What's In A Name... Post-K
BK/AK or is it pre-K/post-K?
The question is how do we relate life's tales from before and after Katrina? Blacks in New Orleans tend to favor the former while whites overwhelmingly use the latter. I personally use and love the pre and post version specifically because the pre-K shouts out that we really knew nothing before Katrina.
And why does this matter? The label really doesn't, but the usage does.
Katrina graduated us into a new world where we're being schooled on virtually every aspect of life whether it be re-understanding love of family to definitions of home or to how America will or won't take care of her own when they are in need.
In order to even convey a simple story, one of these terms must be applied because relating something as base as going to a grocery store and running into an issue with a clerk has a whole psychological sea change about it pre or post-K... the level of hilarity, frustration, idiocy - everything about the story is different and dependent on whether it took place before or after Katrina.
For example take the case of the issue with a grocery store clerk who doesn't understand why a pound of grapes is listed at 88 cents, yet when she rings it up it comes out to be $1.25 - the following are the variables one simply can eliminate from the story by saying pre-K:
• How close to the store closing times of 8pm was it when this took place.
• There are only three grocery stores open.
• There could be a brown-out about to happen and the registers are about to go down.
• Are there any other grapes in the city other than these?
• There are 70 people in line behind you.
• These are the first grapes you've seen in two months.
... and this doesn't even take into account your mental state while buying these grapes...
• Did you just find out that your insurance company has rejected your flood claim.
• Did some contractor run one of the ex-traffic lights and now four-way stop intersections and hit your car.
• Did your brother get arrested last night for not wearing a seat belt.
• Do you have seven people living in your shotgun house and one of them is a cranky old mother-in-law who's been demanding grapes.
... and that's just off the top of my head.
So yes, whether or not you use pre-K/post-K or BK/AK, it's damn necessary and the need for this new descriptor alone crystalizes the monumental event that has taken place in this city.
The question is how do we relate life's tales from before and after Katrina? Blacks in New Orleans tend to favor the former while whites overwhelmingly use the latter. I personally use and love the pre and post version specifically because the pre-K shouts out that we really knew nothing before Katrina.
And why does this matter? The label really doesn't, but the usage does.
Katrina graduated us into a new world where we're being schooled on virtually every aspect of life whether it be re-understanding love of family to definitions of home or to how America will or won't take care of her own when they are in need.
In order to even convey a simple story, one of these terms must be applied because relating something as base as going to a grocery store and running into an issue with a clerk has a whole psychological sea change about it pre or post-K... the level of hilarity, frustration, idiocy - everything about the story is different and dependent on whether it took place before or after Katrina.
For example take the case of the issue with a grocery store clerk who doesn't understand why a pound of grapes is listed at 88 cents, yet when she rings it up it comes out to be $1.25 - the following are the variables one simply can eliminate from the story by saying pre-K:
• How close to the store closing times of 8pm was it when this took place.
• There are only three grocery stores open.
• There could be a brown-out about to happen and the registers are about to go down.
• Are there any other grapes in the city other than these?
• There are 70 people in line behind you.
• These are the first grapes you've seen in two months.
... and this doesn't even take into account your mental state while buying these grapes...
• Did you just find out that your insurance company has rejected your flood claim.
• Did some contractor run one of the ex-traffic lights and now four-way stop intersections and hit your car.
• Did your brother get arrested last night for not wearing a seat belt.
• Do you have seven people living in your shotgun house and one of them is a cranky old mother-in-law who's been demanding grapes.
... and that's just off the top of my head.
So yes, whether or not you use pre-K/post-K or BK/AK, it's damn necessary and the need for this new descriptor alone crystalizes the monumental event that has taken place in this city.
posted by TAG at 1:26 PM
2 Comments:
Hey, I've also got a blog that has some Katrina stuff on it. Check it out: mishto.blogspot.com
Troy! I followed you daily from Baton Rouge immediately post-K, via my computer hooked up to an extension cord from a neighbor's house. Last I checked you were heading out west for a break. I am glad I checked back with you today. These thoughts about K changing everything, are so clear and true. Thanks for sharing this. Elise
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