#nonwork

Once the festival ended and interns were on a “winter break,” I had some more free time on my schedule. So, what did Alex do? Alex went to work to just “hang”. Two of my ‘friends’ from the Conference Department were working in the office, answering phones while the regular staff was on vacation. Since they were generally there alone, I went in twice to hang. One of my friends got to hear more about my ‘niche’ lifestyle. Sometimes it’s amazing recounting stories that all of your old friends have heard a billion times, and having someone be surprised by the ending for once.

 The end. Nothing else really happened.

A monumental moment in a primary schooling friendship is when a friend invites you to their house. The same is true for high school, and in college, it’s crying in front of another person. Post-grad, it is inviting someone to your apartment. At least, that’s what I think right now.

The only people who have been in my apartment are my Grandma and my mom. I would invite people over, but I never really finished unpacking or building the IKEA shelf or dining chairs. Why build 4 chairs when you really only need two?

While getting closer to my fellow department interns, we kept talking about getting together and watching a movie. I’m very into making specific plans. Talking about making plans is very different than making plans. I need: date, time, location (including address), estimated hangout length, guesstimate of activities, and background checks. Talking about making plans is a waste of my time. I need something in my calendar or you basically don’t exist to me.

I also don’t like orchestrating plans that will take place at someone else’s home. That seems intrusive. I will only do that for close friends who ask me to. I hosted a game night at a close friend’s place over the summer, and aside from the flooding storm happening outside, it was nice. If someone hosts an event at their place and I don’t feel like I have enough info to satisfy my programming hunger, I just ask a lot of questions. If you don’t know and you want to know, ask.

I was glad that one of the other interns (also a former RA) took the lead, and opened her apartment to us. She asked for movie suggestions and picked up the ones from a rental shop (is this hipster now?) that were available. After group texting for several days*, the time had arrived for our event.

One of the girls attending asked me to give her a ride. No problem with me. Was it out of my way? Yes, but only by about 15 minutes. I wasn’t doing a lot that day, and I love driving around in my car. It gave me an excuse to check out another side of the local university. And I LOVE sharing my car playlists with people! I picked her up outside her dorm and we drove out of the city.

I LOVE my car (“my President is black and my Prius is blue” - Tina Fey, “Real Estate” from Childish Gambino’s Royalty mixtape) but I HATE my GPS. I would rather use Google Maps. However, it is easier to look at my screen than at my phone, so I use my GPS. It just doesn’t tell me what I want to know when I want to know it. I always end up missing turns. GPS! If I need to exit a parkway, DON’T just say “keep right”. THAT’S NOT HELPFUL!

Anyways, we turned too soon and ended up in a different apartment complex. How did we find this out? We went to the correct apartment number, and there was a black family living there. This was not a post-grad apartment. We went back to the car and drove to the apartment complex next door.

Her roommate had baked cookies. I LOVE chocolate chip cookies, so this was already heaven. While my apartment is super bare, her’s was well decorated and fancy. Like, Pinterest-fancy. That still wasn’t super descriptive. I don’t decorate for a reason.

We watched Everybody Wants Some!! From time to time, I willingly indulge in a “bro-film”. It helps that I love baseball, so this was a good pick. I also had read headlines about this film being “accidently gay” and these articles have a point. Watching movies with “friends” (or other people) has always been odd to me. I definitely understand having a community. I left Moonlight wanting to talk to someone else about the film, and thankfully, one of my other friends had already seen it. I still had to drive home, alone, with all of my thoughts. At the same time, viewing a film is still a little solitary. You may hear or see the reactions of others, but you are still sitting there, mostly in silence. I don’t mind seeing films alone for this reason. There is still merit in seeing films with others too.

We talked about the film briefly and then talked about the upcoming festival. Then, the other intern and I left. It only ended up being 3 of us. My GPS is not very helpful in the dark when I have more trouble seeing streets and street signs.

It was a nice evening. It was nice to hangout with interns outside of work, but still in the name of work.

by Pamela

Stereotypes are ingrained in culture and society. Based on both physical and latent qualities, stereotypes represent both the best and worst of the characterizing group. The can be negative- blondes are dumb, or positive- Asians are smart. They are never neutral.  Although they appear at face value to represent patterns of the average of a group, stereotypes reveal more about the group making the inference.

The stereotypes of people of color are perpetuated by the predominant white culture, despite the rising population of non-white citizens. These stereotypes might change with new demographic trends, but for now, the stereotype of the lazy brown person permeates cultural memory. Whether it is a sleeping Mexican in a sombrero yard art, or the omnipresent lazy Welfare queen myth, these stereotypes are strictly associated with people of color. This essay argues that the stereotype is not essential to the afficted group, but that it is a reflection of the pro-work labor economy immortalized by Big America.

White people characterize these groups with laziness, not because they are lazy, but because they do not or cannot work. With such a high priority on hard work and profitable labor, American society devalues any type of unemployment or idleness. And it is not just devaluing, but a detesting of all nonwork. Whether or not they are allowed equal access to labor (they aren’t) is less important than the projection of laziness on an entire group of people. People of color were not stereotyped as lazy because of nonwork. The enslaved African American population single-handedly built the wealth of an entire nation from their labor. They were stereotyped as lazy because the dominant group needed to project negative cultural values on the subordinate group to maintain supremacy. People of color had no access to work and were pigeonholed as lazy. Once their cultural identity was synonymous with laziness, they could not be hired even if there were jobs available. The purposeful stereotype based on white cultural values maintained a societal hierarchy based less on class and more on race. This is unique to American culture because the laziness stereotype paradigm is bolstered by the primacy of capitalism.