May 22, 2007

The Bay in Retrospect.

Well, I'm still processing, but it was a whirlwind of a trip last week. I think we were overly ambitious, but it was very very interesting to see the different people and communities that we did see, and it helped to put our own work, and the place of East Coast Asian American work, in context.

It also helped me to think about the importance of the work that's happening in South Asian communities in NYC, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and DC. Because just having a large community in numbers (like the greater Bay area) doesn't mean that you have an actual community that's formed, and the activist culture of the East Coast has a different feeling (and urgency) to it.

Other than that - the weather was awesome (colder than expected), and the people were good to us. But San Francisco felt more white than the major East Coast cities. That was striking. Maybe we should have spent more time in the East Bay.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

San Francisco felt more white to me also -- than east coast cities (or los angeles). yes, the east bay does have more diversity. but i was shocked upon checking out SF how homogenous it felt (and segregated, because there are people of color there too). the real estate and price of living there have skyrocketed to insane levels.

i love me some nyc, new jersey, and los angeles. oh wait, that's where i've lived and am living...

Rage said...

Yeah. Still processing it, because that's not what I expected. Even with the progressive politics/etc, it felt like a privileged place. I mean, I really loved the hills and the history, but it didn't feel like "home."