sees or has lived it).
It is axiomatic that Power by its very nature does not want to be challenged and will rarely yield by calls to reason or ethics.
And this holds as true for the United States as it does for Syria: human nature is the same across countries, centuries, and cultures.
I have
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