Privilege

In honor of Black History Month, I am going to exercise #4 suggested by the Instagram post below (which was my radar thanks to Hannah's reposting):

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A post shared by Kerry Connelly (@kerry.connelly) on Feb 1, 2019 at 6:53am PST

10 ways I personally benefit from privilege:

1. Almost all public spaces feel welcoming to me, including museums, office buildings, and libraries. 
2. I can choose not to follow the news without it having a great effect on me.  
3. I am not afraid of the police. I have never been afraid of the police. 
4. I don’t worry about my husband having an altercation with the police.
5. I don’t worry about how to raise my children to behave around the police and law enforcement.
6. Sephora and other beauty/makeup shops always have makeup that matches with my skin tone and hair products that work for my hair.
7. I don’t have to worry about speaking “correctly” in person or over the phone in order to avoid being negatively judged.
8. I grew up in a “nice area of town” and experienced no financial troubles growing up. This is undoubtedly due in part (if not in large part) to the fact that my family is white.
9. Shop employees don’t follow me around the store, afraid I’m going to shoplift.
10. I can find many, many representations of myself in the media I consume (tv shows, movies, books). 

A couple other culture suggestions for this month:

• Read the short story collection Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. To be honest, the stories are extremely depressing and disturbing, but there's no denying the author's brilliance, especially in the first story, called "The Finkelstein 5." 
• Listen to this great interview with the 75-year-old black poet Nikki Giovanni. She's got spunk! Also, she knew Rosa Parks!

The Year in (Quick) Review

It's January 5th! I go back to work in two days! Quick! Let's review the year.

January - Cammy came out from Fort Collins to throw me a tiki-themed bachelorette party at the Tonga Hut, which was AWESOME.

February 18 - Ari and I got married at the University Club of Pasadena. It was (slightly) more AWESOME than my bachelorette. We did a "mini-moon" to Palm Springs right after, which was delightful.

March through April - Finished up the spring semester at USC. Taught in the Master's Prep program for both fall and spring of 2018.

May - HONEYMOON! Israel with the whole fam (in-laws, sibs, cousins, aunts, uncles) and then a little side-trip to Amsterdam (our airline, KLM, let us have a free stopover there). Beautiful weather the whole time.

July through mid-August - Taught ESL at my old job, the Columbia ALP, for Summer C session. Went pretty well for the most part and it was wonderful being in the city during the summer. Hot and sweaty but fun. Plus, Ari came out for the last week of work and that was nice to see him!

September through December - kept things low key around here. Presented at CATESOL in Anaheim with my mom, which was fun. Stayed local for Christmas (but went to Youngstown, as usual, for Thanksgiving). Missed Leah and Urbain because Leah is currently in Australia (through the end of January).

New Year's Eve - Ari's dad came out for four days, arriving on NYE, in order to go to the Rose Bowl game, since Ohio State was playing. Ari, his dad, and my dad all went. (Tickets cost $450 each!!!!) On Jan. 2, Ari also did an informal recital of a Mendelssohn piece for his dad and my family with his LA Phil coworker, Lucy, accompanying on the cello.

So, I honestly can't complain about 2018. What a great year!