San Francisco . . . Mixed Review from Me

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Entry from Rob: Heads up! I live and work in San Francisco. And so has Deanne. This city is definitely a point of destination for people from all over the world. People I meet often either want to go to New York or San Francisco. That's pretty cool.

Of all of the cities in the United States, this city purposely and actively touts itself as inclusive and accepting of all people. It is supposed to be the place where the so-called American Dream can really happen. In many ways, this is so true. We have bicyclists who have a very strong political voice on what happens to our streets. We also have conflicts between cyclists and hikers (I am a hiker) about how our protected green space (known as open space) will be set up--bike friendly or hiker friendly. The San Francisco bay area has a union for janitors and another one for sex workers--strippers in particular. Our minimum wage is over $9 per hour, well over the national minimum standard. With all of these wonderful and great things, you would hope that issues of ethnicity would be pretty manageable, too. Well, in my experience, the bay area gets mixed reviews.

The positives are that, as an interracial couple, we usually have no problems. No strange looks or pointing happens at all. No one yells nasty things to us, which has happened in other parts of the United States. Another positive is that when I moved to Oakland (the city across the San Francisco bay), I was shocked that no one was surprised to hear a Black voice over the phone. I was truly pleased with that alone. I have lived in highly diverse areas where people of all ethnicities lived and played together. The bay area can be (stress the "can") an oasis that transcends the rest of this country and is similar to many European countries. I work at a university that touts social justice and health equity. I work in a department that pushes these agendas. It is an easy place to be open-minded and accepting. It is a great place to be gay, straight, from an ethnic group, a woman or man, and the list goes on and on.

The negatives are that, as an interracial couple, we have had several experiences of blatant discrimination in the form of non-service. There is a theory called "Racial Microaggressions" that asserts that people don't intentionally discriminate, but they do things that are discriminatory. Well, at the Cliff House Restaurant (a huge tourist draw and incredible place to eat), we were one of two couples that needed to be served. It took 10 minutes for a host to even approach us to be seated (while we looked around for one). After being seated next to the server station, not a single one of the three or four servers offered us water or made an effort to serve us. After politely waiting 10 minutes in this empty restaurant, we asked about what was going on. The server told us that someone else was responsible for the table. That someone else passed the buck to another person. And this was in an empty restaurant. We told the host that we wanted a more scenic table and insisted on a server. Another 10 minutes passed and we finally got someone to serve us. So, after about 30 minutes in this empty restaurant, we were reluctantly served. I worry that my food may have had foreign substances in it. But we had the Cliff House experience and never will have it again. I think that this had to do with the reputation that Blacks tip poorly. I happen to tip above the 20% rate, but I think I tipped within the minimum rate on that particular night. Lucky I tipped at all given how I was treated.

There have been several other incidents, but the Cliff House example is exemplar of how San Franciscans may treat you. Their discriminatory practices are insidious and hard to define, but you don't have to be paranoid to interpret what is happening.

I ride the public bus daily. Buses are a daily microcosm of the racial and socioeconomic tensions in the city. You will witness teens harassing adults because the adults speak Spanish or an Asian language, usually Cantonese or Mandarin. You will see bus drivers harass Asians because they don't understand the driver's requests. You will see bus drivers hostily drive through poorer areas, but behave quite friendly in the more affluent areas. As much as I love riding the public bus, I see an ugly side of San Francisco that has a lot to do with limit resources and limited space on the buses, rather than some intransigent racist belief system.

All in all, I love San Francisco. It is a wonderful place to live. But don't be surprised if you are witness to its ugliness, which doesn't take much effort to experience.

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