This past Thursday, I attended a guest speech session entitled “Challenging Prejudice” by Quay Hanna. Hanna is the author of Bus America: Revelation of a Redneck (full bio on http://quayhanna.com/about/).
I knew Hanna was an American, but I was not aware until he introduced himself THAT HE WAS FROM LANCASTER, PA (okay, he said Strasburg but close enough right?).
Hanna talked about his racially ignorant childhood, redneck-y adolescence, “reverse midlife crisis,” struggles for job-hunting and how a string of bus rides changed his life forever.
His take-home message were simple:
1) Do something nice for someone someday – Hanna said this was something an old lady said to him when she gave him batteries for his Walkman. Speaking out against prejudice and racism in his own community is what he believes to be “something nice.”
2) Think about why you have certain people AND TALK TO THEM – He talked about the power of language in maintaining hierarchy and keeping groups apart. Dehumanization and use of derogatory slurs rob humanity away from people.
3) Be a bus rider – On a bus, everyone is equal. There are no first-class cabins. “All seats are equally filthy and there is nowhere to hide.” You might make a friend or two. Who knows?
Not only that he is from Middle-of-nowhere, Pennsylvania, he did somehow remind me of Penn State’s Professor Sam Richards: his friendly manner, the Quay Club (which is like the high school version of the SOC119 discussion group), his passion for fighting stereotypes and building rapport.
It was refreshing to have someone talk to me in American accent in a while! Every time he used a typically American (Pennsylvanian?) slang, I would go “yes!” in my head.
P.S. For the duration of the 3.5-hour speaker session, light refreshments and beverages including wine were served, to which I’ve somewhat gotten used to, but I was weirded out by a young man who was visibly intoxicated. Everyone else seemed to behave normally but this man. Not that he did anything disruptive but he was barely walking straight and smelled like a waddling bottle of wine while he ranted how Hanna’s speech doesn’t make any sense at all to him.
Location: London, UK