Blacks have created a lot of stuff that we use all the time and have no idea that they did it. Mostly because back in the day Black people didn’t get kudos for things. It wasn’t like “Thanks, Obadiah. If you hadn’t created this thing we’d all be falling to our deaths!”
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| I want his facial hair. |
Alexander Miles is known for creating the elevator door that opened and closed. Research says that a few other people did it before him but he got the patent and blah blah blah. Let the man have his shine! If he hadn’t done this all our asses would have great legs from taking the stairs or plummeting to our deaths like that deaf kid in that one episode of Good Times.
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| That was a depressing ass episode. |
He worked as a barber and he married a White woman which was either a death sentence or like winning the lottery. In 1887 he got his patent for the elevator doors and magically people stopped being all racist and were happy they weren’t falling down elevator shafts or clinging to the sides as they rode up and down. Or not.
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| "Catch me, Lord! Catch me!" |
Before Miles did this people were having to open and close doors manually. When is the last time you rode an elevator? No one talks to each other and they just stare forward. No one is gonna volunteer to open and shut those doors. Or if someone did it was a Black dude who was all like “Y’all some racist assholes!” So next time you’re waiting at an elevator for the door to open thank Alexander Miles for the fact it opens at all.
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| And for inspiring the awesome game Elevator Action. |
I always talk to people in lifts (elevators). I'm annoying like that. In the building I work in, they're always full of lawyers and accountants and I figure I'm either going to get one of my students an internship placement, or I'm going to get a date. In the building I live in, there's an entire floor full of priests, and while I don't talk to them (even thought they're very nice), I do chat to everyone else because all of my neighbours are immigrants and the smell of food I sometimes catch makes me want to be friends with them so they will cook for me. Feed me, exotic elevator buddies!
ReplyDeleteI like this series. One of my social awakenings (by which I mean a 'duh' moment) occured when I was reading some encyclopedia or other as a small child (I was a nerdy child with a very boring life) and something in an article I read suddenly made me realise that Black people are just people too! In my head up to that point, Black people were either victims of colonialism/slavery and survivors of colonialism/slavery, because that was the dominant narrative in school, on TV, etc. It hadn't dawned on me that Black people were people, I just saw 'them' in relation to famine, cotton, struggles for equal rights. Then something clicked and I thought, wait, they're normal kids like me and normal adults like my parents (for a fucked up value of normal, I mean...) and they do shit like watch Star Trek and have opinions on the news, and like to wear nice clothes and...
I led such a narrow life, eh?
This series is cool to me because it's about normal Americans who invented stuff and happened to be Black. Maybe someone who is as shsltered as I was will come across this and it will make them think about Black people in a different way. Plus it's just plain interesting, I like inventor stories.
I would talk to people in elevators at work which made people nervous. When I worked in the hospital I had to do it just so i didn't have to listen to the life saving machines constant beeping. At my last job the doors were mirrored and people would just stare at themselves. I looked everywhere else and talked.
ReplyDeleteIf someone reads this and has an awakening about Black people or anyone in general that would be awesome as hell and something for me to pat myself on the back about. Which I can totally do. Because I have long ass arms.
I wouldn't say you led a narrow life. My view of the world is considered by some people who call themselves my friends. If I say I don't want to do something or go somewhere I am told that I should just to experience something new. I wish I knew the name of what to call people like me who just don't give a fuck and want to live their lives without experiencing everything this awful planet has to offer.
Um, I think they're called 'humans'. I get that all the time too. I think with my real friends they just worry that I'm missing out but I can make that decision for myself, thanks. I hate being pressured into things when I am clear about not wanting to do something. Why do people think they know better than you do about what you want to do? I appreciate the concern from my close friends but please, no means no. And I hate when people get shocked about the things I haven't done or have no interest in doing. The latest one was about how I've never been to a major sports stadium in Dublin, except for work events. So what? 'You'll never experience anything like it!'. I don't care.
ReplyDeleteI had a very annoying conversation yesterday with a friend of a friend. He was talking about his experiences using different drugs, and asked me about my experiences. I said I'd never tried any. He proceeded to be shocked and appalled and decided to give me a lesson on recreational drug use. Before, I would have just sat there annoyed, but these days I tell people what I think and so I pointed out that I was 35 years old and had heard all of this already, had had plenty of opportunity to try some of the things he was talking about but had no interest. He's probably decided all kinds of things about me on the basis of my choice on that subject, but I think that says way more about his narrow-mindedness than my decision says about me. Twat.
Okay, I'm ranting. But one last thing. People always tell me 'oh you should try this, it's such a great experience to do whatever', but you know what? Most experiences are not all they're cracked up to be. The idea that you should do X before you die is a valid one, like you said on your podcast, do shit, eat a vegetable! But I find when a lot of people talk about amazing experiences they have had, they're talking shit because they feel they need to say that such and such was an amazing experience for them because it's expected. 'I saw the sun set over the African desert, it was amazing'. These are often people who wouldn't appreciate an amazing sunset over their own city, which is just as bloody amazing as an African one. The other thing you hear is people who think they're too cool to be impressed by what everyone expects you to be impressed by 'I've seen the Mona Lisa, it's shit'. Well, that's just a reflection of your deliberate ignorance than any reflection on the shitness of the Mona Lisa. (For the record, I've seen it several times and don't quite get it..!). I feel I very rarely hear people's GENUINE, INDEPENDENT opinion of their fabulous experiences and I wonder if this is because people don't think for themselves, or am I just being cynical and snotty.
I think everyone should be open to experience but what makes us ourselves is choosing what to be open to. Just because my choices are not typical or popular or mainstream or whatever doesn't mean they're not valid. My choices not to do things are just as ok as my choices to do things.
[/rant]. Wow, that really seems to have touched a sore spot, eh? lol
I've mentioned before that the worst thing for drug proponents are the drug proponents themselves. I had an ex that loved ecstasy. Wanted me to try it. I was like "No." Its the same reason I refuse to try things like mushrooms and such. There are parts of me that never need to get out. Doors that don't need to be unlocked. When someone hears that and continues...I have nothing left to say to them.
ReplyDeleteAs for sunsets and such, they end quickly. But they do look great. When I was working from midnight to 10am I made sure to look at the moon every night. At 3am when the sky is clear its amazing and I only started because of a quote from Brandon Lee during an interview for The Crow.
"Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times. And a very small number really.
"Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times. And a very small number really."
I don't like that there is this line between being called stubborn and being confident in what you want/need. If i don't want to do something, just accept it and move on. I know that I am missing out on things but I just don't care.
That's a great quote, and completely true.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind if I tell someone that I've no interest in something and they tell me why *they* like it, that's fine, what I hate is when they tell me why I *should* like it.
So you do feel you're missing out but you don't care? Ok. That's just the way it is.