Despertar

boondocks, best show ever

Over lunch two days ago, I asked one of the firm associates where he grew up.

He said, "Allentown, Pennsylvania."

Now, I know a little something about Allentown, Pennsylvania, partly because of the Billy Joel song about the steel industry and union struggles, but also because Tina spent a few months there and absolutely hated it, it was so boring. Because I wanted to connect with this guy, without insulting his hometown, I chose the former talking point and said, "Oh, like from the Billy Joel song?"

He and two other associates, all men, started chuckling to themselves. "Yeah," he said. "Like in the song."

Now, I know the song is over twenty years old. I also know the very point of the song was to decry the changing conditions for Allentown's blue-collar workers due to the steel industry drying up. Had I given it more thought, which such a casual conversation didn't seem to merit, I probably would have come to the conclusion that Allentown is probably a completely different place than it was when Billy Joel wrote "Allentown." But I was trying to keep the momentum of the conversation going, so I asked, innocently, "Cool--are they still dealing with union struggles there?"

And everyone burst into uproarious laughter. Except me. I didn't see what was funny. "A better question," said one of the other associates, wiping his eyes, "would be whether there are still unions in Allentown."

"Yeah," echoed the guy whose hometown it was. "Or whether there's anything there at all."

"Oh," I said, kind of taken aback but writing it off as self-effacing my-hometown-sucks kind of talk.

The conversation turned to other topics, but seated beside me, one of my coworkers (a total peer, same amount of education as I have and just the tiniest bit more work experience but basically a summer intern, like me) was still laughing behind his hand five minutes later. Because apparently it was that God damn funny.

"What?" I asked him when I couldn't ignore him anymore.

He could barely even stop laughing long enough to answer me. "It's just the idea," he said, between breaths, "that anyone would base their entire knowledge of a place on a song from the eighties."

Which got the laughter started again, which made me feel like a total idiot. Among many other things, this week has taught me that I really am going to have to work twice as hard to earn respect in what is traditionally a field dominated by white men. I've been hearing that all my life, but I had never experienced it, so I didn't believe it till now.

And that's not really the only reason, the Allentown thing. There's a lot of context behind that, occasional run-ins between me and that particular coworker, awkwardly placed comments about lawfirm diversity and stuff. None of it based in reality or fact. Still, just awkward.

*

Jasmine, from The Boondocks, is one of the most annoying characters imaginable. She is sheltered and naive and only slightly less irritating than Cindy, her erstwhile BFF, who was repelled when she figured out Jasmine wasn't just having "a really bad hair day."

Justin references Boondocks episodes at least once a week. The ones he mentions more than once, I generally try to watch online, but I never make it past the first commercial break, they annoy me so much.