Godspeed Studs

A Chicago institution, Studs Terkel passed away last week at the age of 96. He was a long time Chicago guy (moved to the city at age 8), and his presence will be missed immensely.

But what role does Studs Terkel play on a blog for an organization such as this?

My first experience with Studs Terkel was at a Day of Remembrance event back...oh, a while back, I can't remember the year exactly. Day of Remembrance is a day in the Japanese American community where we look back on the signing of Executive Order 9066 and the experiences that came from it, usually on the weekend closest to February 19, when EO9066 was issued. At my young age I wondered "well, wait a second. This is a Japanese American thing. What does that old white guy have to do with any of this?"

What I learned that day was that Studs was a man who got it.

He challenged the notion that World War II was the "good war," and was a time of great national unity. He was a great listener, and actually listened to people who were affected by internment, and others who experienced extreme hardships during the war. He cared about the working class, and chose to look at the 20th century United States from a wider range of economic and racial spectra, as opposed to the prevailing narrative that was often written by the white and wealthy.

He truly believed in progressive causes, was a long time workers' rights advocate, opponent of excessive government surveillance (he himself was blacklisted during the McCarthy era), and more than just listening to those who often went unheard, he actually took their stories and gave them a voice. From the Tribune:

It would be wrong to say Terkel was colorblind. He was deeply curious, deeply intrigued, about all the colors of the rainbow, whether in skin tones or political stripes or philosophical shadings. His only bias was on behalf of the powerless, the oppressed and the unheard.

As a Chicagoan, as an Asian American, as a progressive, and as a human being, I will miss Studs Terkel. I'm just sorry that I wasn't more appreciative of his work while he was around. He will be missed, maybe not by all, but almost certainly by those to whom he listened.