Nine Eleven Memories
Not the most auspicious day to publish….
I remember September 11, 2001. It was the day after my birthday. I requested both the 10th and the 11th off, because I wanted to stay up late on my birthday and not get up early to go to work in the box office the next morning.
I had fun on my birthday and had a quiet day at home on the 11th. I heard more than one neighbor in my apartment building come home around noon, and I thought nothing of it — I juggled part-time jobs, so I didn’t assume most people work 9 to 5 in an office. It wasn’t until about eight in the evening that I turned on my new computer… and learned the news.
I remember a Black friend saying, to paraphrase, that the United States mistreats people from the Middle East, so of course people from the Middle East will retaliate. You can’t expect to treat people horribly with no consequences.
Nonetheless, I’d never before heard that the USA treats people in other countries terribly — perhaps a sign of not only my ignorance but also white privilege (and yes, someone who’s part Ashkenazi has white privilege). On the other hand, American schools like the one I attended — elementary, junior high, and high school — teach a deceitful version of U. S. history that puts powerful white males on pedestals & erases women’s history and the histories of people of color. U.S. mainstream…