As I was reading Isabel Wilkerson’s brilliant Caste (see my review, here), I was struck by two passages, more than a hundred pages apart.

They both could have been written in the last five years, about now-President Donald Trump.

Please Note: The first passage is about Nazi Germany, particularly Hitler. I am not saying in any way that Trump = Hitler.

Hitler was evil and had a plan.

Trump is an incompetent carnival barker, who relies on instinct of the moment to drive his policies.

That said, the way Trump wormed his way into leadership is a bit like Hitler: Republican leaders didn’t take him seriously, he was good for TV ratings, and they woefully misread how he could galvanize his base.

Hitler had made it to the chancellery in a brokered deal the conservative elites agreed to only because they were convinced they could hold him in check and make use of him for their own political aims. They underestimated his cunning and overestimated his base of support.

[…]

The old guard did not foresee, or chose not to see, that his actual mission was “to exploit the methods of democracy to destroy democracy.”

By the time they recognized their fatal miscalculation, it was too late. Hitler had risen as an outside agitators, a cult figure enamored of the pageantry and rallies with parades of people carrying tourches that an observer said looked like “rivers of fire.” Hitler saw himself as the voice of the Volk, of grievances and fears especially those in the rural districts, as a god-chosen savior running on instinct. He had never held a political office before

The second passage is from a chapter titled “The Insecure Alpha and the Purpose of an Underdog.”

The basic premise of the chapter is that, if you are not truly an Alpha (dictator wanna-be), you have to convince people you are one. And one of the simplest way to do that is find an underdog and turn your abuse on them. Find someone who, for whatever reason, can’t fight back. Faux Alpha.

In India, the Untouchables.

In Nazi Germany, the Jews.

In America, blacks.

You know that you are not seeing a true alpha or, put another way, you have encountered an insecure alpha, if he or she must yell, scream, bully, or attack those beneath them into submission. That individual does not have a loyalty and trust of the pack and endangers the entire group through his or her insecurities, through his or her show of fear and lack of courage.

I really don’t have anything to add to this.

In her extremely well-received and reviewed 2011 non-fiction book The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration Isabel Wilkerson took a look at the great black migration from the Jim Crow South to the north in search of a better life.

Not entirely to their surprise, these southern immigrants found that there was plenty of racism is the North, as well.

In her new book, Caste, Wilkerson takes a closer look at the black vs. whites issues in America – past, present and possibly future.

Writing in a similar tome, Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility has a fairly simple – yet disturbing thesis: All Americans, especially white Americans, are racist. Why? Simply because we are a racisty society and we’ve grown up in it.

Interesting.

But Wilkerson takes it to the next step: She equates racisn with actual hatred – active hatred, vs. the passive injustice of systemic racism.

She equates the 400-year-old chasm between whites and blacks – formerly slaves, now free – as a symptom of a caste system.

By that, she means (I’m greatly simplifying) that whites don’t necessarily hate blacks, it’s just that – in the fabrick of our society – blacks are assumed to be inferior in many ways. It’s not spoken; it’s just the way it is.

She compares and constrasts the American Caste with the centuries-old caste system in India (Brahmins down through the Untouchables [now Dalits]) and the short, terrifying caste that dominated Nazi Germany. This sudden change in mores led to the alleged superiority of Aryan and Nordic peoples, at the expense of the almost sub-human others (Romanians, homosexuals, and – especially – the Jews).

Caste is an extremely well-written book – an almost academic work of non-fiction (roughly 450 pages, including notes).

Its structure is interesting: While very precise and, as mentioned, scholarly, the books has short sections, self-contained, that offers personal insights by the author. These short sections are not integrated into the book flow, but are small, self-contained, all-italic asides where the professor steps out of the classroom as if to say, “I ran across this injustice personally. I was a reporter for…. Can you believe this still happens today, 400 years after th first slaves arrived on the East Coast?”

This is the book I expected White Fragility to be, but each serves it’s purpose.

White Fragility is a more accessible look at (the crappy state of) race relations in America; Caste drills in and shows how hideous this American Caste system is.

For example of the latter, Wilkerson writes of how the Nazis were fascinated with how America has subjugated its blacks, especially purity tests. In at least one southern state, having even one drop of black blood in you made you black. How to enforce that, back before DNA testing, is beside the point. The point was that the (white, of course) powers that be could make that impossible-to-prove determination. The Nazis marveled at how Americans had the cojones to do something so, well, arbitrary and get away with it. And these were the high ranking officials who were building ovens and gas chambers. Reminds one of the Salem witch tests.

Whether you buy into the premise of an American caste system or not, I expect Caste to end up on the Pulitzer and/or National Book Awards short lists. The books is dense but readable, and the subject matter is spot on for 2020, the year of Black Lives Matter.

I can think of only two other non-fiction books about the American black experience that transcend this one: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. That’s some heady company.

We’re all familiar with the term binge-watching: Settling in on the couch and watching a whole season of a favorite TV show or a Will Ferrel movie-marathon. Just killing an afternoon/evening having the flicks wash over you.

But what about binge reading?

Over at Esquire.com they have an article called 15 Extraordinary Books You Can Read in One Sitting, which is sub-titled From the blisteringly contemporary to the classic, the lighthearted to the weighty, here are our favorite one-sitting novels to get lost in.

Sure, there’s something to be said for parceling a doorstopper novel into tidy, respectable chunks, but beyond that project lies another reading experience entirely: the one-sitting novel.

The one-sitting novel isn’t just something you can read in one afternoon—it’s something you should read in one afternoon.

And then they list the 15 titles they’ve selected.

It’s a pretty eclectic group, and — to be honest — I’ve only heard of three of the 15, and read only one (James Baldwin’s wildly unknown Giovanni’s Room – a wonderful read).

Here are some other pretty much one-sitting books well worth reading, based on my own experience:

• Legends of the Fall – Jim Harrison: I read the book and watched the movie years ago. I recently re-watched the movie, and I could not remember how the book and movie endings’ differed. So I read the book; it probably took less time than watching the movie (250 or so pages, but a fast read). Both are well done. It’s a decades-lomg tale revolving around a Montana widower and his sons and their lovers.
• Girl, Interrupted – Susanna Kaysen: After meeting with a psychiatrist she had never seen before, the 18-years-ld Kaysen is whisked away to a psychiatric hospital. It’s a well written memoir, but my favorite part of it is the opening lines: “People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well. I can’t answer the real question. All I can tell them is, it’s easy.”
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: A novel based on the author’s own experience, this story is just what it says – one day in the life of a prisoner in a Soviet Gulag. From getting up through work to going to bed: What a representative day is like in the Soviet prison camp. It’s almost hopeful, in a very de-humanizing way. You have to have hope or you’ll just give up and die.
• The Murphy Stories – Mark Costello: A collection of stories, each stand-alone but acting at the same time as chapters in a novella of sorts. Quirky, and the last chapter (last few graphs) are worth it all. Romy didn’t like it, so there’s a vote against.
• Night – Elie Wiesel: This non-fiction classic tells the story of Wiesels experiences in Nazi Germany, as he was imprisoned in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Chilling, horrifying, yet insightful. He writes that there was no sex drive, and that men and women were separated was not an issue sexually: You lived to survive; you didn’t worry about the normal pleasures. It lays bare the banality of evil.
• Tell Me a Riddle – Tillie Olsen: A collection of short stories, the longest – and best – of which is Tell Me a Riddle. Short story? Novella? Kind of falls between the two, but for my money, one of the best short stories ever written.

Small sampling of short stuff.

Fun to recall/review what I have read over the years.

I recently finished reading White Fragility – Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, the book by Robin DiAngelo that took off in light of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests following the death of George Floyd.

NOTE: This is not a BLM book – it was published two years ago, and was based on an article DiAngelo had published in 2016. In the light of the BLM movement, her book – with its straightforward approach and ease of access – resonated with, especially, whites trying to come to grips with racism (“Am I a racist?” – DiAngelo: “Yes, we all are”).

Before I give my thoughts on the book in general, I want to address some of the criticisms of the book, which seem to mainly land in one of three buckets:

• Not much for black people here.
• Sorta reads like each chapter is an diversity seminar session.
• The Jackie Robinson quip.

Not much for black people here:
Perfectly valid claim, but early in the book (second page of “Author’s Note,” a preface of sorts), the author – a middle-aged white woman – makes clear that this book’s intended audience is white people, mainly US or Western Europe whites:

I am mainly writing to a white audience; when I use the terms usus and we, I am referring to the white collective.

Want a perspective of racism that will give blacks something to chew on? Read a different book.

Sorta reads like each chapter is an diversity seminar session:
Again, valid claim. But the author has spent 28 years as a diversity trainer, so, yeah, her book might be structured a bit like those.

She could have written it differently, but one of the powers of the book is its accessibility – the shortish chapters highlight issues and don’t get bogged down in the weeds. The “throwing everything I know at this subject” approach is a danger when someone had been immersed for so long in a subject matter. Tell they the time, not how to make a watch.

The Jackie Robinson quote:

The story of Jackie Robinson is a classic example of how whiteness obscures racism by rendering whites, white privilege and racist institutions invisible. Robinson is often celebrated as the first African-American to break the color line and play in major-league baseball. While Robinson was certainly an amazing baseball player, this story line depicts him as racially special. A black man who broke the color line himself. The subtext is that Robinson finally had what it took to play with whites, as if no black athlete before him was strong enough to compete at that level. Imagine if instead, the story went something like this: “Jackie Robinson, the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This version makes a critical distinction, because no matter how fantastic a player Robinson was, he simply could not play in the majors if whites – who controlled the institution – did not allow it. If he were to walk onto any field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him.

I’ll admit, I found the way she approached it as somewhat eye-opening.

If the color barrier was still in place when I was in my late teens or early 20s, it would be natural for me – a white dude – to think if I had mad baseball skills then of course I’d get at least a shot in the Majors.

But for black baseball players, mad skills didn’t matter. Pigmentation did.

And it’s not as if Jackie Robinson was the first black to be skilled enough to do well in the Majors – it’s that he was the first to be given permission – by white people – to try. White privilege.

There were surely hundreds of black baseball players who could have made it – Robinson was just the first to be allowed.

It seems obvious that DiAngelo’s spin doesn’t change anything, and it should be obvious that Robinson didn’t “break” the color barrier himself; he was allowed to do so.

Except it’s not obvious to everyone – I’ve never read an account of Robinson’s barrier-breaking that includes the words permission or allowed.

It’s a subtle but telling difference.

My take on the book:
DiAngelo’s premise is that we are all racists – at least white Americans and Western Europeans.

Why? We live it what has been a systematically racist society for quite some time, and one is a product of one’s society. You plant a tomato seed, and you get a tomato plant. They are inextricably linked. And we (whites) are unwilling to own this white privilege when called out on it (fragility). Compelling thesis.

The chapters are a bit like bite-sized seminar snacks, but that’s, to me, the strength: It just touches on the details that need to be touched on, and, as mentioned above, doesn’t go too deep into the weeds and lose the reader.

By offering examples from her seminars, as well as her own experiences, DiAngelo describes on some petty racist behavior that, at first blush, doesn’t seem too racist-y. But that’s through white eyes. Example (author’s misstep): Commenting – in jest – about a black female co-worker’s hair to another black female. Black and white females have some radically different issues with their hair.

Overall, the book – though light on content – did a good job of showing how systemic racism and white privilege/fragility exist in our society.

This is not Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, it’s Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Which is fine.

Quibbles
I did find, especially near the end of the book when the author discussed how to discover and work on our racism, that the book became a little too personal and preachy.

And she never really explains – that I took away – how to stop being racist. She acknowledges that we’ll all continue to be racist in some shape or form, but no good tips on how to minimize/identify such activity. (I have one – if you start a sentence with the caveat, “This may sound racist, but…”, just stop. Ditto for misogynistic, sexist and so on.)

My first/only 35mm film camera was an Olympus OM-1.

This was purchased when I was about 16 years old, and documented our trip to Europe and was the 35mm camera I used as, literately, a professional photographer.

Why Olympus (at the time – 1975ish) over Canon or Nikon? No idea (over Leica – $$$$).

Olympus has bailed from the camera biz – sold to the same Japanese company that snarfed up Sony’s Viao computer division. This includes the digital division of the camera maker (is there still one there???).

End of an era.

From CDC.gov

Today begins the 13th week of my company rotating workers in the office – mostly working from home; always having one person in to collect mail, cover the phones and so on.

Yes, it began the week of March 23, 2020, and it both seems like not that long ago and a million years ago.

As I’ve said earlier, the work from home/social distancing isn’t as hard for me as others: I’m a boring boy in general, and – as a programmer – working on a computer at home is not that much different from working on a computer at work.

Still, there are the little things:

• Having to wear a mask everywhere.
• We don’t go out to eat as much as we should, but when that option is no longer available….
• I feel sorry for the students who missed prom, graduation, graduation parties, sports. I could live without, but for some these events are important – and you only get to, for example, graduate from high school once.
• Missed a couple of events at the Art Institute (of Chicago); El Greco and I can’t recall the second.
• I miss going to art fairs – we usually hit a few a year. Fun to walk, people watch, check out the art and have a beer/lunch. Skipping all that this year – at least in part because the art fairs themselves have been canceled.

I fear that this opening up things that has been going on in Illinois for a couple of weeks – and longer in many other states – may backfire and put us under lockdown again.

I really hope I’m wrong.

But I’m all but certain that, until there is an effective vaccine, things are not going to get back to normal, however you may define that.

From the creator of both the US version of The Office and Parks and Recreation – Greg Daniels – comes Upload, and not-too-far in the future sitcom dealing with the afterlife. In this future, we have (reliable) self-driving cars, 3-D printed meals (only the wealthy can afford real food), and the ability to upload your memories and your, well, essence into the cloud for some future day when you might be able to be downloaded and physically reunited with your loved ones.

So, instead of freezing your body, you can upload yourself to one of many clouds, where you exist much as a character in a video game, where you – as you remember yourself – is your avatar. It’s all virtual, but you can interact with live relatives via VR and so on.

Starring Robbie Amell (who is uploaded) and Andy Allo (his handler at the cloud company), the story is divided between what happens on earth (who is paying for his “storage”? What are the stresses of handling someone who does/doesn’t exist?) and what happens in what is essentially a video game but with your thoughts, memories and communications with those back on earth – and wondering what comes next.

Ah, and there’s a big difference between clouds – the rich, of course, get the best cloud with the best service.

Half comedy, half philosophy, the ten episodes force you to think about what it means to be human, what a “good life” really is, and the control technology has over your life. It even addresses heaven – what if you are a believer who has lost someone but is convinced that when you die, you’ll be reunited? If you upload, have you missed your shot at heaven and that reunion?

There is also a corporate-crime backstory and a bit of an unexpected connection between the main character and his handler. And I still swear that the main character’s fiance is based in Ivanka Trump.

So there’s a lot packed into the roughly 10 hours of the first season.

As he did in Parks and Recreation, Daniels handles tech issues in unique ways, such as new conglomerates (Oscar Meyer Intel), but he really takes it to the n^th degree. It’s a tech-based sitcom, after all. Those tech-based jokes are quick, understated and hilarious (drug store automatically measures you for condoms: “medium”).

On a sad note, the entire first (Amazon Prime) was dropped May 1, 2020 (after what I would expect to be a looong CGI and editing cycle). With the pandemic still raging, when will they even be able to film Season Two (already green-lighted)?

Better than I expected – weird, clever and profane. It also has one of the most diverse casts I’ve ever seen in a regular sitcom (one not focused on queer issues or an ethnic identity – think Fresh Off the Boat or black-ish). Andy Allo (female), who is the cloud company’s handler for the main character (Amell), is the breakout star of this show. Where has she been?

From CDC.gov

This is American, so of course everything is a competition.

So the question is, who is winning (and losing) this health care crisis?

Obviously, the virus itself is kicking everyone’s ass, but what’s the collateral wins and losses to date/to me?

(Yes, I am deliberately making light of a very serious situation. If you can’t occasionally laugh at your troubles…)

Winners

• Zoom: Once a Skype wanna-be, it has emerged – after some security issues – as the go-to video chat for stay at home workers. It’s even become a verb, which is a true sign of success (google it if you don’t believe me).
• Working from home: Depending on your inclinations/politics this could be a Loser, but the technical ability many now have to just fire up their computer and work from home is something that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago for most. Broadband, beefier laptops and – most importantly – the move to the cloud have allowed many workers to do much of what they used to do at work at home in their jammies.
• Reporting: The pandemic, overall, has been bungled big-time by the federal government, but has seen local leaders – governors, in particular – step up and create a plan on the fly. The media has covered both the failures and success with dogged perseverance, and it’s compelling reading.
• Some governors: (see above). And this is not a partisan issue. Democratic governors in CA, NY, IL and MI have shone, but so have Republican governors in OH, MD and MA. And kudos to the Republican governors in particular, because they have to get up there and complain about a Republican president (especially this one); that is easier for a Democrat.
• Amazon: Amazon really stepped up its game for the pandemic, and for many stuck at home, it was a godsend. If you weren’t an Amazon fan before, you might be now. Is this giving Amazon too much power and sway over retail? Fair question, but that’s not the point here. Amazon delivered.
• SNL: While doing skits from home to form a show was hit-and-miss, the winners were great in a way that would not have happened if the “social distancing” wasn’t in effect. Cast members had to stretch their legs and really get creative. It often paid off.
• Seth Meyers: Of all the late night hosts, Meyers bested the others by a long shot. His attic/crawlspace broadcasts, with tiny doors, tiny chairs, wasps and out of control Thorn Birds hit the right notes. Will we be able to stand it for another month or so? We’ll see. Runners-up: Stephen Colbert and, especially, John Oliver. Oliver, in particular, is set up for this: His show is normally just him behind a desk and usually one long story. If he does it at home instead of in a studio really doesn’t matter.

Losers

• Small businesses, especially restaurants: In the last few weeks, my work go-to Thai place shut down, the Indian restaurant next to it turned into a take-out Mexican place, and an interesting Indian place I had wanted to try just evaporated. The chains will remain (big bucks behind them), the the more inventive mom & pop places? Going to be rough.
• President Trump: From the moment he began leading the daily coronavirus briefings, it was clear that this was Trump’s rally alternative, and the briefings were light on pandemic info and heavy on how much the media was blaming the President. Not pretty.
• The Federal Government: (see President Trump, above.) If there is ever a time when the federal government should step in and – at least – set guidelines, a country-wide pandemic would be pretty high up that list. The federal response thus far has been: “states, you handle it.” Watergate chilled a generation on trust in government, the pandemic response (or lack thereof) will have a similar effect. The Federal Plan is no plan, months into the pandemic. Shameful.
• Protesters: Look, I get it – stay at home is a drag, and to some people, a deprivation of “liberty” or “freedom.” Whatever. We’re trying to save lives here. Surely that trumps (sic) the need to sit at a bar. Protesters, look at it this way: The same constitutional amendment that gives you the right to assemble is also the one that gives you the right to free speech (First Amendment). But free speech isn’t limitless – you can’t joke and yell “fire” in a movie theater, for example. Ditto for freedom to assemble – there are limits, and some governors are trying to limit – temporarily – some assembly to keep the pandemic in check. But at the end of all, you do have the right to free speech, so feel free to complain about the stay at home orders. I don’t agree with you, but I will defend your right to rant against this. But again, remember the saving lives part??
• Late night hosts not listed in the Winners list: Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and even Samantha Bee (though she had her moments).

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve upped my phone from an iPhone 4S to the 2020 version of the iPhone SE.

One upgrade that has been around since the iPhone 7, I believe, is wireless charging.

I’ve used it for one day and I am totally sold.

I got an Anker PowerWave changer, and it’s perfect for my use. I wanted something that would lie flat on my nightstand, because that’s the way I’ve always set my phone. Some people like a stand, so they can see a message if it comes in, but thrashing around at night runs the risk of setting that phone airborne.

If I hear a message or want to check the time, I can just lift the phone and it’ll turn on long enough to see what’s up.

Note: This is a slow charger – not a fast charger, but that’s fine: I’m charging overnight, so there is no hurry.

Also, this does not come with a power supply, just a USB cord (some units, especially the fast chargers, come with something to plug into an outlet). I just used the weenie charger that came with the iPhone. Bing bang done.

Now I wish my iPad supported this…

From the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, Amazon – that mall in the sky behemoth – has said they would alter its deliveries to prioritize necessities.

Need medicine – stat; socket set – not so much.

I applaud this.

As a frequent Amazon shopper – and if I wasn’t before I sure would be now – I’ve noticed delivery dates pushed out past the normal Prime delivery windows, and that’s just fine.

At the same time, I’ve been getting deliveries well within the normal Prime windows.

Case in point – my last order was for some extra charging cords for my new iPhone SE 2020 – hardly a necessity. These are extra power cords (just the cord – Lighting to USB).

Ordered May 1 before 9am. Promised delivery by end of day Sunday May 3.

Received 3:30pm Saturday, May 2nd.

Wow. Amazon is really making the most of its moment. Kudos.

On the other hand – I feel that Amazon is blowing a huge opportunity to polish its image and lead the change in income inequality (which is going to be one of the many defining battles moving forward).

To put it simply, Amazon is filthy rich. Yet its workers, protesting for safer working conditions – as well as better pay/benefits – are getting fired for these actions. Especially in the age of COVID-19, and even noting that Amazon does seem to be trying to up their worker-safety marks, terminations for making noises about this seem chickenshit.

To put it simply, Amazon is acting like a modern-day Robber Baron.

With its enormous wealth, Amazon could effort to push some of those huge profits down from management/stockholders to a lot of the people doing the actual work. I’m not dinging logistics or whatever, but at the end of the day, it’s the folks in and around the warehouses that make this Prime magic happen.

Amazon – to paraphrase the First Lady: Be better. Pay and care more – and reap the PR benefits to keep that profitable machine that is Amazon going and growing.

Yeah, pie in the sky liberal claptrap, but I really think Amazon has an opportunity here. Depending on the day, Amazon chief (and visionary) Jeff Bezos is the world’s first or second richest person.

Would falling to third or fourth really be the end of everything? And the pressure he could bring to bear on other large corporations?

Update (later same day) – Tim Bray quits over Amazon firing whistleblowers:

Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned.
— Bray, in his 4/29/2020 blog entry

Bray – co-inventor of XML with an incredible résumé – was a VP earning $1 million+. His last day was May 1, 2020.

This is putting your money where your mouth is, big time. And it sends a loud message, as Bray is very well-known and seems the opposite of a tech jerk.

Good for Bray (whom I’ve followed on his blog for years).