Berkeley is well known as a left-wing, liberal community. It is noticeably multicultural, with the University campus dominated by students of Asian background. Only 25% of students at Ben and Dave's school are Caucasian, with African-American and Hispanic making up the majority of the remainder. One evening Dave announced:'Destiny smells like waffles and maple syrup'. I thought he was being philosophical, until he added 'I think she has them for breakfast' and I realized he was talking about a girl in his class.
Only once have I overheard overt racism being expressed and that was when an American woman, incensed by perceived rudeness from her fellow passenger on the bus, told her to go back to Britain. The response from the English woman was 'I have lived here for 35 years' to which the American woman's final retort was 'I will not be spoken to like that, especially from someone with a British accent!'
At a church lunch recently I met a man called Freedom, along with his brother Desire who were originally from Zimbabwe. It being Mardi Gras Sunday, I told Freedom about Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Parade and our conversation turned to the topic of homosexuality. In Zimbabwe to be gay is against the law and punishable by death. What a contrast with Berkeley! One of the after school programs at Ben and Dave's middle school is called 'Gay and Straight Alliance' while our Presbyterian church's notice-sheet openly advocates the rights of gays. At an Episcopalian Church I visited, a man stood up during the service and introduced his husband and I heard only murmurs of approval from the congregation.
It is the homeless one particularly notices in Berkeley. They are young people sitting along Telegraph Avenue, some strumming guitars, a few smoking marijuana. Others are older, their possessions in bags around them, sitting on benches or sheltering at bus-stops. Some talk to themselves and others ask for money. Their signs read 'Hungry', 'Out of work' or 'Need money for cancer treatment'. Peoples' Park is full of them, their sleeping blankets in bundles under the trees. When the recent wet and windy weather hit the streets of Downtown Berkeley, some took shelter under the doorways of shops or offices. I know, because I couldn't find a bank I was looking for and I was sheltering there too. My umbrella was blowing inside out and my hands were becoming numb inside my sodden woollen gloves as I rang Matthew for assistance. The difference between me and the others was that I had somewhere to go at the end of the day. Are there homeless shelters in Berkeley? The answer is yes, but not enough to house all the homeless. Because of Berkeley's relatively mild weather (especially compared with the east coast of the United States) and the fact that Berkeley police don't forcibly move loiterers along, the homeless from many places end up here. The residents of Berkeley are proud to tolerate the unwashed, the mentally ill, the dread locked, the different, but how can they care for them all? No easy answers there.
