Multiply/Divide. Wendy S. Walters

Later, I put the report in my backpack, its pages flat against my spine. At some point, I am not sure when, I grew accustomed to its weight and stopped noticing I was carrying it around.

Chicago Radio

      IN 2005 MORE THAN a million black people lived in Chicago, Illinois, making it a good place to win friends and stop being a stranger.

      Other predominantly black cities like St. Louis, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan, experienced frequent sightings of UFOs.

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      Listening to music underwater affects one’s hearing in curious ways. No visible change can be seen in the shape of the eardrum, but many report being able to hear whispers from people they have never met for days after coming to the surface. Investigations into this phenomenon have been labeled crackpot science and hoodoo though amongst astrologers and criminologists interest grows.

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CALLER:	My name is Mimi, and I would like to dedicate a song for my dad.
DJ:	Go ahead.
CALLER:	Just start talking?
DJ:	Just start talking.
CALLER:	His name is Earl. The last time I saw him he was working as an electrician for Delta Airlines at O’Hare in 1995.
	Dad, you can come home now, and please don’t worry too much about the past. This song has no words because I don’t want to make any more promises.
	I still love you.

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      Geography and racial inequality work against even the most nutritionally conscious moms.

      A study of 266 black women in Detroit found that those who shopped in supermarkets ate more servings of fruits and vegetables per day than those who shopped at independent neighborhood grocery stores.

      One area of Detroit that was 97% African American had no chain supermarkets and twelve independent grocery stores.

      A nearby mixed-race area had ten independent groceries and seven chain supermarkets.

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      New data about the connections between nutrition and violence is changing the way people think about prison. Oxford University scientist Bernard Gesch tracked 231 maximum-security inmates for twelve months, recording violent or antisocial incidents. He gave one group a vitamin supplement, while a control group got a placebo. Over the next several months he saw a 35% drop in fighting amongst the group receiving vitamin supplements.¹

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CALLER:	I would like you to play a song for my fiancé. I don’t know which one, can you pick it?
DJ:	Sure thing. Hey, how did he propose?
CALLER:	It was pretty plain.
DJ:	Oh yeah? What did he do?
CALLER:	He said, I want you to be my wife. Do you want to be my wife?
DJ:	That doesn’t sound plain to me. When are you getting married?
CALLER:	We don’t know. He’s overseas right now.
DJ:	Fighting?
CALLER:	Yeah.

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      Rather than suffer the indignities of slavery, hundreds of thousands of Africans chose to drown while crossing the Atlantic. Some DJs claim no one drowned at all and those who leapt from deck landed below the ocean on a subcontinent called Drexciya.²

      It can be hard to get a message through when people are underwater.

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      Police officer Martin Farr described the evacuation of a Chicago public high school after the storm passed:

      A woman, she was about the age of my mother, maybe fifty years or so, was standing at a podium in front of a large classroom. She spoke to her students in a stern tone of voice about personal responsibility. When I turned around to note their reaction, I realized the back half of the building had been blown away by the storm. Torn strips of corrugated steel hung over a gaping hole in which oily, brown water was rushing in. Soon it was up to our chests. The teacher seemed unmoved by the flood, but she was overcome with disappointment in her students’ inability to call out their presence at attendance.

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      A glowing red object flew over a residential area of New Haven, Connecticut, in November 1953, causing lights on both sides of the object’s path to dim and then come back on when it went out of sight. This signified the beginning of an increase in New Haven’s black population.

      In 1950, African Americans comprised only 12.25% of New Haven’s population. By 2000, New Haven was 43.5% White and 37.4% African American.³

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      A plane filled with prisoners being transported to a federal facility in Wyoming took off from Chicago’s O’Hare airport in April. Ascending into low clouds over Lake Michigan, it disappeared from radar. The plane showed up several hours later near the Florida Keys, heading toward a tropical storm gathering force off the western coast of Cuba. For about thirty minutes Miami controllers tried to reestablish radio contact. When the plane vanished for the final time, all the controllers involved in the search fell asleep and were unable to be wakened for one hour.

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DJ:	Who am I talking to?
CALLER:	This is James.
DJ:	James, what can I do for you tonight?
CALLER:	Could you play a song for my baby’s mother? We’re not getting along too good, and I just want her to know that I love her.
DJ:	What’s going on?
CALLER:	Well, ever since our daughter was born she has been afraid to leave her with me because I am visually impaired.
DJ:	Did she know you were visually impaired when you, you know, conceived your daughter?
CALLER:	Yes.
DJ:	And now she has an issue with that?
CALLER:	Yes, well—
DJ:	Do you think that she really has an issue with that or is she mad about something else?
CALLER:	Uh—
DJ:	Is there anything else that might be worrying her?
CALLER:	I just want her to know that I plan on being a really good dad and that I love her, I love them both a lot.
DJ:	I’m sorry you are having such a hard time, James, and I hope the two of you can work it out.
CALLER:	Can you play a song for me?
DJ:	Not right now.

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      This account comes from a former member of the Chicago Police Department, now working as a security guard for a local supermarket chain.