so when she tells me that her community holds the views I described above, I have to accept that.
Uh, why? I hate to sound rude (I'm really not trying to be, promise!), but what kind of position did this woman get hired for that she's apparently the Pope of PoC's and speaks for them?
I don't care if she's the department chair of Diversity, it doesn't make her individual voice the end all be all of anything, and honestly, if her views are something that can't hold water logically, I'm not sure why you wouldn't seek second opinions by seeking out other writings, other viewpoints.
Who said you have to accept what she says?
I guess I'm a little lost as to what it is that gives her such authority to speak for an entire community, and when you say "she was sent out by her community" - was she elected, was there a community group that specifically picked her? I guess I'm just wondering what the circumstances are here and what community you're referring to.
Because the thing is? We're discussing PoC's in such broad terms as to be really sort of useless to both ourselves and anyone else. It might help to be more specific here. What community, specifically, sent this woman? Because even if she speaks for her specific community (let's suppose for a moment she speaks for, perhaps, the Native American community), she has no authority to speak for, say, the Latino, Hispanic, Black, Asian, or any other community and you have no obligation to listen to her opinions on those.
Maybe there is a community of, say, Native Americans who want these things - who very stringently believe in them. There are other communities, other groups and subgroups and people who believe completely different.
I don't feel as a writer or a person looking to be a positive anti-racist ally that there's any obligation to believe any one single person, or to accept any one single person as the representative of their race or community - no matter what they say. I promise you, whatever demographic she belongs to, I could point you to someone of that same demographic who would disagree with her.
If Obama himself doesn't speak for all black people, then this one woman who works at this one university certainly can't say she speaks for anyone but herself and maybe a small subgroup.
Again, I go back to the woman thing. What if there was a radical, separatist lesbian who was the chair of Women's Studies? Would you feel that a man was obliged to believe that everything that department chair said was the opinion of all women just because he didn't know many others?
knowing that one such as my colleague's exists makes me very wary of all the other ones that I don't know much about--which practically be definition, is nearly all of them out there.
I see sort of a problem in this, because it seems a little unfair, both to you and to EVERY OTHER PoC out there that this woman is mediating your entire interaction with several different communities, especially your interaction as a writer. That's what I think listening/reading more widely would help there. Because you could bypass one unhelpful person and get down to the heart of the matter.
Why is that, because you don't know all the others, that your views of what that "community" wants or doesn't want, what would be beneficial or hurtful to that community should be decided by the one person you're coming into contact with?
And why should this be where you stop, when you could go out and talk to other people of that community, other people of other communities, and read their books and listen to their voices and, at the very least, verify whether this woman is right or wrong in her assertion that this is how other people feel.
I hope you don't feel like I'm deliberately trying to be argumentative and difficult, because you're obviously expressing to me what it is that's giving you difficulties and why - and that you believe you're doing the best you can given the information you're getting. And I'm asking questions, because if nothing else, it helps me to see what other things pertaining to this topic are cropping up for other people.
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Date: 2009-02-20 02:18 am (UTC)Uh, why? I hate to sound rude (I'm really not trying to be, promise!), but what kind of position did this woman get hired for that she's apparently the Pope of PoC's and speaks for them?
I don't care if she's the department chair of Diversity, it doesn't make her individual voice the end all be all of anything, and honestly, if her views are something that can't hold water logically, I'm not sure why you wouldn't seek second opinions by seeking out other writings, other viewpoints.
Who said you have to accept what she says?
I guess I'm a little lost as to what it is that gives her such authority to speak for an entire community, and when you say "she was sent out by her community" - was she elected, was there a community group that specifically picked her? I guess I'm just wondering what the circumstances are here and what community you're referring to.
Because the thing is? We're discussing PoC's in such broad terms as to be really sort of useless to both ourselves and anyone else. It might help to be more specific here. What community, specifically, sent this woman? Because even if she speaks for her specific community (let's suppose for a moment she speaks for, perhaps, the Native American community), she has no authority to speak for, say, the Latino, Hispanic, Black, Asian, or any other community and you have no obligation to listen to her opinions on those.
Maybe there is a community of, say, Native Americans who want these things - who very stringently believe in them. There are other communities, other groups and subgroups and people who believe completely different.
I don't feel as a writer or a person looking to be a positive anti-racist ally that there's any obligation to believe any one single person, or to accept any one single person as the representative of their race or community - no matter what they say. I promise you, whatever demographic she belongs to, I could point you to someone of that same demographic who would disagree with her.
If Obama himself doesn't speak for all black people, then this one woman who works at this one university certainly can't say she speaks for anyone but herself and maybe a small subgroup.
Again, I go back to the woman thing. What if there was a radical, separatist lesbian who was the chair of Women's Studies? Would you feel that a man was obliged to believe that everything that department chair said was the opinion of all women just because he didn't know many others?
knowing that one such as my colleague's exists makes me very wary of all the other ones that I don't know much about--which practically be definition, is nearly all of them out there.
I see sort of a problem in this, because it seems a little unfair, both to you and to EVERY OTHER PoC out there that this woman is mediating your entire interaction with several different communities, especially your interaction as a writer. That's what I think listening/reading more widely would help there. Because you could bypass one unhelpful person and get down to the heart of the matter.
Why is that, because you don't know all the others, that your views of what that "community" wants or doesn't want, what would be beneficial or hurtful to that community should be decided by the one person you're coming into contact with?
And why should this be where you stop, when you could go out and talk to other people of that community, other people of other communities, and read their books and listen to their voices and, at the very least, verify whether this woman is right or wrong in her assertion that this is how other people feel.
I hope you don't feel like I'm deliberately trying to be argumentative and difficult, because you're obviously expressing to me what it is that's giving you difficulties and why - and that you believe you're doing the best you can given the information you're getting. And I'm asking questions, because if nothing else, it helps me to see what other things pertaining to this topic are cropping up for other people.