WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.880 align:middle line:84%
And now, I'm going
to drop you in,

00:00:01.880 --> 00:00:05.120 align:middle line:84%
in the moment in that narrative
when I'm returning to the US

00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:06.980 align:middle line:84%
and landing in
Providence, in the summer.

00:00:06.980 --> 00:00:09.560 align:middle line:90%


00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:12.560 align:middle line:84%
"That was the summer I returned
to the country of guns,

00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:13.730 align:middle line:90%
the land of guns.

00:00:13.730 --> 00:00:15.470 align:middle line:84%
I have my issues
with Japan, but there

00:00:15.470 --> 00:00:18.920 align:middle line:84%
are no guns in Japan, so few
that you can call it none.

00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:21.410 align:middle line:84%
It's rare for even the
police to have guns.

00:00:21.410 --> 00:00:23.390 align:middle line:84%
The police don't need
guns because the people

00:00:23.390 --> 00:00:24.380 align:middle line:90%
don't have guns.

00:00:24.380 --> 00:00:26.960 align:middle line:84%
The US has more guns
than it has people.

00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:29.480 align:middle line:84%
I cat-sat for a friend
whose home was not

00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:31.760 align:middle line:84%
in the midst of, but
not terribly far from,

00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:33.890 align:middle line:84%
some amount of
regular gun violence.

00:00:33.890 --> 00:00:36.410 align:middle line:84%
Every night, I traced
the police-blotter feed

00:00:36.410 --> 00:00:38.510 align:middle line:84%
on the crime-tracking
website, one

00:00:38.510 --> 00:00:41.630 align:middle line:84%
that tells you just what kind
of crimes are taking place

00:00:41.630 --> 00:00:43.440 align:middle line:90%
and where.

00:00:43.440 --> 00:00:45.390 align:middle line:84%
There's an option
to receive, quote,

00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:48.660 align:middle line:84%
'personalized alerts sent
directly to your inbox,' end

00:00:48.660 --> 00:00:49.290 align:middle line:90%
quote.

00:00:49.290 --> 00:00:52.170 align:middle line:84%
Crime reports personalized
just for you--

00:00:52.170 --> 00:00:53.786 align:middle line:90%
really?

00:00:53.786 --> 00:00:57.120 align:middle line:84%
I had arrived in the summer
in the full, lush abundance

00:00:57.120 --> 00:00:59.440 align:middle line:84%
of flora that is
summer in Providence.

00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:01.120 align:middle line:90%
It was beautiful.

00:01:01.120 --> 00:01:04.110 align:middle line:84%
I read about Roger Williams,
the founder of Providence,

00:01:04.110 --> 00:01:06.750 align:middle line:84%
about his story of
fleeing Boston to arrive

00:01:06.750 --> 00:01:08.490 align:middle line:90%
in this natural haven.

00:01:08.490 --> 00:01:11.190 align:middle line:84%
And it wasn't hard
to see the allure.

00:01:11.190 --> 00:01:13.780 align:middle line:84%
According to the story, though,
when he had first arrived,

00:01:13.780 --> 00:01:14.893 align:middle line:90%
it was dead of winter.

00:01:14.893 --> 00:01:16.560 align:middle line:84%
He would not have
survived if he had not

00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:19.210 align:middle line:84%
been taken in by the local
residents-- in this case,

00:01:19.210 --> 00:01:21.340 align:middle line:90%
the Narragansett people.

00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:22.300 align:middle line:90%
They were kind.

00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:23.440 align:middle line:90%
He was grateful.

00:01:23.440 --> 00:01:24.970 align:middle line:90%
He learned their language.

00:01:24.970 --> 00:01:28.630 align:middle line:84%
He wrote this book, A Key
Into the Language of America.

00:01:28.630 --> 00:01:30.835 align:middle line:84%
Rosmarie Waldrop wrote
a book of her own,

00:01:30.835 --> 00:01:35.210 align:middle line:84%
her own engagement with this
book and this geography.

00:01:35.210 --> 00:01:39.680 align:middle line:84%
I found it difficult, unsettling
to attempt to normalize

00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:41.840 align:middle line:90%
a new existence here.

00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:45.710 align:middle line:84%
There is an inextricable
strangeness to having my actual

00:01:45.710 --> 00:01:48.860 align:middle line:84%
feet standing and walking
upon the birthplace of settler

00:01:48.860 --> 00:01:52.580 align:middle line:84%
colonialism, to move through
buildings whose opulence

00:01:52.580 --> 00:01:55.640 align:middle line:84%
and wealth are tied to the
New England slave trade,

00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:59.540 align:middle line:84%
to step into an elevator with
signage referring to, quote,

00:01:59.540 --> 00:02:03.140 align:middle line:84%
'the state of Rhode Island and
Providence plantations,' end

00:02:03.140 --> 00:02:03.710 align:middle line:90%
quote.

00:02:03.710 --> 00:02:07.720 align:middle line:84%
This terminology was
dropped only in 2020.

00:02:07.720 --> 00:02:11.980 align:middle line:84%
In 2017, a few weeks before the
beginning of the fall semester,

00:02:11.980 --> 00:02:14.950 align:middle line:84%
the Pokanoket Tribe had
set up an encampment

00:02:14.950 --> 00:02:18.190 align:middle line:84%
on a contested plot of
land, demanding the return

00:02:18.190 --> 00:02:20.200 align:middle line:90%
of their ancestral lands.

00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:24.130 align:middle line:84%
The plot of land in question,
375 acres in Bristol

00:02:24.130 --> 00:02:27.520 align:middle line:84%
that had been donated to
Brown University in the 1950s,

00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:31.870 align:middle line:84%
includes Mount Hope, a major
site of Metacom's Rebellion,

00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:35.560 align:middle line:84%
more commonly known
as King Philip's War.

00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:39.340 align:middle line:84%
Concurrent with Brown
University's 2017 convocation

00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:42.610 align:middle line:84%
ceremony, the Pokanoket
Tribe held a protest

00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:45.940 align:middle line:84%
and demonstration to bring
awareness about the encampment

00:02:45.940 --> 00:02:47.830 align:middle line:90%
and pressure the university.

00:02:47.830 --> 00:02:51.220 align:middle line:84%
Incoming students processed
through the hallowed gates

00:02:51.220 --> 00:02:56.110 align:middle line:84%
of the university, serenaded
by a mix of Scottish bagpipes

00:02:56.110 --> 00:02:58.840 align:middle line:84%
and Native protest
singing and dancing.

00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:01.830 align:middle line:84%
They were asking
for their land back.

00:03:01.830 --> 00:03:03.930 align:middle line:84%
I made a friend in
another department,

00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:07.080 align:middle line:84%
white, male, gay,
and so millennial.

00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:08.580 align:middle line:90%
His phone rang.

00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:12.580 align:middle line:84%
It better be someone over
40, he said as he picked up.

00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:15.060 align:middle line:84%
I mentioned something
about land acknowledgments.

00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:16.620 align:middle line:90%
Why do we not do that here?

00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:19.320 align:middle line:84%
He said flippantly or
dismissively, I'm not sure.

00:03:19.320 --> 00:03:20.580 align:middle line:90%
Might as well give it back.

00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:22.440 align:middle line:90%
Yeah, give it back.

00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:24.810 align:middle line:84%
I read "Decolonization
is not a Metaphor,"

00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:27.900 align:middle line:84%
by Eve Tuck and K.
Wayne Yang, who is also

00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:29.700 align:middle line:84%
the author of A
Third University Is

00:03:29.700 --> 00:03:34.320 align:middle line:84%
Possible, published under a
pseudonym, la paperson, as in,

00:03:34.320 --> 00:03:36.510 align:middle line:84%
Paper Son, the
Immigrant Response

00:03:36.510 --> 00:03:39.370 align:middle line:90%
to the Chinese Exclusion Act.

00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:43.000 align:middle line:84%
What is the difference between
rhetoric, metaphor, poem,

00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:44.740 align:middle line:90%
performance, action?

00:03:44.740 --> 00:03:47.890 align:middle line:90%
What am I doing here?

00:03:47.890 --> 00:03:49.540 align:middle line:90%
So I'm new.

00:03:49.540 --> 00:03:51.700 align:middle line:90%
Being new is always tricky.

00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:53.920 align:middle line:84%
I remember when I
was new in Tokyo,

00:03:53.920 --> 00:03:56.230 align:middle line:84%
and joined the
Canadian guys playing

00:03:56.230 --> 00:03:59.200 align:middle line:84%
street hockey in the park
on Sunday afternoons.

00:03:59.200 --> 00:04:00.190 align:middle line:90%
They let me play.

00:04:00.190 --> 00:04:01.420 align:middle line:90%
They let anyone play.

00:04:01.420 --> 00:04:04.120 align:middle line:84%
But the only other women
there were Japanese women

00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:06.550 align:middle line:90%
trying to get a Canadian guy.

00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:08.620 align:middle line:84%
When the hockey was
over, they'd change

00:04:08.620 --> 00:04:12.040 align:middle line:84%
into their cute outfits for
the food and drinks afterwards.

00:04:12.040 --> 00:04:14.260 align:middle line:84%
I was the only woman
who didn't change out

00:04:14.260 --> 00:04:16.750 align:middle line:90%
of my stinky hockey clothes.

00:04:16.750 --> 00:04:19.720 align:middle line:84%
I was the only woman who
had come for the hockey.

00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:21.610 align:middle line:84%
There were rules
that preceded me,

00:04:21.610 --> 00:04:23.860 align:middle line:84%
that minimized playing
time for women who

00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:25.480 align:middle line:90%
all claimed they didn't mind.

00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:26.590 align:middle line:90%
Really?

00:04:26.590 --> 00:04:30.760 align:middle line:84%
I was new, so I held my tongue
for a while, until I couldn't.

00:04:30.760 --> 00:04:33.010 align:middle line:90%
I demanded more playing time.

00:04:33.010 --> 00:04:35.050 align:middle line:90%
The women got more playing time.

00:04:35.050 --> 00:04:37.360 align:middle line:84%
I suppose some of them
got what they were after,

00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:38.600 align:middle line:90%
a Canadian man.

00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:41.090 align:middle line:84%
Some got better
at playing hockey.

00:04:41.090 --> 00:04:42.830 align:middle line:90%
That was 2002.

00:04:42.830 --> 00:04:45.290 align:middle line:90%
This was fall of 2017.

00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:46.680 align:middle line:90%
I was starting a new job.

00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:51.590 align:middle line:84%
I was back in US America, cis,
queer, married mom of two.

00:04:51.590 --> 00:04:54.080 align:middle line:84%
I initially left my
family behind in Tokyo,

00:04:54.080 --> 00:04:55.520 align:middle line:90%
so I was living alone.

00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:57.890 align:middle line:84%
After years of
living in geographies

00:04:57.890 --> 00:05:01.220 align:middle line:84%
with no Thanksgiving, I had
just relocated to the birthplace

00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:02.660 align:middle line:90%
of settler colonialism.

00:05:02.660 --> 00:05:06.650 align:middle line:84%
Real turkeys roamed the streets,
almost getting hit by cars.

00:05:06.650 --> 00:05:09.170 align:middle line:84%
Did they know the history
of their ancestors,

00:05:09.170 --> 00:05:12.800 align:middle line:84%
of their kin trapped in some
turkey factory in Minnesota?

00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:15.740 align:middle line:84%
Was I about to get absorbed
into someone else's Thanksgiving

00:05:15.740 --> 00:05:16.280 align:middle line:90%
meal?

00:05:16.280 --> 00:05:19.130 align:middle line:84%
Kind people invited me to
join their Thanksgivings,

00:05:19.130 --> 00:05:22.250 align:middle line:84%
and I politely told
them I had other plans.

00:05:22.250 --> 00:05:24.630 align:middle line:90%
I needed another plan.

00:05:24.630 --> 00:05:27.920 align:middle line:84%
So for that
Thanksgiving of 2017,

00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:32.500 align:middle line:84%
I fasted, rode the bus all
day, and wrote this book."

00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:33.000 align:middle line:90%