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

Fri Jan 30 18:32:35 UTC 2015

The combination of the rise of Fox and the decline and decimation of the professional newsroom (now peopled by "freelance" contractors and encouraged by a "click-bait" mentality) has not helped public discourse. And Bonnie, Galey, et al. are correct in identifying the range of the problem. The story was also fed by the perennial Ivory-Tower bashing and anti-intellectualism (intensifying these days) of the larger culture/media. Not to mention the voice given to direct and indirect racism during the Obama tenure. (Fairly shocking to see from across the pond.)

This is giving me an idea for the fourth annual Professional Divides roundtable (some may recall the previous three, bringing regional journalists and anthropologists/linguists together to discuss social justice issues that derive from language, reference, and practice in the media). I speak frequently enough with professors in US journalism departments about what they think the problems in their field are, and they don't like it. We ling-anth folks can come up with our own list. There is a correlation. (Laura, interested in participating?)

Btw, I brought Jane's book to my undergrad Language and the Media class yesterday, as well as the Huffington Post story. The students were taken aback, underimpressed with Fox, and intrigued by the way that Americans are so race-focused. It is different, although no less important, here in "multicultural London" (where sexism and Page Three models are getting more of an airing).

In any case, the Fox news piece makes the points in Jane's last chapter even more vivid. And Laura's point about training "journalist-anthropologists" I think is one way forward. Three of the journalists on the DC Professional Divides panel were my former Georgetown interdisciplinary MA students in early (journalism) career. I like to think their exposure to sociocultural/ling-anth approaches made, and makes, a difference in their everyday decisions.

Best, Colleen

========================

Dr Colleen Cotter

Linguistics Department

Queen Mary, University of London

Mile End Road

London E1 4NS

UK

________________________________
From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Miller, Laura <millerlau at umsl.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 5:58 PM
To: Judy Pine; Linguistic Anthropology Discussion Group (LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org)
Subject: Re: [Linganth] It turns out that Jane Hill is white(!)

This link and discussion is good to have. I'm teaching Jane's book at the University of Missouri-St Louis this semester. My campus is a few blocks from Ferguson, and many of our students are from Fergusson and other similar townships.  I'm certain most students will find her book useful.  But whenever I teach this book, there are Anglo students who really resist the message.

Other than doing our best in our classrooms, and writing our own blogs, news articles, and editorials, I don't think that "reaching out" to talk to journalists is normally very effective.  Actually, I get irritated when people insist that the problem is that we use academic jargon and that's why non-academics aren't understanding our important viewpoints.  I've spent decades trying to respond to news people in a sane manner when they ask about Asian eyelid surgery, geisha, and oversexed/undersexed Japanese.  It often doesn't matter what you say or how you say it, the journalist already holds a firm viewpoint.  I wrote about this in a Savage Minds post, and I got a lot of heat for it. I also ranted about it in a recent journal issue I edited on Asia knowledge production.  Young people read good blogs as much as news, so more academics doing blogs may be a good strategy.

http://savageminds.org/2012/09/02/the-journalist-calls-the-anthropologist/

Laura
________________________________
From: Linganth [linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] on behalf of Judy Pine [Judy.Pine at wwu.edu]
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 10:52 AM
To: Linguistic Anthropology Discussion Group (LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org)
Subject: Re: [Linganth] It turns out that Jane Hill is white(!)

Another tricky bit is that the use of hyperbole to draw sharp political lines is not restricted to one ideological stance.  I find myself increasingly annoyed by headlines purporting to show me some public figure thoroughly beaten in discussion in a public forum, often with a video which only could be interpreted that way from a particular stance.  I am not sure how, or even if, we can build a political discourse that relies in reason rather than “gotcha!” tactics, but it does feel as if this is something we, as linguistic anthropologists, ought to be thinking about.

Meantime off I go to teach my students that, from a North Korean perspective, the US looks bat shit crazy and dangerously unpredictable.   (the other half of my job title is Asian ethnographer…)  Maybe, hopefully, we are making a difference in our classrooms?

-          Judy

From: Linganth [mailto:linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Mannheim
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 8:30 AM
To: Bonnie Urciuoli
Cc: Marcia Farr; linganth at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: Re: [Linganth] It turns out that Jane Hill is white(!)

Bonnie is absolutely correct here.  I sent the link around to colleagues here who teach Jane's book and articles to use in classes.   The change of prepositions from the book title to what is described in the clip is not a matter of sloppiness, but is what Bonnie says that it is: "deployed entirely in service to creating sharp political lines and cementing their demographic."

Lies, damn lies, and changing prepositions.

On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 11:07 AM, Bonnie Urciuoli <burciuol at hamilton.edu<mailto:burciuol at hamilton.edu>> wrote:
Well put.  It's the same dynamic as what happens every time any politician with an even remotely progressive message tries to explain it to the general public.  The problem is, we as academics value accurate explanation.  But the likes of Fox or of shall we say certain political operatives are not remotely invested in any notion of accurate explanation -- for them reference is deployed entirely in service to creating sharp political lines and cementing their demographic.  I do not know how to fight any of that directly.

On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 10:15 AM, galey modan <gmodan at gmail.com<mailto:gmodan at gmail.com>> wrote:
It's not just a question of reaching out 'beyond the academy', though -- this story was instigated by a college student -- one who didn't think there was anything strange about complaining about book titles of books she hadn't read for a course she didn't take. And there is a larger, more general problem when a major news network thinks it reasonable to cook up a story about book titles in which the actual content of the books is deemed too irrelevant to address. Not sure what it would take to instigate the monumental cultural shift in attitudes towards the academy that would be needed for such stories to be universally deemed ridiculous.

Galey

2015-01-28 12:55 GMT-05:00 Marcia Farr <farrmarcia at gmail.com<mailto:farrmarcia at gmail.com>>:
What this also shows, unfortunately, is how wide the gap is between most "white" people and academics. We have to continue to document and analyze as we do, but we also should be working on explaining our work to reach these people, or things will never change.

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 10:44 AM, Bonnie Urciuoli <burciuol at hamilton.edu<mailto:burciuol at hamilton.edu>> wrote:
Racism can be problematic for everyone -- who knew?

On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 9:17 AM, PAUL B Garrett <pgarrett at temple.edu<mailto:pgarrett at temple.edu>> wrote:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/fox-news-white-racism_n_6557540.html

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