Today, I am starting a 17 day blog about my experiences in London, while exploring racial and gender dynamics in the England. I plan on hearing lectures, attending archives, meeting with people, seeing the sites and soaking up the cultural environment.
My trip to England began by saying goodbye to my partner and our 3 sons. It’s a mix of missing them and excitement that I feel as I arrive at BWI airport. The airport and flights were pleasant and uneventful and I even ran into LeSean McCoy during my layover at the Detroit airport. As I arrive in London, I am greeted by a very diverse group of people, much like the big cities in the United States. I did find myself just looking around at the city and thinking, “this is where the foundation of many of our ideas are from.” It was like traveling to the nexus of the ideological universe, to this black hole of knowledge. I am hoping I don't get crushed :-) On the surface, much of London is familiar to the United States and this can give a person the sense of sameness or oneness, but I was reminded soon after I arrive that there are differences. People began commenting on my accent. Now, of course, there is an American accent, but actually being in a place where my language accent was viewed as the outsider was an interesting perspective. Now people understand me fine, but at times I do have to speak slower and make sure that I enunciate. It was a strange sensation though, because I am usually traveling to countries with entirely different cultures and languages, so being a stranger there is expected. Here, it’s expectation feels somehow more isolating... On the train leaving the airport, I noticed that the people who got on the train at the first of my three-stop journey were mostly people who were Middle Eastern or South Asian Indians. I wondered if they were there enclaves in London or were these the "Middle Eastern sections" of London. I saw building with writing in Arabic. Children happily played on the train while speaking Arabic and I smiled with joy as they pointed straws at each other. I begin to think about residential segregation and white flight and wondered if these sections were a result of it. Once I arrived at the final train station after about 3 transfers, I walked into the neighborhood where I would call home for the next three weeks. It looked different than what I was used to. The houses are a cross between the row houses of Baltimore and brownstones of New York (refer to the picture at the top of the page). The distinctive chimneys made me think of the movie Mary Poppins, particularly the scene where Dick van Dyke is jumping in and out of chimneys cleaning them and singing, Chim chiminey Chim chiminey Chim chim cher-ee! A sweep is as lucky As lucky can be Once I arrived at the home I am staying, I pretty much napped the rest of the day. (I have a new born at home so uninterrupted sleep here I come - lol). Tomorrow is the first lecture that I am attending, so my real exploration of London and its racial and gender dynamics will begin!
6 Comments
Dannielle Walker
5/17/2016 07:45:10 pm
Looking forward to reading about your venture. Please provide some visuals if possible. Best Wishes!
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Myron Strong
5/17/2016 07:56:40 pm
Pictures start tommorow :-)
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Johnie Dollarhide
5/20/2016 09:23:01 pm
Soak up that knowledge Dr. Myron and keep us informed.
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Myron Strong
5/26/2016 06:55:51 pm
Thanks I will
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Starita Smith
5/26/2016 03:38:20 pm
I finally caught up with my reading. I hope you get to Brixton or go to other largely immigrant neighborhoods where the population is substantially African. One of the things that was interesting to me the first time I went to the UK was that there was no racial category in which I would fit. I was in Glasgow talking to school officials. The Indian and Pakistani parents said they wanted to be considered black; so the schools came up with a taxonomy that included such categories as Afro-Caribbean. I said if my kids went to school here, they would have no category that fit them. You are learning that a lot of the ways they think about race are very different from ours. When we go overseas, then we are Americans. When they are at home in the U.K. I believe they have more times than not when they can just be British, but being British is a lot different from being American. The cultures that are represented in London are all the colonized peoples coming to the seat of the Empire. I understand that one of the best slavery history displays is in Bristol. They even have a slave trail that traces places of importance during the slave trade in Britain. Have you heard or read much talk of African, Asian and other British people calling themselves minorities? When I was there, I got the sense that the social problems such as police brutality to people from the Caribbean and Africa was similar to that of the U.S., but that because so many nations of origin are involved, the problems were couched in different language. Everyone, whether Asian or African, etc. wanted to be spoken of as black. This is different from the U.S. There is a book by a British scholar of race and inequality called "There ain't no Black in the Union Jack." I believe his name is Gilbert. I hope you get to talk to African and Caribbean scholars of race and gender while you are there. Really enjoying your posts. I love London!
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Myron Strong
5/26/2016 06:58:19 pm
I went to Brixton today. Iam writing about it now
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Myron Strong
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