Names (White Privilege)

[Mia Kalish]

In critical theory, for which my Department of Education is <world?> famous,
the unnamed category is the referent against which all others are compared.
So when you Name the category, then you create a situation with inhibits the
better-worse comparison. 

I don't have time today to collect the really good references, because I
have too much to do, but perhaps later. 

There is a complex and rich body of literature on the politics of being
white. There is, for example, an interesting piece that discusses the
"whiteness" in a conceptual battle between the Japanese and the Chinese. 

Whiteness is political, it is about privilege, it is about expectation,
comparison, rates of pay, writing skills, literacy, fluency, who gets
listened to. The selections Andre sent yesterday really open up some of the
issues around whiteness, but doesn't cover them all. Whiteness has to be
seen through the eyes of people who are "not white". Gloria Anzaldúa writes
extensively on the construction of the Mestizaje; Devon Mihesuah and Linda
Tuhiwai Smith write about research conducted by white people in Indigenous
communities and the damage that has been done. Mihesuah in some of her
edited books, and also people like Vine Deloria, Jr., and Daniel Wildcat
write over and over about how white people restrict the developments of an
Indigenous canon. The rule is that if there are no Indigenous references,
you have to use something else that has been published. Since most "white"
writing is considered outsider writing, and Indigenous people are very
unhappy at having been misrepresented and having their spiritual ceremonies
appropriated - by white people. 

Perhaps you should look up some of these writers, and read what they have to
say. You could also look at some of the critical theorists. Sandy Grande
(Quecha) is a Red pedagogist; read what she has to say. Read almost anything
by DeLoria, Jr. Better yet, get yourself a copy of Genocide of the Mind, and
read what the people have to say. 

I think if you do this, then the application of the term "white" will move
from a simple labeling to a complex discussional area the encompasses issues
of power, privilege, gate-keeping, suppression, and colonization.  

I would like to say before ending, Annie, that my comments are meant kindly.
I have written a lot, some of it very briefly, and I am extremely busy
today, so I apologize in advance if anything sounds abrupt or critical. 

Best always, 
Mia

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of annie ross
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 8:35 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] Names (White Privilege)


please stop labeling people 'white', what does it mean? anyway?,  or
'priveledged', all westerners are 'priveledged', relatively speaking on a
global scale,  or 'unaware'.  not true that all 'whites' are p and u.  and
awareness is certainly relative.  an aware person, arguably, does not waste
time compartmentalizing others into categories in order to dismiss their
value.

Pulllleeeeeeeez ( a word for my linguist brothers and sisters) try to not
label, when labeling de-humanizes, no... i should say, de-spiritualizes
others. 
human-made classifications muddy the clear stream.
we have so much work to do.
and people who can be labeled 'white' and 'priveledged' and 'unaware' have
done good work and do matter in the grand scheme of things.

thank you for the favor.

a


On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:35:02 -0600 ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU wrote:
> This is a wondrous event, is it not? 
> 
> Here on the Indigenous Languages and Technologies list, we are actually
> talking about how and why bad things have happened to Ñdn people, Ñdn
> languages and Ñdn cultures and why white people seem to be totally and
> blithely unaware (or in serious denial) that they had anything to do with
> it.	
> 
> One link came through Richard's post	. . . 
> 
> One of the experiments I did in psychology presented a text on place names
> to people who had Masters and PhD degrees, so there could be no argument
> about their reading and comprehension skills. In the text, I changed the
> expected order of English/other languages by using the local Indigenous
> place name in the text, and putting the English name in parenthesis. Do
you
> know that the participants couldn’t name the places? 
> 
> The other thing I noticed is that Indigenous names are all about
> description, so you might actually have a clue about the place, how it
> looks, what you do there. White names are all about people, Brown's Ferry,
> Trump Tower, Camp David . . . . 
> 
> Mia 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
> [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
> On Behalf Of phil cash cash
> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 12:14 PM
> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ILAT] Names (White Privilege)
> 
> Dear ILAT,
> 
> gee, I must have missed the suttle link between "Names" and "White	
> privilege" here..  ;-)
> later, Phil
> 
> On Apr 25, 2006, at 9:35 AM, Andre Cramblit wrote:
> 
> > White Privilege
> >
> 


annie g. ross
First Nations Studies
School for the Contemporary Arts
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, British Columbia
V5A 1S6
annier at sfu.ca
Telephone:  604-291-3575  Facsimile:  604-291-5666