Chocolate Shake

January 23rd, 2008Blog2 comments

So about a year and a half ago I did a staged reading of “Cowboy” in Chicago. The audience was large and extremely diverse: About a hundred black, white, Asian people of ages ranging from twentysomethings to elderlies.

I thought this was pretty great. The jackpot for a writer is for his/her work to reach a diverse audience. So I asked the audience in the Q&A, “Why are you so diverse?”

Someone said that Chicago is, by nature, a very diverse city. A wide spectrum. Okay, okay, that was good. Moved on.

Afterwards, a young black lady came up to me and said, “Don’t believe what that woman told you — Chicago is the most racist, segregated city there is.”

I wondered about this. And riding the train north and south, walking around and mentally polling the people in the vicinity, I felt that she was right. Something was seething in the background. You could feel it. It isn’t like L.A. where people are segregated by — for all intents and purposes — insurmountable distances (traffic). It isn’t like NYC where people are segregated by address but are still forced to come face-to-face on the train and in public spaces. Chicago has clearly delineated boundaries. And no one likes it, but there it is.

Case study: A story about Weiner Circle from Showtime’s This American Life.

I’m a pretty huge fan of TAL — love the radio show. I saw this clip and immediately bought the series off of iTunes.

What I got out of the clip was this: Give people permission to let their true feelings out about race and hate, and they will. And it’ll be nasty and ugly. Is it a necessary thing? Yes. It will come out one way or another. Is it a good thing? Questionable.

Don’t get me wrong: Chicago is a great city. But like any great city, Chicago has wounds.

And also, okay, hot dogs are great. But I like mine wrapped in bacon. Not with a fuckin’ salad on top. But I will say this: You guys got pizza right.