Facing America

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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/10/02/minority/
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Mon, 02 Oct 2006 03:07:33 +0000
thenewg
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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/10/02/minority/

“You’re a minority”

I was sitting in my advisor’s office watching pale streams of North Carolina sunshine beam

through his office window when I heard his words.

“Say what now?” I asked, wondering about the meaning of the sudden change in our

conversation’s topic from funding to identity.

“Don’t worry,” he reinforced, “you’re a minority.”

“What’s a minority?” I asked, intruiged.

“Don’t worry,” he merely repeated, “you’re a minority.”

“Wait a minute…” I interjected, always one to engage in a philisophical

conversation of logic, especially about myself, “I didn’t see two signs above the

immigration lines in the airport with one sign saying ‘minorities’ and the other

‘everybody else’.”

“Don’t worry,” he just repeated, “you’re a minority.”

Around this time I’ve lost my interest in debate and become slightly annoyed at his

insistence that I was a ‘minority’. From what I could sense, it seemed more like some

imposed concept of self-perception from on high (exactly how high I don’t know), or some

state of being or existence from which I could not escape. And unless I was mistaken, I did not

believe that a Croatian from across the Atlantic who had attained his Ph D in physics and

immigrated to the U.S. had suddenly had a loss of mental capability in explaining what a

minority.

“Alright…” I sighed, eager to end an abruptly pointless conversation,

“I’m a minority.” I didn’t really care either way what he was trying to

communicate.

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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/10/02/discrimination/
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Mon, 02 Oct 2006 02:14:14 +0000
thenewg
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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/10/02/discrimination/

Can a black student experience discrimination at a black university (AKA: HBCU)?

You bet your black a** I can!

Now its time to retaliate! But first, a few points…

I am not a terrorist

I don’t have any weapons of mass destruction

I don’t know where Osama is

I’m not trying to stay black and die

I’m not beggin’ Dubya for forty acres and a mule

I don’t care if Jesus was white, black or transparent…

I just do research in physics.

Follow along with the adventures of a U.S. residing post 9/11 foreign born physics student as he

matriculates through the halls of one of North Carolina’s HBCU’s, NCCU.

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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/27/admissions/
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Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:31:35 +0000
thenewg
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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/27/admissions/

My arrival in the US almost resulted in my immediate return to the

Bahamas.

It was August, 2002, and I was on the campus of NCCU with my advisor,

who was fighting valiantly to get me properly enrolled. It turned out that my paper work was not

filled out properly, so that I could not enroll for the current semester.

My advisor,

obviously tired of wielding the sword of fairness and diplomacy in my favor, left me with

instructions of what to do so that he could take care of other matters.

“What were you? A fisherman?” she asked

incredulously as she perused my file before her. In reality I was a tour guide for several years,

but the occupation ‘fisherman’ rolled off the pen easier after filling out an encyclopedia’s worth

of paper work.

“Yes I used to catch….”

“A fisherman?” her fellow secretary cut in before I had a chance to

finish. “You mean a fisherman stopped fishing to come all the way here to get a degree in physics?”

They laughed at some

apparent humor inherent in the remark. In one way, growing up watching

television, I could half-grasp the humor in such an unlikely event taking place. While pondering

this, my advisor re-appeared, escorting me to my next check-point of humiliation.

“Pay

special attention to this one.” the first secretary commented as we turned to leave. “He’s from the

Bahamas and you know some of the terrorists that attacked recently came through the Caribbean

because the US immigration was lax with respect to them.”

My anger rose at the comment. And

exactly what neutralization was her statement supposed to make? I felt a sudden testosterone-driven

urge to back hand slap her through her holy, stained, plate-glass administrative window. Of course

I was raised not to hit women. Also, upon closer inspection, I realized she was having a bad day.

She had her tampon tucked behind her ear, and was frantically searching for her number two

pencil.

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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/27/coming-to-america/
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Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:39:34 +0000
thenewg
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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/27/coming-to-america/

My family believes that the incidents that led to my eventual arrival in

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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/24/electromagnetic-gravitation/

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Sun, 24 Sep 2006 04:14:44 +0000
thenewg
research
https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/24/electromagnetic-gravitation/

This page chronicles the research that has emerged from at least hundreds of ideas that Jerry

and I have pondered over the years in physics.

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR05/Even

t/28518

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR05/Even

t/29745

https://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005APS..MAR

.R1197M

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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/23/a-slave-and-his-master/
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Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:40:10 +0000
thenewg
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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/23/a-slave-and-his-master/

“You are nothing but a slave!” Jerry boomed, almost commanding.

I darted him an annoyed, frustrated glance before gazing at the beautiful mountains surrounding

Salt Lake City in an attempt to calm my nerves. We were driving home to his house together after

another day at his company that he co-founded. As I stared at the grey capped peaks, I wondered why

we were having this conversation for the fifth time…

“Don’t worry,” he added calmy, “you’ll get used to

it…”

But that’s what bothered me. I wasn’t getting used to it (Jerry’s

reference that as a college student, I was essentially a slave and had to do what I was told).

After three years of my matriculation throught he hallowed halls of my beloved HBCU (Historically

Black College or University) NCCU, I felt that something was missing. The petty jealousies, office

politics, and heartless inconsiderate atmosphere of academia was stiffling me, and it was slowly

draing my reserve. What the hell am I supposed to get used too? Am I supposed to be strong in the

face of constant mediocrity fumed by the arrogant aristocracy of the university? So many of the

faculty persevered only in their Shakespearian drama of being wholly actors, the campus their stage

to strive to attract nothing but meanigless recognition, all the while personally signifying

nothing.

“I went through the same thing” he began again, when he sensed that my temper had

cooled back down to the reception of his reason. “Once you get that piece of paper, a lot of

doors will open up for you, and you wont have to worry about anything.”

“That’s what bothers me…” I replied. “Why should I have to be

forced to wait to think? If it weren’t for my curiosity, I probably wouldn’t have the

interest to pursue physics at all. I can’t afford to have the one thing that drives me killed

in the face of everything else I have to endure…”

I was referring to some theoretical research regarding some probes NASA had launched out into

space that were showing an unexplained deceleration in their velocities. After two years of

wrangling, Jerry and I presented a hypothesis that seemed reasonable at a few conferences. I

managed to attarct a small sphere of interest outside of the university. However, my concepts were

absorbed by certain professors of my physics department about as efficiently as drops of water

skating on the surface of a hot frying pan.

“You’re not supposed to think when your in college!” he remarked. “No

one does! It’s just one of those things.” This was yet another of his un-retractable

dogmas that seemed to emanate from the years of experience he has had since he earned his

degree.

“I don’t know man…” I wavered. “This shit is wearing me

out.”

“Well that’s what summers are for. You can recharge and face the next semester

refreshed.”

“Hmph…” was all I could get out. All I really felt at that moment was that I

had to find a solution to satisfy this tired restlesness that I often had so much trouble

articulating…and I was not about to simply sit and do nothing.

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https://cyberlog.wordpress.com/2006/09/16/hello-world/
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Sat, 16 Sep 2006 21:36:20 +0000
thenewg
Blogroll

What does a white Mormon from Utah and a black Catholic from Grand Bahama have in common?

A passion for theoretical physics.

This blog is about all of the adventures we have had and are continuing to have since we met

about four years ago.

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