[lg policy] Christina and, for the rest of the group, a call-to-arms

[Harold Schiffman]

All,

I agree that the best medicine in these cases is to send a message to the
person whose offensive message has been shared, rather than striking
back at the person who brought the offender to our attention.  That's sort
of what I have tried to convey in the message that appears at the bottom
of every posting I share.

HS

On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 9:10 PM, Gareth Price <gareth.price at duke.edu> wrote:
> Christina,
>
> No worries, really ...  ‘Let he who hath not pressed ‘send’ in haste
> cast the first stone’, as Jesus would have said if they'd had email
> back then.
>
> I'm impressed by your salvo (even if your aim was a little bit off)  :)
>
> But this brings us to an interesting point of discussion for the group.
>
> A while back it was suggested that messages or links to things which
> are so obviously offensive, misguided, and counter-factual were not
> posted to the list.-The suggestion was quite rightly rejected for
> various reasons: chief among them, if I remember rightly, a general
> balking at the notion of censorship (which would be, ahem, a slightly
> odd policy for a *language policy* list) as well as the rather more
> broad;y articulated perspective that, without knowing about these
> kinds of opinions, and texts, it's difficult for us as educators and
> researchers to do very much about them.
>
> One thing, perhaps, we *can* do about them in a concrete,
> activist-oriented way, is to write letters to these commentators, and
> the editors of their publications refuting what they say - on
> linguistic, cultural, sociological or political grounds. They probably
> won't be published, they may not even be read; but even if they were
> read it might make editors and contributors think twice about bandying
> about this kind of nonsense. In fact, even if nothing happened, then
> it would potentially be an interesting research exercise in and of
> itself: at what point can, or does, activism on language related
> issues work? Where are the pressure points? Who do we need to be
> educating here?
>
> Ronald Kephart at UFla is in (thanks Ronald!), Christina's said she's in also.
>
> Any other thoughts from the rest of the group?
>
> Best,
>
> Gareth
>
> Gareth,
>        A million apologies, no I didn't realize it was a quotation from
> Lindsay Johns (who he?)  and I was sad to see the quotation under your
> name.  One of my students e-mailed me to set me straight.  If it can
> be done.
> I am so sorry  -- I really should have known better.  It is an issue I
> have fought against all my life, especially in my many teacher
> training courses ( yes, I know that one should call them tchr
> education courses or similar).  My own son - in third grade -- came
> home and said "ain' t" was not a word,
> etc.
>        Again, I am so sorry. Christina
>
>
> --
> Dr. Gareth Price
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies
> 316 Languages Building, Box 90259
> Duke University
> Durham, NC 27708-0259
> USA
>
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-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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