Insulting Compliments

Today I had the chance to speak with the Faculty Senate Steering Committee about an idea near and dear to my heart: Information Literacy.  We wanted to talk to them about supporting our idea of having information literacy be stranded throughout the core curriculum.  I had a presentation ready, but didn't have that much time, so I went with a brief description, shared a handout and opened the floor for questions.  After about 5 minutes, I left feeling as if I had done well and that we had received the support of this group.

Then someone else who was in that meeting stopped by to chat as it was near quitting time, and he told me that the committee had really liked me and that they thought I was very eloquent.  I was glad they liked me and yes, glad I had come across as eloquent, but it wasn't the word that bothered me - it was how it was put.  The implication was that the committee was surprised that I was eloquent.  I spoke with someone who has been there longer than myself, and they let me know that it happens all the time.  They were surprised that, as a black woman, I could speak eloquently and intelligently about a topic. 

I was saddened by this.  I've had it happen before, the implied "for a black person" that is silently added to a sentence.  Not everyone hears it, but once you do, you never forget it and it becomes so clear when it continues to happen.  A true compliment would have been if they had said that they were impressed by my knowledge of the topic and my ability to explain it to them.  Am I being overly sensitive?  I don't think I am this time.  There is a pattern and a way of thinking and acting that I've seen before.  You never forget it, though you wish you could.

I hope this post is eloquent enough.  You know, for a black person.

February Wrap Up: Learning to Double Knit

So, since it is officially the 10th of March, I'm past due for a wrap up of February.  It was both an interesting and boring month (I know, shouldn't be possible, but it is!).  Here are the highlights.

Dean Search: We got the chance to interview 2 of the 3 candidates for our Dean position.  I'm continuing to learn a lot about the campus dynamics at my work place.  I'm also learning that though I had hoped it would be different here, there is still this level of unfairness, even corruption, that runs within academia.  Even with the Sunshine Law in Florida, I can't help but feel that things about this search were kept hidden from us.  I think I even know the reason, though I don't agree with it.  I'm saddened by this and managed to remind myself just how much I have grown weary of dealing with the political side of my position.

Man Search:  Ha Ha!  Okay, I had to label it this way, but really, there has been no change.  Again I tried to chat with someone from Match. Again they simply stopped communicating.  This time, they contacted me again a month later but acted as if we had never spoken before.  Oh well, the quality of men on the site is pretty low (or at least, the ones in the Miami area!).  My subscription runs out soon so I'll be on my own again.  That hasn't worked well for me in the past, but its not like I have any other options.

Knitting: Despite opening my ETSY shop, I have made no sales.  I'm not surprised by this, though.  I'm still just really happy to have opened my shop and to be knitting.  I took on my first double knitting challenge and combined it with a challenge to create a zebra print hat.  I'm happy to say that I succeeded.  It took forever!  Okay, it seemed that way, but it does take a long time to double knit anything of size, and I made the hat a little too big.  But it turned out okay for my first try.  I need to work on my technique since my purl stitch is a little loser on "wrong" side.  but the pattern turned out great and I can now say I created my first truly reversible knit hat!

You can see the zebra pattern here.

Front view

Another view

Opposite side (reverse)

zebra pattern on reverse side.