It really is something to be in Canada reading about the early volleys of what is likely to be a hair-raising election season with Trump already embarked on a violent, authoritarian strategy with his militia in Portland and now Seattle. Along with his statement that he isn’t willing to say he’ll accept the results of the November election, it’s not hard to imagine where this might be headed.
In today’s Globe and Mail, which I read every morning in paper form, there is an OpEd by one of their national affairs columnists, Gary Mason, entitled “The U.S. is burning – and Trump is the gleeful arsonist-in-chief.” His first paragraphs reads “It’s impossible to watch what is taking place south of the border and not wonder if we are witnessing the historic and irrevocable fracturing of a once-great nation – a tectonic rupture from which it is incapable of recovering.
The United States is a country racked by racial inequality and bigotry, dealing with a plague made worse by the gross mismanagement of the federal government, while being led by a dangerous huckster who believes he can benefit from the mayhem and destruction we are witnessing.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
So, it’s understandable that I’ve gotten very excited about plants and plant identification since I’ve been here in Vernon. When human-kind are underwhelming me, and as my dad said “We’ve had 200 years to teach Americans about the constitution but we appear to have failed,” it makes sense to turn to plants because while some are invasive, it’s hard to get upset about that given that their lack of higher level thinking skills probably don’t allow them to be otherwise.
I have never been an app person as I’ve found very little useful in app-land but I heard about one called “Picture This” that I have started using and was even willing to pay for ($29.95/year) after my 7-day free trial. I take a photo of a plant with it, and almost immediately, it tells me what it is, a bit about its family, the origin of its name, where it grows, how to take care of it should I want to plant it in my garden, and what is probably wrong with it if it appears sick. I’ve been having so much fun ID’ing every plant I come across that I thought I’d share a few with you here in my blog.
I think the one that wins the name game is the Hairy Vetch. Yes, I know, it must be a Jewish plant and should be called the Kvetch but it really is the Hairy Vetch. It is an invasive, toxic weed with ornamental flowers (rather “fetching” – haha – purple ones as you can see in the photo). It is toxic to cattle and horses so I’m not clear why it’s grown as a cover crop, or to provide forage or fodder for animals. Apparently it’s called “hairy” because the stem is covered in hair but I know not where the term “vetch” comes from except that the genus is Vetches and it’s in the legume, pea, bean family. So next time someone accuses you of something awful, just say “Well you’re a hairy vetch!” and leave it at that.
Another plant that is very cool is the Smoketree or Smoke Bush. These strange trees come in various colors from pink to red and they really do look like smoke. I’ve never seen them before in California and, according to “Picture This,” they are native to Southern Europe and Central China.
Another great name is the Spanish Dagger, a species of Yucca. Its prevalence around here just shows how desert like the Okanagan can be as this is a plant that originates in the Southeast of the US. Its name derives from the very hard, long narrow leaves which are like Spanish bayonets and can easily injure anyone in contact. The flowers are very showy and last a long time.
I could go on and on about all the gorgeous plants I’m learning about here but I’ll stop with three, especially since I can end my plant foray with a memory of the whodunnit game of Clue by answering “The Hairy Vetch behind the Smoke Tree with the Spanish Dagger.” And, no, this didn’t occur to me in advance. I really did just pick these three plants and then realize they sounded like something out of that game.
Ok, so back to something relating to humans. As much as I love plants, I can’t become one so I figure I should continue my efforts to become a better human. And even though my country is burning and is run by a “the world’s most dangerous man” (I’m trying to find the stomach to read the Mary Trump book), I think I mentioned in a previous installment that I was starting an online workshop for white people on how to become more anti-racist.
The second session was last night and we ended it talking about the question “How does racism hurt white people?” I found it to be a really interesting question with a whole bunch of good answers, many of which I hadn’t thought about before. My first thought had to do with how bias, bigotry, and racism reduces connection between people. Since I think that the most important thing in life, in the end, may be connecting to others, less connection hurts us all.
In addition, less diversity is boring. I don’t have a very racially diverse life when I’m back in California and this is largely due to how divided our society is by race and class. Vernon, where I am now, is a very white place and this makes it way less interesting. While the US is approximately 14% black, Canada has only 3.5 % black people and here in BC, it’s 1%. Canada counts its “Visible Minorities” and in BC, this group makes up 30% of the population and is largely Asian, mostly Chinese, South Asian, Filipino, Iranian and then the Aboriginal population, while not “visible,” makes up another 6% of British Columbians. So, there is diversity but not the kind Californians are used to, i.e black and Latinx. However, in 2018, Canada resettled more refugees than any other country (28,000 compared to 23,000 in the US and with 1/10 of the population so the rate per capita is more than 10x). Good for them! At least some countries still have a conscience.
Beyond the separation that racism causes and the greater stimulation and learning that could come from having a more diverse group of people in my life, racism costs us white people in so many other ways. There’s the awful feeling that we humans, and Americans in particular, just aren’t very impressive and aren’t living up to values of decency and equality. Right now, it’s not hard to feel completely ashamed to be both American and human, between our white supremacist federal government and climate change. We are part of a system that we, personally benefit from in some ways but didn’t choose to be part of. It was foist upon us by the history of our country and, while some of us may try to change it, we are still stuck living in it. As one commentator wrote rather eloquently, “white anti-racism requires accepting a morally compromised identity one has not chosen.”
Another negative is discomfort. One of the women in my small-group mentioned her 20-something children bringing home a black friend to have dinner with her the other night and her worrying about saying something that could be perceived as racist. Feeling anxious all the time about how one comes across is definitely a negative and while I’m willing, and working on, improving my awareness and my language, it’s not fun to realize that I am starting from a place of “internalized whiteness” and need to get beyond this before I can really be an ally to those fighting racism and other forms of bias.
Finally, while “white guilt” is definitely a thing, I personally don’t spend a lot of time feeling guilty. What I do feel when I watch a movie like I Am Not Your Negro or 13th, which was one of our assignments for this week, is both fury and sadness. As a mother, I cannot imagine what it would be like if my son were incarcerated and his life ruined for some trumped up “crime” like drug possession. Seeing the legions of young black men behind bars in 13th and realizing the direct line from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration just made me sick – to witness the complete waste of those lives. My son will never have to worry about being targeted for the color of his skin. As James Baldwin says at the end of I Am Not Your Negro, it’s a very sad thing when white people need to use their “whiteness” in order to feel good about themselves as it is a very superficial, even invented, thing to feel superior about. What deficiency is it in their character that makes this approach necessary? This is a fair question.