Everytown

A similar situation is playing out about 45 minutes west in Smithtown where the community is crying about affordable housing being built in the industrial park there. We complain that our children can’t afford to stay on Long Island yet scream when affordable housing is built for fear it will draw in “the wrong element.” And in the meantime it’s that element who are working hard every day in the factories and warehouses in that very industrial park that keeps our taxes low.

“Enjoying” is really the wrong word - but I am finding the podcast absorbing and interesting. Having grown up in HB, but left there many years ago, it’s sad to hear what’s befallen my hometown. The issues between Southampton and HB are nothing new - HB was always treated as the poor stepchild - the rest is new. That said, the clueless woman who breaks in with her suburban-cheerful voice and asks for money could not be more annoying. Here we’re listening to this sobering exposition of inhumane treatment of poor immigrants to our country, and in breaks this… chick.. for a lack of a better word, to tell us how she’s getting her f’ing steps in because her fitness watch is telling her to… for Pete’s sake, could your marketing team be anymore insensitive? Asking for money and support, sure - I get you’ve gotta do that. But do it in a sober and respective manner and don’t treat us to a litany of white suburban Mom woes along the way.

I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the 2nd episode to come, and it’s as good as I thought it would be. It’s raw, honest, in your face (not in a bad way but in a way that kind of lets the facts be know without protecting ‘how white people might feel,’ and as a white person I think that this is precisely what drew me to this podcast.) It reveals many generations of passing down some really spiteful things like bigotry, racism, white superiority and supremacy... it speaks without taking the easy road & “tippy toeing” around the hard conversations. Makes me cringe hearing how people try to cover up their obvious racism ... but it is necessary to listen without making excuses for my white counterparts. I think it’s about gawddamn time we start looking at things for exactly what they are... looking at how the language we choose to use, where our focus lyes, our own biases, assumptions, cognitive dissidence, etc are absolutely based upon the color of people’s skin ... DENYING THIS TRANSLATE TO ONES EGO BEING FRONT & CENTER .... and it’s time to check our egos ...