[Linganth] It turns out that Jane Hill is white(!)

Sun Feb 8 03:16:30 UTC 2015

Great example of clearly speaking to "the public!"

On Sat, Feb 7, 2015 at 9:06 PM, Judy Pine <Judy.Pine at wwu.edu> wrote:

>  The irony of it is that I had scheduled this talk for Linguistics Club
> back in September or October.  Serendipity!
>
> Judy
>
> Sent using OWA for iPad
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf
> of Stephanie Feyne <stefeyne at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Saturday, February 7, 2015 2:23:01 PM
> *Cc:* LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org
>
> *Subject:* Re: [Linganth] It turns out that Jane Hill is white(!)
>
>   Isn't this great timing - was listed on Google News in the top hits
> tfor linguistics:
>
> Western professor offers insight into linguistic racism:
>
> Western Washington University anthropology professor Judy Pine presented
> her linguistic perspective on racism in a crash course discussion at the
> university’s Linguistics Club, Tuesday, Feb. 3.
>
>
> http://www.westernfrontonline.net/news/article_57c9d0c2-ad03-11e4-b63f-070060521797.html
>
>
> Stephanie Feyne
> NYC
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 7, 2015 at 5:00 AM, William Leap <wlm at american.edu> wrote:
>
>> Mark, "theory" doesnt  "....try to differentiate its language from
>> everyday terms... "   It is people that do that.   And that   question of
>> agency and responsibility --  may be the central to the discussion here. .
>>
>> We have been struggling with this issue for some years at the Lavender
>> Languages conference. how to talk about sexual transgression and  sexual
>> "difference"  [different from what ? ] without falling deeply into an
>> esoteric  vocabulary that   few  understand and fewer  value. .
>> Conversations with the media about queer linguistics -- try it !
>>
>> Hegemonies of whiteness and related issues are on the program.,
>>
>> Join us next week (Feb 13-15, 2015) ,
>> www.american.edu/cas/anthropology/lavender-languages
>>
>> Wlm L. Leap
>> Professor, Department of Anthropology, American University, Washington DC
>> 20016
>> Co-editor, Journal of Language and Sexuality
>> http://www.benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/jls
>>
>> "It is not very hard to silence us, but that is not because we cannot
>> speak."    --  a Bengali villager once remarked to Nobel prize winning
>> economist  Amartya Sen  (The Argumentative Indian, Picador Books, 2005:
>> xiii)
>>
>> "Don't be a drag, just be a queen."  Lady Gaga
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From:        "Peterson, Mark" <petersm2 at miamioh.edu>
>> To:        Frank Bechter <fbechter at gmail.com>,
>> Cc:        "Linguistic Anthropology Discussion Group \(
>> LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org\)" <LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> >
>> Date:        02/06/2015 10:31 PM
>> Subject:        Re: [Linganth] It turns out that Jane Hill is white(!)
>> Sent by:        "Linganth" <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>> That's true Frank, but it is also strategic. Critical theory often tries
>> to differentiate its language from everyday terms because those terms are
>> weighted by their associations with positions the scholars are trying to
>> critique. This kind of alienating vocabulary is common in any science where
>> specialized vocabularies emerge. But when media coverage of physics or
>> chemistry occurs, the media producers generally seek to translate the
>> concepts for their audiences. Here, they were deliberately making use of
>> Malinowski's "coefficient of weirdness" to make the discourse alienating.
>>
>> Mark Allen Peterson
>> Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology
>> & Professor, International Studies Program
>> 120 Upham Hall
>> Miami University
>> Oxford, OH 45056
>> 513 529-5018
>> petersm2 at miamiOH.edu
>> *www.connectedincairo.com* <http://www.connectedincairo.com/>
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Frank Bechter <*fbechter at gmail.com*
>> <fbechter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Critical scholars, take a critical look at your own discursive practices.
>> If the question is how to get the helpful message across, be willing to see
>> your own bad chess moves. We see in this piece,
>> *http://jezebel.com/watch-these-two-white-ladies-freak-out-about-asus-white-1681368338*
>> <http://jezebel.com/watch-these-two-white-ladies-freak-out-about-asus-white-1681368338>,
>> that Fox leads with a string of specific words -- indeed, a string of
>> specific *types* of words -- found in the *course description* of the
>> disputed course, U.S. Race Theory and the Problem of Whiteness:
>> "... postcolonialist, psychoanalytic, deconstructionist, feminist, new
>> historicist." The anchor omits the lead phrase, "Major critical schools of
>> recent decades," so as to make the wash of hyper-intellectual terms as
>> incoherent as possible. They are as alienating as possible, thus allowing
>> any construal of "whiteness" or "problem" to fly. One cannot stop Fox and
>> misguided students from selectively omitting phrases, but one should wonder
>> whether the string of words that Fox did latch onto for its own purposes
>> are actually helpful in any other way, i.e., in the goal of greater
>> critical awareness in the world at large, or especially in a course
>> description. If your goal is to equip students with tools to fight
>> institutional racism and disenfranchisement, these terms are not helpful.
>> They are not tools. To the contrary, they -- especially when you rattle
>> them off all in a row -- are the very discursive forms which can ensure, in
>> the minds of many readers, your complete irrelevance and hauteur. To me,
>> they ensure that you probably don't know what you're talking about. If
>> critical scholarship is to be useful in the world (which, of course, need
>> not be its function), then hit hard in your advertisements of it, explain
>> any big term you use, or simply don't use it. Realize what you're up
>> against. If a wash of such terms actually attracts select students and
>> colleagues who are content to have this discourse remain provincial,
>> consider how many more you will attract with terms that are designed to
>> arrest a much bigger audience, which hopefully is the real goal.
>>
>> Frank Bechter
>> Charlottesville, VA
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Matthew Bernius <*mbernius at gmail.com*
>> <mbernius at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 12:01 PM, Peterson, Mark <*petersm2 at miamioh.edu*
>> <petersm2 at miamioh.edu>> wrote:
>> What we think of as "objective" journalism evolved in a particular
>> historical and economic context. Before that, it was not at all uncommon to
>> have the Republican and Democratic newspapers in the same city, each
>> sniping at different targets the other supported.
>>
>> And to that point, when one looks at the entire history of American
>> Journalism, the "objective period" (which I'd argue we are approaching the
>> end of) is more of a historical anachronism rather than the norm. To Mark's
>> point, the reality is that the Fox News approach is, in many respects,
>> closer to the traditional form of the press.
>>
>> Great discussion all,
>>
>> - Matt
>>
>> -----------------------------
>> Matthew Bernius
>> mBernius at gMail.com | *http://www.mattbernius.com*
>> <http://www.mattbernius.com/> | @mattBernius
>> My calendar: *http://bit.ly/hNWEII* <http://bit.ly/hNWEII>
>>
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-- 
Marcia Elizabeth Farr
Professor Emerita
The Ohio State University

Email: farr.18 at osu.edu

http://osu.academia.edu/MarciaFarr
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