Here are a couple of quotes by Mica Pollock from Colormute, Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School
"Indeed, race talk about any 'group' in isolation always risked blaming 'problems' on that group alone, forgetting the various other players involved in creating orders that were racial." p.212
"People connected to U.S. schools often do not say things 'about race' very loudly, out of fear--a fear that is partly exaggerated and partly very important. It is regularly unclear when talking about people racially makes things better and when doing so makes things worse--particularly because our race talk so often places blame for 'problems' reductively on isolated 'races,' or reveals assumptions that racial inequality is either natural or someone else's problem. the solution is thus not that we simply start talking together more about race, but rather that we talk about it more skillfully. We can begin to do so, I think, by talking together with critical consciousness about race talk itself." p.214
She advocates "talking about how we talk about race" rather than simply talking about race. Metapragmatics. Talking about race can feel dangerous for all those involved, though - both those who have had traumatic experiences with racism and with talk about race. It isn't always done right.
I think these quotes really highlight how problematic talking about race can be.
1 comment:
There is a great Yogi Berra quote: "In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice, there is." Let's get from the theory to the practice. The guys you are reading say not talking about race makes the problem worse. I bet that's true. I just finished a class on poetry (mostly by white men) and Hamlet. I did not talk about race, and I have a very diverse class (LaGuardia Community College is nothing if not diverse). According to these guys, in what way should I have talked about race? In what way do I talk about talking about race in my class? Do I just draw attention to the fact that most of the poets I chose to discuss are white and move on? Ask the students how they feel about this? Should I bring poems about race that I don't care for into the discussion, even though my instinct is that it is better to stick with teaching poetry I actually like? and how much time should I have spent on race? And when I have done all this isn't someone going to point out that my silence on sexuality, gender, class and religion has exacerbated those problems too? I taught Hamlet for six straight weeks and still feel like I didn't get to point out everything I wanted to point out -- the time to talk about talking about race has to come from somewhere and I am loathe to take it from a discussion of Hamlet.
I am not trying to give you a hard time. I really don't know the answer.
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