For our English project during this unit, we wrote a listener lyric, which is a story that takes place from the perspective of the listener. The benefit of writing it from the perspective of your audience is that it’s easier for them to engage with the story, and have empathy for the character and the situation. A technique that’s super helpful with this type of storytelling is the choice of pronoun. In a listener lyric, using the word “you” is what brings the audience into the story and makes it told from their perspective.
Listener Lyric – Alex Beattie
Wherever you go,
the eyes stalk you
You open the restaurant doors. Pairs of eyes wander over in your direction.
When you order my drink, and wander over to the other side of the restaurant,
You are not surprised to discover that the eyes have not left your side.
You wait for your drink and rush out the door,; trying to escape from your followers.
You found safety in the expansiveness of the outdoors, and
the unknown of where you could be.
It seems as though your follower had given up,
Walking in defeat to his car. He had not
Found you.
Walking across the highway to my home, you find yourself lost in thought.
Why must this always happen to you? Why are you the victim of
such primal instincts?
HEY!
The feeling of eyes watching you washes over you all over again.
You’re brought to reality as soon as the car pulls up next to you.
Hey, how about I take you home?
We can have some fun. I’ll drive you wherever you want to go.
You say no, timidly.
Why are you being so rude? Get in my car.
Out of the building nearby, a woman runs out.
Get the hell away from her, or I’ll call the cops, you creep!
Although he may have left, the memory
remains.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Alex Beattie
Q: Would you classify most racism as microaggressions, or systematic?
A: Most racism is more systematic, because nowadays the racism that happened in the past, people are trying to be not racist but it’s internalized. I don’t feel it as much here, but I can still feel it sometimes. There still are microaggressions in places like Texas, like when someone told me to speak English.
Q: What do you think about race in politics?
A: Obviously race in politics matters, Alabama just voted their first black governor. We’ve never had a woman president. It’s a lot harder for marginalized groups to get into office. We also just had our first black president There is a lot of discrimination.
Q: How have you experienced racism in your day to day life?
A: I was brought up in Texas, and whenever i visit sometimes in restaurants or in my moms workplace, people will treat us different. AT olive garden, the waiter was being interactive with the white family next to us. He walked over to me and my mom, and started being rude and pretentious. He got really upset, and I thought he was just having a bad day but my mom pointed out that he was talking to the other family perfectly fine. In my mom’s workplace, we were talking in our native language, and a client told us to “talk in our language, haha”. He tried to disguise it as a joke, but it obviously wasn’t.
Q: Do you ever call people white as an insult?
A: Only when people call me Indian as an insult.
Q: What do you think about people using it as an insult?
A: I think it’s a little stupid. Using race an insult is bad, liek it might be funny but it’s a really dumb way to insult someone when you have a lot of other words you can use when you are upset.
Q: What do you associate with white people?
A: You can’t really fit all of them into one category. There isn’t a certain type of white people. Sure there might be racists, but I don’t associate anything them, other than like “they can’t eat spicy food.” Nothing bad.
Q: Do you ever feel like your history is looked over when people talk to you (for example being insensitive towards your race or religion).
A: Not actually. People make jokes about my race, but everyone makes jokes about others race. No one is being left out. It’s not racist if you’re making jokes about everyone.
Q: What did you do in the face of racism?
A: We ignored the guy at my mom’s work and just kept speaking in our language. We didn’t tip the waiter because of how rude he was. Me and my mom don’t pay attention to how others act. We try to not let it affect us.
Q: How much of an effect does your race have on your life, and your future?
A: I feel like I’m the worst race to ask that. The stereotype is that Indians are smart, so I might have it easier in terms of getting a job, but I’m also a woman. It won’t affect my future that much if I stay here, unless I move to the south. I don’t think nowadays it’s as big of a deal.
Q: How do you think our community in Mountain View handles race?
A: I think we handle it pretty well. I’ve never really seen anyone been racist. On the off chance they do, there’s a lot of push back. That one girl who said the n word got kicked out of school. We put a lot of effort into being unprejudiced.
Q: How do other communities compare to Mountain View?
A: I think California in general is pretty good at handling race issues. Other states aren’t going to be as good. There’s not much people can do, because its so ubiquitous.
Q: Do you feel safe walking by yourself?
A: During the daytime, I feel safe enough to walk through a crowded area. A generally populated area like a big street is fine. At night, even if my house is a block away I need my friends to walk me home.
Q: So you said, “safe enough”.
A: Safe enough that I can walk around. When I have other people with me I feel safe, but never alone. A lot of the times during the day I’ve had people whistle and honk at me. There was one incident where I was walking in a public area near the highway, and this white van was going the same direction I was and stalking me. I walked into the dentists office, and they waited outside for a little bit and then they turned around. That freaked me out. I thought what could’ve happened if I kept walking? Because I was walking towards a more rural road.
I was sitting in Starbucks, and this guy kept looking at me. I have this gut feeling I’ve developed because I’m a tiny brown person. I texted my boyfriend, and he was staring at me still. So I left the Starbucks because I was creeped out. I was walking up El Camino, and the same guy from Starbucks is coming up behind me kind of slow. I thought it was a coincidence. I kept walking, and I saw his car by the sidewalk. He starts talking to me, and he was asking me if I wanted a ride home. He kept on commenting on my appearance. He was probably on something. A woman stood up for me and threatened to call the police. That’s what it took for him to leave.
(separate occurrence) I was talking to a friend and he made a lot of sexual comments about me. He referred to them as my “assets.” It got the point where it was annoying. He was talking about my boobs constantly, and I know he was trying to compliment me but that was the opposite of what you should do. It’s not just this one friend, a bunch of guys have done that before.
Q: Does sexual harassment and your experience with creeps affect how you dress and act?
A: It does not affect how I dress, because I think I should be allowed to dress however I want. If someone wants to kidnap me, how I dress isn’t going to deter them. I don’t act very different either, I’m not a suggestive person. I don’t talk to random guys. I’m not even that hot. They’re just creeps, and I’m 17. Also, they are all ugly.
Q: In a book called citizen, there is a term called double consciousness, where people have to act a certain way to be socially acceptable, that isn’t themselves. Do you find yourself changing how you normally act because of your race, gender or sexuality?
A: I think I act a lot more white than my parents would like me to. I act American. I was brought up in a super Indian environment, so that’s not what you’d normally expect. People would think it’s weird if you talk with an Indian accent. Acting more white just makes you more socially acceptable. My friend in elementary school, no one liked her because of her accent. But now, she moved away and got rid of the accent and she is now super popular. I change how I act, but it’s not a big deal to me.
I always didn’t like my own culture. I was never super proud to be Indian. Maybe that was because of how people act towards Indians. It’s social pressure, and also my own attitude towards my culture and my race. I don’t want to act super Indian because people think it’s weird.
I feel stuck in the middle between American and Indian. I’m pretty adaptable, when I’m in India, my accent transfers instantly. People liek to talk to me more when I fit in with them.
Q: What was the push back when you came out to your parents.
A: My mom thought I was lying, and it was fake. They both took it as a joke at first. They thought I was convincing myself to be cool at school or something, that’s not really the case. My mom was yelling at me for never being able to have kids. I thought I was gay. My mom was more emotional about it. My dad didn’t care. My mom got excited when I got a boyfriend, and got even more excited when he was white.
Q: Why did your mom like that your boyfriend was white?
A: In India, if you’re dark its a bad thing. You won’t get married if you’re dark. Presents in India are skin bleach, so that you can lighten your skin. I think that’s a bad thing. That’s just what the culture is. I have that advantage towards a lot of Indians in general because I’m pretty light skinned. Asian culture in general is obsessed with lighter skin.