Last year, Transportation Choices Coalition formed Books on the Bus, a book club that allows local transit riders to collectively read and discuss a quarterly book selection. The fall 2012 selection, The Hustle, will be the topic of a panel discussion next Monday evening that will include the book’s author, Doug Merlino, among others:
The Hustle is a memoir by Seattle native Doug Merlino about a 1980s middle school basketball team intentionally formed across race and class lines. Merlino was a member of the team, who, 20 years after its dissolution, decided to locate all of his former teammates. The story is a fascinating exploration of the ways in which race, money, and opportunity shape our lives.
Most Books on the Bus selections will be written by local authors or have subjects relevant to local issues and contexts. For those who joined in on the fall reading period or are simply interested in doing a future Books on the Bus reading, the panel discussion will run from 7pm to 9pm next Monday at Elliott Bay Book Company.
The Hustle is a great profile of attitudes around race in Seattle, where liberal rhetoric does not always jibe with action, and about a few individuals who tried to get beyond. It also points to how well-intentioned, intelligent, and even worldly individuals from the priveleged worlds of the mostly white upper middle class were and remain naive about the lives and struggles of the underclass that many black families inhabit in Seattle and in America.
I consider myself one of those naive white liberals who, while I ride the bus with a very diverse crowd, does not have that kind of diversity in my closest circle of friends, so this book was both welcome and thought-provoking. Hopefully, its exposure of subtle forms of both prejudice and privilege helped to rediuce my subconscious attachments to the former and presumptions of the latter.
I hope many read this. See you on the bus!