Welcome to TiddlyWiki created by Jeremy Ruston, Copyright © 2007 UnaMesa Association
AUTHOR: CHRISTOPHER BEAR BEAM
SOURCE: Etc. 64 no3 209-17 Jl 2007
MY WIFE Pamela and I recently saw The Good Shepherd at the theatre. In one scene Joe Pesci (playing a great Italian guy probably a mobster) converses with the American spy Mr. Wilson (who happens to be European American). Pesci's character says, "we Italians have the church, the Jews have tradition, and the n-----s have their music," and then turning to Wilson asks, "What do your people have?" Mr. Wilson comes back quickly in a totally unfeeling way, "we have the country. The rest of you are just visitors."
Pesci's derogatory statement about African Americans shouts loudly about the racial hierarchy in our contemporary, white, "supremacist" culture (and even more so in the culture of the 1950s and 1960s when the story takes place); however, it also silently breathes out a noxious vein of something running much deeper in our acculturated white world that has been framed and crafted by our words, associations, and philosophies. For it is through these dogmas that we have designed our collective reality about difference. Our society has formulated our collective reality around race with a language all its own.
Something else seems "messaged" to me: there is a non-verbal norm of what appears to be a determined and stratified tier-system of racial dominance within his statement. On the surface it looks like Pesci is saying something positive about each group, but the bottom line is that he calls African Americans the "n" word and they inevitably wind up at the bottom. Historically this has been the case. Even in light of the Civil Rights Act, Brown vs. the Board of Education, desegregation and Affirmative Action, white America has to have someone it can place at the lowest point on the gradient of the hierarchy of oppression. Some possible reasons for this will follow in this article.
In order to get this we have to come to understand that a European, white-dominated system formulated who would be considered white, giving permission to some groups to move freely up and down the ladder of social hierarchy developed around race. The ethnic groups cited by Pesci--Italian, Jewish, and African ancestry -- have all been stigmatized, made scapegoats, and oppressed in both our distant and recent past. The past has also influenced the present as it continues to exist today. Knowing this must inform how we will shape the future when it comes to understanding, appreciating, sharing resources and exchanging ideas with those who don't fit within whatever the "white" mold is at the time. Currently this affects most powerfully immigrants coming from Mexico to better their lives in the U.S.
The language of racism has created a way of thinking; in brief, it has created a world that is false to the way the universe seems to operate. Another way to say this is that we have structured the world by our narratives and meta-narratives about WIGO, i.e., "what is going on out there." But we seem to have gone beyond that. We too often believe that our words about our world are undeniable, unchallengeable facts. We have turned what Korzybski called 'consciousness of abstracting,' up side down; people have substituted what they think, feel and believe about the verbal and non-verbal universe that surrounds them, for the structure of scientific fact. Humans sense an event non-verbally, label it, then describe it, and finally create generalizations or attitudes about it. In our mis-education we believe our stereotypes are facts in far too many instances. This is how stereotypes begin and are perpetuated for groups of folks that we fear or whom we deem inferior.
A good example of this substituting may be found in a docudrama by filmmaker Oren Jacoby. The short documentary called Sister Roses Passion follows the later life of Sister Rose Thering, a Dominican nun. In the film, she tells how her father mentioned that there was a new pharmacist in town, and that he thought the man was Jewish. When he said this, he lowered his voice to a whisper, as though he might be found out just mouthing the word "Jewish." When she got home, Rose asked her mother what a Jew was. She had read in some of her religious education books that the Jews had killed Christ. Her mother didn't answer at first, but when Rose prodded her again she said, "They killed Christ."
After going into a convent, Rose eventually came to the point of researching and investigating Catholic teachings about the role of the Jews in the death of Christ. She found that in Catholic theology and scholarship, as well as at the grass roots level of Catholic lay people, many believed that indeed it was the Jews who killed Christ. For Christians, this meant the Jews had committed deicide or the killing of God.
Later while doing graduate work for her doctorate she looked at the facts of biblical and historical interpretations surrounding the crucifixion and found that it wasn't the Jews who had killed Christ. Sister Rose's research revealed that the tyrannical Romans were well known to use crucifixion for punishment, but the Jews apparently never did. Additionally, many Christians feel that the Gospels are eyewitness accounts, while in fact they were written anywhere from fifty to one hundred years after Jesus' death. The Gospel writers wrote in such a way as to distance themselves from the Jews. It also should be remembered that Jesus was a Jew who lived among Jews; the apostles were all Jews, and some of the most contentious issues took place at a time when Jews hated this sect that came to be called Christianity. Sister Rose concluded that it was no wonder that the early church fathers and other redactors would propagandize the myth that the Jews killed Christ (for another interesting take on this, one contemporary film, The Color of the Cross, poses the idea that Christ was an African man who was hated by both Romans and Jews, and was thus removed from the scene by racism).
So for hundreds of years a myth was substituted for fact, a scapegoat was found for the death of God, and within a large, collective unconscious the words "the Jews killed Christ" were seen to be the truth. Sister Rose was one of the key players in the Catholic hierarchy who caused a change within the globe-circling system of Catholicism when Vatican 1I finally recognized very clearly that Jesus was not killed by the Jews. This led the Roman Catholic Church to renounce centuries of myth, lies, and ignorance. Along her journey she was resisted by many, companion Catholics, not only because she was a woman but because a system will resist and deny an objectionable truth until it can no longer wiggle out of it.
As an aside, I'd like to mention that I grew up in a suburb north of Chicago, in a neighborhood divided between Catholics and Protestants. There was an "uneasy truce" between the two sides. Somewhere, early on in my life, had been planted in my mind the idea that the Jews killed the Messiah, and this was subtly reinforced as I grew up in my Protestant home. Some of my family lived in the South, and the message was more pronounced in that region. This unconscious notion rattled around in the darker, unseen areas of my psyche for years until I came to discover the facts about it. The accompanying attitudes I had ingested about Catholics definitely gave me an subconscious bias and prejudice against them as a group as well.
Just catching a glimpse of the inside of a neighbor's home, with its mysterious icons and symbols of sainthood, or peering inside the huge, dark, mysterious St. Joseph's Catholic Church at the top of the street, added to the air of secrecy that stood between me and the Catholic friends I had in the neighborhood. The realities that I felt inside my head about the differences between us erected a wall of misunderstanding and mistrust. Anything that isn't put on the table and talked about openly breeds mistrust, and dialogue won't be forthcoming. The wall of separation is buttressed higher and higher by stereotypes and self-fulfilling prophecies about the "other." The maps inside my head about the territory of Catholicism did not accurately reflect the human beings who called themselves "Catholic."
One teacher of general semantics, Irving J. Lee, gave a paper at the Second American Congress on General Semantics in 1941 (compiled and edited by M. Kendig in 1943), titled Mechanism of Conflict and Prejudice. In it, he refers to Aristotle's philosophy, including many racial myths Aristotle taught his students: some groups were slaves and some free, some were rulers and some to be ruled. Aristotle's reason? That this was the eternal order of nature and God; harmony could only be attained if the oppressed were 'kept in their place.' Aristotle and many other classical traditionalists have been the shapers, movers and shakers of our present day worldviews. In colonial times it was believed that the United States of America was bequeathed this legacy as well, especially in the light of its fundamentalist, patriotic battle cry of "Manifest Destiny."
The philosophy of dualism is primarily a notion of Western European culture and academia. Dualism forms the hard, inner lining of much of our religious, educational, and social education. We thought it kept us warm against the cold chills of uncertainty and ambiguity. Today we still feel it provides security against the fear of the "other," and the changing complexities of the world. European American society has fashioned a buffer zone based on dualism that we use to order our world. Dualism seems foundational to our American worldview. We crave certainty and control. Our anxiety appears to lead us to an onslaught of fearful, obsessive emotions, and these may be noted as the primary, psychological state of our society.
Aristotle's notion of dualism leads to our present method of "either-or" thinking. He formulated a worldview that people, places, or things were either to be categorized as A or Non-A. In the natural system world, a tree is a tree, and what is a non-tree can't be a tree no matter how hard it tries. Dualism structures a world that is characterized by rigidity, extremes, good or bad, lower or higher, etc. Dualism creates a thought structure positing reality as a series of events, actions, occurrences, outcomes, failures or successes at the two extremes of a linear axis. Dualism allows no "both ands" within a dynamic process of tractable non-opposites. But a living tree is in the process of both growing and dying. It exists in a process state of being with growing and decaying happening simultaneously.
In our contemporary world of quantum physics consciousness of life as process has emerged. Both life processes and actors in the events are integral parts of this dynamism. This new way of viewing the building blocks of life has created a radical shift in the understanding of reality. Life may be viewed now more as a fluid, non-static, ever-changing energy flow with every interdependent form of life in our universe, animate and inanimate, as part of the process. Seen in this way, the decay and rotting of the tree cited above, is a part of the life of the universe. Viewing the structure of life through these lenses shows us that for the tree, rotting isn't good or bad, worse or better, but just a part of the joie de vivre of the cosmos.
If we think of the attributes of civilized, intelligent, spiritual, concern for family, etc. on an "either-or," linear continuum, we give ourselves the permission to assert value judgments on varied people groups different from ours. The value judgments depend on which group is doing the evaluating, which group is being targeted, and what kind of criteria used for the attributes mentioned above. A 'white racial frame' is a lens through which those of us who are European Americans (or who view themselves as "white") perceive the world. From this white lens there is often an "either-or" assumption about others who don't look like us as being "less than."
This new view invites us to ask ourselves the question that dualism encourages: is it true to the structure of life to say that some ethnicities are by their very nature, less civilized, less intelligent, less spiritual, less concerned about the lives of their families? Is this logical? Is this a statement of fact or science? Science has found no biological basis for race, and anthropology has taught that race is more a social, political and economic construct of reality. DNA research and testing has confirmed that there is more diversity within one ethnicity than between different ethnicities.
The European American idea of white "supremacy" is indeed a "false-to-facts" ideology. This philosophy that the world of humanity is a dualistic and closed system results in circular reasoning that leads to an un-sane way of seeing reality. Contained in this paradigm is the notion of white superiority and non-white inferiority, an idea fleshed out in a closed, deterministic loop and the dogmatic assertion that "white is always right," and that no other schemata is true or workable in life. In other words, it's closed because the only reasonable answer to our human condition is that white "supremacy" is the only answer, period. It's THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
Within its tenets (and its premise that "whiteness" is "normal"), life can never change, people can never change, cultures never change, genetics are forever set, etc. It is life within a boundary of expectations for one group (whites) and expectations for the "other" (non-whites). This rigid ideology is transformed into a system of white privilege, power and possession. To say that European American capitalism is good leaves out many facets of conditions extant in the world today such as environmental racism, racism, inaccurate values of beauty and sophistication, rabid consumerism and materialism at the expense of peace, joy and contentment, along with bloodshed on many continents in the name of democracy and freedom.
On the other hand, when we see that humanity is compounded from many cultures, religions, resources, ethnic assets and values, we can begin to see that all life is dying even in the process of being born, in the words of Bob Dylan. In this non-static manner, our dynamic world is always changing, with the old being replaced by the new; nothing is permanent, and space, matter and energy are in the flux of change. In one ordinary cell we can see the workings of the entire universe, but when we really get it, it presents a global universe without fixed borders and worldviews. Viewing the "ordinariness" of life in this way may open up our thinking to encompass a superordinate universe without fixed borders and rigid worldviews.
As Dr. William H. Pemberton writes, if we are to solve international conflicts, there is no room for a singular, dogmatic worldview, common only to one, supreme group. With impermanence comes change, and with change comes an appreciation for the novelty of life and other human beings. A worldview propagated by white, European determinism is the cause of insanity, conflict, the push and pull of the 'better and the worst,' and much suffering for both the oppressors and the oppressed. A worldview of interdependency is admittedly the cause of unpredictability, but it spawns new creative movements and ideas, and a respect for other cultures who simply view life differently, not deficiently. Interdependency is indeed the 'true to fact' way of science.
Our task, then, as whites, and especially as European Americans, is to get used to seeing the world as a place of flowing with the yin and yang of both instability and certainty that is forever changing. Just think of planting an apple seed in your yard. Although growth is a possibility, it's not a certain fact until it occurs. There are many variables that can affect the conditions of the seed in its growth stage: weather, insects, the type of soil it is growing in, fertilizer. Growth is always messy, as is healing. Growth is unpredictable and invisible at times. The apple seed is a part of an interdependent 'organism-as-a-whole-in-an-environment' embraced by change and instability. If the seed grows into a tree, it may produce a hybrid mutation or it might produce luscious fruit. It behooves white Americans to understand this about the growth of this nation and others on the globe.
Even in the production of a chocolate bar, there are many factors and compounds that go into creating the end result. Even then some people are allergic to chocolate. A life of diversity is one that implies commitment, understanding difference, knowing the mechanisms of prejudice and racism, accepting unpredictability, and resting in uncertainty. The advantages, however, include more available resources through more cultures working together in community and bringing unique talents and skills to the common goal of keeping our planet alive and well.
Nationalities, cultures and ethnic groups are also forever changing despite having some long-held traditions and practices. There are always exceptions to this rule. Indigenous, Native Americans were very sophisticated in their system of governance prior to the coming of Europeans to the Americas. They ruled their territories, lived and died, practiced their spirituality, had families and lived life for hundreds of years, yet now many of them find themselves living in conditions that can be likened to crowded chicken coops on what can best be described as 'developing world' reservations. The European immigrants who settled in the Americas are now the ruling majority and have imposed a system of social, political and economic enrichment for their own hegemony. And what's more, too many of us consider only people who look like us, talk like us, make money like us, believe like us, dress like us, to be the "real" Americans.
The language and thought processes of racism, particular to our American culture, are filled with what Joe Feagin calls "sincere fictions." These "sincere fictions" are the stereotypical notions of how non-white groups are of lower intelligence, less civilized, less hard working and not as moral as whites. Feagin writes, "Today, as in the past, the distorted white framing of society is generated and supported by more than childhood socialization. It is supported by a lifetime of moment-to-moment reinforcements within a long series of interactions in recurring and supporting social networks." (Feagin, p. 44)
Whites view non-whites through a "white racial frame" as all humans view life through the window of their own unique perceptions. In one of Feagin's dialogue workshops, he emphasized the need to view this white racial frame from a psycho-historical vantage point. Our social conditioning and perceptual awareness of others doesn't arrive out of thin air. It is formulated in the mix of our semantic environment, consisting of diverse layers of biological, social, intellectual, historical, psychological, economic and spiritual factors. If one draws a time line of our national history, one finds that ninety percent of our history has consisted of slavery and legalized segregation. Clearly, white Americans have held these conditioned worldviews for a long time.
The white racial frame includes racialized emotions tied to cognitive stereotypes and powerful, neuro-biological images. Breaking this down, Feagin writes:
Whites typically combine racial stereotypes (the cognitive aspect), metaphors and concepts (the deeper cognitive aspect), images (the visual aspect), emotions, (feelings like fear), and inclinations (to take discriminatory actions) within a racist frame that is oriented, in substantial part, to assessing African Americans and other Americans of color in everyday situations, as well as to assessing white Americans and white institutions (p. 27).
As long as white Americans continue to use language and thought processes which are counter to the structure of the real world, we will perpetuate our pathogenic system. But if even one piece of a system begins to change, despite the all too natural resistance, the entire system can shift. One small example of this is the use of the terms "minorities" when referring to non-whites. In point of fact, non-whites are not "minorities" (in the global context), and recently whites in America are becoming a smaller percentage of the demography. This means that we have to change our maps of the territory we call America both in terms of demographics and how we wish to anglicize the systems within the communities where we live.
It appears to me that the proclivity for white domination may stem from the drive to keep ourselves on top, and not to become extinct. For us, it's our survival mode. But this is the mode of the old, 'hunter brain.' Our anxieties relate to our fear of the "others" taking over, turning the tables, and our annihilation as an ethnic group. It used to be said that the sun never set on the British Empire, but we only have to look at a map of the world today to conclude this statement to be false. Realistically and rationally we can also conclude that the Brits gave the world some healthy contributions, but also some unhealthy ones, namely colonialization with its genocidal instincts.
I like the way that Stewart Holmes explains a way of thinking about difference as it applies to human beings. He describes how he formulates the word "reality" to the universe and our situation. The universe, what we may call the non-verbal composites of life, he names Reality 1. The verbal part of "reality," that which we describe and talk about (but which is not the reality itself), he names Reality 2. "Reality 2" exists within our limited brains, our limited senses and our limited language. It is the reality we formulate within ourselves.
Including reality in this model means that we tend to separate ourselves from the rest of life or the whole, interdependent universe. This is one of those elemental landmines cropping up in our path suggesting feelings of separation and alienation. Because we see ourselves as separate, we project that anxious isolation onto other groups and initiate one of the mechanisms of conflict, prejudice and racism. This is a consequence of dualistic thinking, a closed system of reasoning; thus, we have placed ourselves within a circle and everyone else (who doesn't look like us) outside the circle. We describe and assign what's inside our circle as possessing "+s" and what's outside "-s."
Many schools of science, philosophy, and religion paint a canvas of an open universe; that in actuality the "world out there" is all within the circle and this is the "real" deal, what we can call the "circle of life." At the same time all life is changing as we speak, shifting like the earth's plates beneath our feet. All life is building up and disintegrating, and all energy is being transformed into other energy in ongoing cycles. Shouldn't we then develop a new language and a new thinking that would accommodate this universal? Could this not help us to displace an older form of dualism and bring about a new "multivision" of humanity and life?
This new way of thought needs to be congruent with WIGO. My hunch is that it needs to be more congruent to an open-ended, fluid, changing, non-static, and diverse universe in which all forms of life are giving and taking to keep the fire of life alive and productive. A new conversation and language around the issues of racism is one way of structuring a new model for the discussion of these vital topics in our age of diversity. I consider it crucial for European Americans to engage in this conversation and help to create it, to repudiate the history of European American dominance and oppression in our culture.
ADDED MATERIAL
Christopher Bear Beam, MA, has been studying and applying GS to the field of counseling for thirty years. In the last eleven years he has been utilizing GS principles in the area of anti-racism training and social education. He currently works with evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita and lives in Galveston, TX with his beautiful wife, Pamela Brouker. © Christopher Bear Beam 2007
REFERENCES
1. Feagin, Joe R. Systemic Racism: a Theory of Oppression. New York: Routledge. 2006
2. Feagin, Joe R. "Dissecting Racism: Deep Roots, Systemic Realities, and Working Solutions. A Dialogue with Joe R. Feagin." Presented by The Center for the Healing of Racism, Houston, TX. October, 2006
3. Holmes, Stewart W. "Zen and the Abstracting Process." ETC.: A Review of General Semantics (Spring 1991): pp.70-73.
4. Khyentse, Dzongsar Jamyang. What Makes You Not a Buddhist. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc. 2007
5. Korzybski, Alfred. Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantic. Englewood: Institute of General Semantics. 1994. Chapter 26
6. Lee, Irving. "A Mechanism of Conflict and Prejudice." Institute of General Semantics, http://www.time-binding.org. 1941
7. Orenby, J, Producer. "Sister Rose's Passion." New Jersey Studios & Metropolitan Film Board, Storyfilm Films Production. (2006). [DVD].
8. Pemberton, William H. "Conflict Resolution for Major World Religions." ETC: A Review of General Semantics (Summer 2000)
Source: [[HW Wilson: Main|http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/shared/shared_main.jhtml?_requestid=182296]]
A Half-Century Later, Brown Ruling's Legacy Lives On
By Brian Burnes and Erik Petersen
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Everybody knows the story of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.
Or maybe they don't, said Cheryl Brown Henderson of Topeka.
The history that many people think they know, she said, concerns Linda Brown of Topeka, Kan., an African-American third-grader who in the early 1950s was not allowed to attend her neighborhood school because of discrimination. Her father, angered by the practice, challenged it in court and won.
But that version doesn't cut it, said Henderson, who is Linda Brown's sister.
"It trivializes the significance of the decision, as well as the century-old campaign that it took to ultimately get the Supreme Court to render the decision that it did in 1954," she said.
Henderson said the reality is that the Brown case was not only about one girl or one hidebound Kansas school district.
It was about the centuries' worth of intolerance that was weighing down race relations and how dearly some people wanted to see inclusion become part of everyday American life.
"The myth has been around for almost five decades," she said.
This week, Henderson and many others will tell that larger story in a new way.
Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, Henderson will join other participants in the Brown case for a commemoration of the landmark litigation.
The events, which will launch a commemoration leading up to the decision's 50th anniversary in May 2004, will include a reception in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and a forum in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Also attending will be Charles Scott Jr., a Kansas City lawyer and son of the late Charles Scott Sr., who helped represent the plaintiffs in Topeka federal court.
Scott also thinks the story too often is reduced to Linda Brown and her father.
"I think that is more palatable to people....They don't want to confront the issue of race," he said.
In fact, the litigation is part of the same historical tapestry as colonists fighting the British or the Union battling the Confederates, said Juan Williams, senior correspondent for National Public Radio and author of books about Thurgood Marshall and the civil rights movement.
After those wars, Americans continued waging legal battles to determine where we stand and what we believe.
"I think that what's important is to help people see Brown as part of...the main narrative of American history," said Williams, who will be the keynote speaker at Wednesday's forum.
"You can see the kind of historical wrestling that's going on as we try to live up to the ideals of the founding fathers."
Linda Brown could not be reached for an interview and rarely talks with the media.
In 1950, the Topeka branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People wrote Marshall, then the national organization's chief lawyer, saying that segregation in local public schools had grown intolerable.
Topeka NAACP officials had been speaking with several black parents about participating in litigation.
Among them was Oliver Brown, an African-American minister and railroad welder. His daughter Linda had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to reach her elementary school, even though a white elementary school was closer.
The NAACP requested an injunction that would forbid the segregation of Topeka's public schools.
The federal court in Topeka heard Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in June 1951. A three-judge panel found no "substantial discrimination" in the operation of Topeka public schools.
Those judges also relied on Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision that advanced the "separate but equal" doctrine, allowing segregation if equal facilities were offered to blacks and whites.
Yet in a supplement to their opinion, the judges echoed the testimony of educators who argued that the segregation of students in public schools had a "detrimental effect" upon black children.
The NAACP appealed the ruling in October 1951. The case later was consolidated with lawsuits challenging school segregation in South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
In 1988, the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research was founded as a tribute to those involved in the Brown case. Henderson, the foundation's president, sees the Brown v. Board story in national terms.
But, being a family member, Henderson also takes its legacy personally.
"Brown v. Board is named for my father, Oliver Brown," she said. "He died in 1961, only seven years after the court's decision.
"I make that point, because Brown v. Board didn't become significant to this country until the late 1950s and early 1960s, and I think it is sad that he could not live long enough to know that anytime equal rights are being championed, Brown v. Board is always used as the basis.
"I think that is pretty profound."
Many of those who will participate in Wednesday's forum were children or teen-agers in the early 1950s. They now see young people who do not understand how today's debates descended from yesterday's battles.
"It's not exposed to our children in the school system," said Ruth Scales Everett, who was a Topeka schoolgirl when her mother became a plaintiff in the Brown case.
"I'm teaching my grandchildren, but a lot of them don't even have any idea of what it is."
As a teen-ager, John Stokes led a student strike that was part of the desegregation struggle in Virginia. He says the media do a poor job of making history such as the Brown case part of the discussion about race today.
To know where they are going, he said, young people must know where they are from.
"Then they would be able to respect where we are educationally, socially and otherwise in our society," Stokes said. "And if they were to read and understand our struggle, they'll understand affirmative action better."
For him, it is almost a biblical calling.
"Galatians indicates that we should not permit another generation, see, to be lost," he said.
Stokes would tell young people that he and the other youngsters did not necessarily enter the battle with any great plan.
"We thought there was going to be some solution," he said. "All we wanted was a school. We didn't want integration."
But once the NAACP was behind them, they battled for integration in a dangerous atmosphere.
"We thought we were going to be killed," he said. "They were eerie times, believe me, and frightening times."
Many of the people who lived through those times now are elderly. Some have died. And their legacy is still being written.
Urban schools remain largely segregated, for example, and many are inferior.
"That's the unfinished business of Brown," Williams said.
The case deserves more dialogue, said Scott, because the stakes could not be higher.
He said he was concerned about the segregation in public education, and "I feel that is going to have very dire consequences for the country."
Still, the Brown case prompted change across the country, Williams said. It raised expectations in the black community and prodded the conscience of the white community. Protests, sit-ins, the march on Washington -- those monumental steps -- stood on the foundation laid by Brown v. Board, he said.
Today, veterans of the struggle have arrived at a place they might not have imagined 50 years ago. They are being brought to Washington so people can hear and celebrate their story.
The fighters have a voice.
"After 50 years, they're listening," Stokes said. "And that's sort of astonishing."
Source: [[SIRS Knowledge Source: Search Results|http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SFL0180-0-4911&artno=0000170380&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N]]
<<<
Last year at Southern Illinois University I gave a workshop in what the basic skills of a good life are as I understand them. Toward the end of it a young man rose in back and shouted at me: “I'm 25 years old, I've lived a quarter of a century, and I don't know how to do anything except pass tests. If the fan belt on my car broke on a lonely road in a snowstorm I'd freeze to death. Why have you done this to me?”
He was right. I was the one who did it just as much as any other teacher who takes up the time young people need to find out what really matters. I did it innocently and desperately, trying to make a living and keep my dignity, but nevertheless I did it by being an agent of a system whose purpose has little to do with what kids need to grow up right. My critic had two college degrees it turned out, and his two degrees were shrieking at me that going to school doesn't matter very much even if it gets you a good job.
People who do very well in schools as we've conceived them have much more than their share of suicides, bad marriages, family problems, unstable friendships, feelings of meaninglessness, addictions, failures, heart by-passes that don't work and general bad health. These things are very well documented but most of us can intuit them without any need for verification. If school is something that hurts you, what on earth are we allowing it for?
Does going to school matter if it uses up all the time you need to learn to build a house? If a 15-year-old kid was allowed to go to the Shelter Institute in Bath, Maine, he would be taught to build a beautiful post-and-beam Cape Cod home in three weeks, with all the math and calculations that entails; and if he stayed another three weeks he'd learn how to install a sewer system, water, heat and electric. If any American dream is universal, owning a home is it – but few government schools bother teaching you how to build one. Why is that? Everyone thinks a home matters.
Does going to school matter if it uses up the time you need to start a business, to learn to grow vegetables, to explore the world or make a dress? Or if it takes away time to love your family? What matters in a good life?
<<<
Source: [[Natural Life Magazine #40 - What Really Matters by John Taylor Gatto|http://www.life.ca/nl/40/gatto.html]]
All dates are tentative, please RSVP.
!!Beach ~Service-Learning Experience (Virginia Beach or Cape Florida)
Saturday, Sept. 15
Contact:
Carlos Morales Gonzalez
(305) 237-6028
Cgonzal3@mdc.edu
!!Roots in the City (Overtown)
Saturday, Oct. 27
Saturday, Nov. 10
Saturday, Dec. 1
Contact:
Alex Salinas
(305)237-6358
asalinas@mdc.edu!!
!!Gandhi Day (Wolfson Campus, Overtown, University of Miami)
Saturday, Oct. 6
Contact:
Carlos Morales Gonzalez
(305) 237-6028
cgonzal3@mdc.edu
!!Lotus House (Overtown)
Tuesday, Sept. 11
Tuesday, Oct. 3
Contact:
Emily Sendin
(305) 237-6172
!!I Have a Dream Program (Overtown)
Garden Club
Wednesday, Sept. 26
Wednesday, Oct. 17
Wednesday, Nov. 14
!!MDC Campus Tour
Saturday, Nov. 3
Contact:
Alex Salinas
(305)237-6358
asalinas@mdc.edu
!!Centro Cristiano Casablanca (Little Havana)
Monday - Friday, 2-6pm
Contact:
Diego Tibaquira
(305) 237-6565
I came across the following article and thought about our work at Phillis Wheatley:
*http://www.tolerance.org/teach/printar.jsp?p=0&ar=777&pi=ttm
What kinds of questions can we ask ourselves and the work we are doing at the school in reference to this article. What connections can we make with Ivan Illich's observation in [["To Hell with Good Intentions"|http://www.augustana.ab.ca/rdx/eng/activism_illich.htm]]?
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the writing process by:
*Choosing and limiting a subject that can be sufficiently developed within a given time, for a specific purpose, for a specific purpose and audience.
*Developing and refining pre-writing and planning skills.
*Formulating the main point to reflect the subject and purpose of the writing.
*Supporting the main point with specific details and arranging them logically.
*Writing an effective conclusion.
The student will demonstrate proficiency in writing a unified and coherent essay using methods of development suited to the topic by:
*Writing an introductory paragraph.
*Constructing a thesis statement.
**Developing the thesis by:
***Providing adequate support that reflects the ability to distinguish between generalized and concrete evidence.
***Arranging the ideas and supporting details in a logical pattern appropriate to the purpose and focus. These may include descriptive, narrative, evaluative writing, process analysis, comparisons and contrast, cause and effect, and exemplification, and others.
***Writing unified prose in which all supporting material is relevant to the thesis.
***Writing coherent prose providing effective transitional devices. Writing a concluding paragraph.
The student will demonstrate the ability to proofread, edit, and revise by:
*Recognizing and correcting errors in clarity.
*Recognizing and correcting errors in unity and coherence.
*Using conventional sentence structure and correcting sentence errors such as fragments, run-ons, comma splices, misplaced modifiers and faulty parallelism.
*Recognizing and correcting errors in utilizing the conventions of Standard American English including:
**Using standard verb forms and consistent tense. Maintaining agreement between subject and verb, pronoun and antecedent. Using proper case forms -- consistent point of view.
**Using standard spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
**Selecting vocabulary appropriate to audience, purpose, and occasion.
The student will demonstrate an understanding of various reading selections by:
*Identifying main ideas, purpose, overall organizational patterns, supporting details, and elements of coherence in assigned readings.
*Distinguishing fact from opinion.
*Summarizing and/or paraphrasing passages.
The student will integrate research materials into a piece of writing by:
*Assembling research sources on a designated subject.
*Taking effective notes from research sources.
*Recognizing when and how to document sources.
[[Competency #1]]
[[Competency #2]]
[[Competency #3]]
[[Competency #4]]
[[Competency #5]]
ENC 1101 is the first required general course in college-level writing. You will compose essays and other works using various methods of development. This course fulfills 8,000 words of the Gordon Rule requirement and must be completed with a grade of "C" or better. We will write and hopefully learn something new and find pleasure in the process.
This course is intimately tied to the I Have A Dream Program at Phillis Wheatley Elementary in Overtown. The program adopted a cohort of students in the first grade, promising to support them through enrichment activities, tutoring and mentorship all the way through their high school graduation. Dreamers who graduate receive a full academic scholarship for college. Basically, the program creates what is almost a family for these students. At MDC, we have participated in the nurturing, learning and growth of these students for three years. Now, as the Dreamers start fifth grade, you have a chance to join the family.
For much of the semester (after taking the first month to lay a foundation), we will move our class to the elementary school and devote one of our meetings to passing along the literacy skills we're working on in our composition course to the Dreamers. You will work with the Dreamers on reading and writing as well as design structured activities for them. You will have an opportunity to serve as a positive role model who will encourage them to pursue college. You will also have a chance to work on an organic garden we've been maintaining on school grounds.
Keep in mind that this experience is not only about giving something to the Dreamers. You are in a position to gain a great deal. In essence, the school and the children become our main "text." We will read, interpret and write about the experience. The interactions you have, for example, will give you a powerful context for understanding the psychology of children, basic educational principles, and social problems like poverty and racism. And perhaps most importantly, in getting to know these children, you have an opportunity to form bonds that will last for many years. This course, we hope, gives you a taste of what it truly means to serve.
<<<
Schools are designed on the assumption that there is a secret to everything in life; that the quality of life depends on knowing that secret; that secrets can be known only in orderly successions; and that only teachers can properly reveal these secrets. An individual with a schooled mind conceives of the world as a pyramid of classified packages accessible only to those who carry the proper tags. New educational institutions would break apart this pyramid. Their purpose must be to facilitate access for the learner: to allow him to look into the windows of the control room or the parliament, if he cannot get in by the door. Moreover, such new institutions should be channels to which the learner would have access without credentials or pedigree -- public spaces in which peers and elders outside his immediate horizon would become available.
I believe that no more than four -- possibly even three -- distinct "channels" or learning exchanges could contain all the resources needed for real learning. The child grows up in a world of things, surrounded by people who serve as models for skills and values. He finds peers who challenge him to argue, to compete, to cooperate, and to understand; and if the child is lucky, he is exposed to confrontation or criticism by an experienced elder who really cares. Things, models, peers, and elders are four resources each of which requires a different type of arrangement to ensure that everybody has ample access to it.
<<<
Source: [[Ivan Illich|http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Illich/Deschooling/chap6.html]]
<<<
The struggle against domination by the world market and big-power politics might be beyond some poor communities or countries, but this weakness is an added reason for emphasizing the importance of liberating each society through a reversal of its educational structure, a change which is not beyond any society's means.
<<<
Source: [[Ivan Illich|http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Illich/Deschooling/chap6.html]]
The labor movement has a long history. In South Florida, many forget or ignore the local struggles. Take some time to explore one such example. This one has to do with the food we eat and how it is [[harvested|http://www.ciw-online.org/images/Page1.html]]. If you are interested in supporting the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, plan to participate in their [[August 31 action|http://www.sfalliance.org/2007BKsummer.html]].
|!Format|!It will look like this...|!...if you format it like this...|
|Bold-faced type|''text''|{{{''text''}}}|
|Italic text|//text//|{{{//text//}}}|
|Underlined text|__text__|{{{__text__}}}|
|Strike-through text|--text--|{{{--text--}}}|
|Links with wikiwords|EnchiLada (inactive link - no tiddler yet)<br>WikiWord (active link to tiddler)|{{{EnchiLada}}}<br>{{{WikiWord}}}|
|~De-Wikify a ~WikiWord|~WikiWord, ~EnchiLada|{{{~WikiWord, ~EnchiLada}}}|
|Links with brackets|[[How to add background images]]|{{{[[How to add background images]]}}}|
|Pretty links|[[display text|ColorSchemes]] - links to the tiddler of color schemes|{{{[[display text|ColorSchemes]]}}}|
|External links work the same way:|http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki <br><br>[[TiddlyWiki Google group|http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki]]|{{{http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki}}} <br><br> {{{[[TiddlyWiki Google group|http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki]]}}}|
|Links to local files|To a file on a CD in your D drive: <br><br>To a file on your USB stick on your e drive: <br><br>To a file in your hard drive:|{{{file:///D:/filename.doc/}}}<br><br>{{{file:///E:/filename.doc/}}}<br><br>{{{file:///C:/filepath/filename.doc/}}}|
|Colored text|@@color(green):green colored@@|{{{@@color(green):green colored@@}}}|
|Text with colored background|@@bgcolor(#ff0000):color(#ffffff):red colored@@|{{{@@bgcolor(#ff0000):color(#ffffff):red colored@@}}}|
|Highlighting|@@text@@|{{{@@text@@}}}|
|Superscript|2^^3^^=8|{{{2^^3^^=8}}}|
|Subscript|a~~ij~~ = -a~~ji~~|{{{a~~ij~~ = -a~~ji~~}}}|
''Simple indenting:''
{{{ {{indent{text }}} produces:
{{indent{text
''Numbered lists:''
{{{#item one }}}
{{{##Item 1a}}}
{{{###Item 1ai}}}
produces:
#item one
##Item 1a
###Item 1ai
''Bulleted lists:''
{{{*Bullet one}}}
{{{**Bullet two}}}
{{{***Bullet three}}}
produces:
*Bullet one
**Bullet two
***Bullet level three
''Headlines''
{{{!Text}}} produces:
!Text
{{{!!Text}}} produces:
!!Text
{{{!!!Text}}} produces:
!!!Text
and so on.
''Tables:''
This is the formatting:
{{{|!Table header|!Column Two|}}}
{{{|>| colspan |}}}
{{{| rowspan |left aligned|}}}
{{{|~| right aligned|}}}
{{{|bgcolor(#DC1A1A):colored| centered |}}}
{{{||*lists<br>*within<br>*tables<br><br>and double-spaced too|}}}
{{{|caption|c}}}
This is the result:
|!Table header|!Column Two|
|>| colspan |
| rowspan |left aligned|
|~| right aligned|
|bgcolor(#DC1A1A):colored| centered |
||*lists<br>*within<br>*tables<br><br>and double-spaced too|
|caption|c
To align a cell so that its text displays at the top rather than the center, add {{{vertical-align:top;}}} at the beginning of the cell.
''Images:''
{{{[img[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/39/122259544_6913ca58f3_m.jpg]]}}} is the formatting for:
[img[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/39/122259544_6913ca58f3_m.jpg]]
''Dotted horizontal lines:''
{{{----}}} produces:
----
''Line-by-line blockquotes:''
{{{>level 1}}}
{{{>level 1}}}
{{{>>level 2}}}
{{{>>level 2}}}
{{{>>>level 3}}}
{{{>>>level 3}}}
{{{>>level 2}}}
{{{>level 1}}}
produces:
>level 1
>level 1
>>level 2
>>level 2
>>>level 3
>>>level 3
>>level 2
>level 1
''Extended blockquotes:''
{{{<<<}}}
{{{Extended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotes}}}
{{{<<<}}}
produces:
<<<
Extended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotesExtended blockquotes
<<<
[img[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/83/232714400_cbcbac93c5_t.jpg]]
[[Welcome]]
[[Syllabus]]
[[Portoblogs]]
+++[Office Hours]
|>| Carlos Morales Gonzalez |
|bgcolor(#CC6633): !MWF |bgcolor(#CC6633): !Tuesday |
| 6:30-7:00am <br>12:30-2:30pm |After 10am and by appointment|
===
[[Service-Learning Calendar| http://30boxes.com/widget/78521/CarlosGonzalez/ff6419d59fe4af6b5abaad2f8cd3bc69/0/service-learning]]
The following conversation has taken place over a period of a couple of weeks. Ironically, much of it has not been captured in writing. What follows is a very small ++++[sample.]
!!Alex
Hey man. I know you're busy to the point of being overwhelmed right now, so get to this whenever you come up for air, but I had some thoughts about writing this morning that I wanted to get down. I was thinking about writing some poetry, playing with the idea of writing a poem about how good it felt to eat a mango yesterday. Remember I was telling you about that mango Max gave me from his garden? I wrote some lines, just brainstorming, about how the fibers of the mango flesh are the fibers of my flesh, and how the juices of the mango flesh are my juices. Not sure what all that means. I had this sense of food and body and world being one, and I had this flashing sensation of feeling that unity as sticky yellow pulpy mango juices and flesh got all over my mouth and fingers, and a good, cool feeling spread through my chest and belly, and as the little fibers got stuck between my teeth. The teeth thing is always a little annoying, but I let it slide this time. Didn't ruin my mood.
So my thought is, as this mango poem comes to the brink of existence, where does a poem come from? How would I teach someone else who had a similar experience with a mango to try writing a poem from it? In our classes, we teach brainstorming, outlining, freewriting and other "prewriting techniques" to get students from the chaotic idea to the crystallized word, and these techniques work, and I use them all the time. But it seemed like that wouldn't be enough. You would have to go deeper, into something about settling into a certain state of mind to write a poem, and into something about the motivation behind writing a poem. It is, after all, just a silly poem that probably no one else will ever read. Why would I want to write it? I don't think it will be a very good poem, to be honest. But I wanted to write it. And it felt good to write down whatever preliminary feelings I had, much as it felt good to eat the mango.
Let me finish my thought, which I think is already too long. Do I want to write the mango poem and -- this is closely related but different -- do I know how to try to write the mango poem just because I am somehow born/supposed/programmed to write? That's not supposed to sound arrogant -- it doesn't mean that I necessarily write well, just that I am inclined to write by nature, whether well or, as is definitely sometimes the case, pretty badly. What am I trying to say? Do you believe that some people have an inborn ability to write while others don't? I firmly believe that we can teach anyone to become a good writer in ENC 1101, but can you teach anyone to write a good poem? (I wish someone would teach me.) Can you teach someone to want to write all the time, to let their instincts guide the process, as opposed to mechanical brainstorms and outlines? To make it so there is just a poem there sometimes when you wake up in the morning and vague things that are like memories blended with feelings are swimming around your head? I'm not totally sure, but, yes, I think we can. And then, what does all this mean for our work as English Composition teachers at Miami Dade College? Are we getting into the work of creative writing teachers -- or is saying "creative writing" redundant?
How do you get poetry out of people? (I'll send you the mango poem if it comes out.)
!!Carlos
The mango connection of reality is a powerful reflection. Here's a riff from one of your lines:
...fibers of my flesh, juices of my body
It is right and a joyful thing to re-member
the one flesh and body
in its multiplicity of forms.
We bite into this great imagination
that in-forms all of life, reality, existence.
We take the flesh in;
it does the same to us.
We feed, write, sing, dance, drink, and love.
Flesh and juice,
-- sacred gift for a people
in transition.
Holy summertime offering,
Unexpected visitor of creation, iodine, and fiber.
A poem for personal consumption, like the mango you bit into. Maybe part of the difficulty of getting to the point of writing is the idea that we do so only because the piece written is of great enduring value, one we associate with publishing and large numbers of people appreciating or admiring. Yet the mango provides a great model -- no fanfare, yet a miracle of smell and taste.
So maybe we can get poetry and writing out of people by feeding them mangoes, life, and lots of love. Maybe we suffer, I surely do, from a constipated imagination that longs for a good shit. Mangoes are great for that you know. We find the blockages by writing about them, observing them without judgment, and allowing ourselves room for work in progress, life in the making, imperfection, love of trying and sharing, and creating.
!!Alex
Love your poem. Why in transition? My favorite word in the pome is iodine. I'm not sure why. I thank you for inviting me into your soft juicy sunny imagination. It's nice in here.
You know, my poem hasn't come out yet. I'm constipated. I need powerful mango-laxatives. Yes, part of the reason is that maybe I want whatever I write to be my best somehow -- "of great enduring value," as you put it, if not to other people, at least to me. What this really comes down to, now that I think about it, is something particular about my process. I think I lack trust in prewriting. I need to explore more through my writing -- to just write. I need to be a wild and crazy writing person more often! I like to compose things in my head, have them come out nice and neat and meaningful, from the beginning, instead of just squeezing out -- I like this digestion metaphor -- whatever is there. Even if it stinks. Eeeew. Sometimes you don't really know what you think until you try to write it down, until you unleash the stream-of-consciouesness nonsense in your head. I teach this as freewriting, but don't practice it very often. Sometimes the result is poetry, sometimes the result is, yes, I'm going to say it, shit. But as you say, you clear the blockages, look at it without judgment. Yes, that stuff came out of me. That stuff is me. I need to trust the process, embrace the messiness. I'm thinking the notebooks will be a great way of developing this habit, of writing everyday, of emptying yourself constantly, of letting things fertilize.
For the record, I found myself stopping at several points in the last paragraph and changing things in an effort to make what I'm writing have a meaning, even as I'm writing about not doing that. I also added the caca humor. I guess that's just me.
I think this is also about energy. It can be easy for me to sit down and make a product -- a piece of writing. I can write an "essay" in 30 minutes. But it can be hard for me to go through a process. It hurts to know your pouring yourself out and that you may have to throw it all away. But I come back to confronting something that is the only thing that I really know about writing well: that it is hard. That it takes time. Thanks for reminding me that good writers always embrace that it is a long, messy, uncomfortable, at times stomach-turning, but always, in the end, rewarding process. Nothing ever really gets flushed down the toilet when it comes to writing.
I'm curious to know more about your process. I'm curious to know if any part of it gives you a hard time, mango man.
I'm gonna write that poem one of these days...
!!Carlos
All around me I'm hearing music. My daughter is taking a shower blasting something from the radio. My son is playing Wii and trying to karaoke the song "Freak Out." There's a message there for me somehow!
Often I look for the right time and place to write. I figure that with enough quiet (both the inner and outer kind) that I could write something meaningful and satisfying. The problem is that those times of quiet are hard to find. As a matter of fact, even when things are outwardly quiet, I find myself in a very noisy inner place that tricks me into thinking that the time is not right for writing.
For me this is my biggest obstacle and hurdle. I would like to say that I have this figured out and know how to work in my own noise, but the truth is that more often than not, I am drowned by the noises around and inside. I know that what I must do is actually to get myself to write -- no matter what, that even when I feel that what will come through will not be of much worth, that I can keep trying.
I suppose that working with a writing group should be a big help in inviting the writing habit to happen. We've talked about this for some time. It's pretty cool to have someone to share what is happening with one's writing or at least attempts at writing. Working within a community provides a pressure of sorts to not let go of the writing habit. We know that there are others who in a sense are also wrestling with the same writing demons.
In reference to the poem, I was symbolically connecting the mango to the host (Body of Christ) in the Catholic liturgy. The poem picks up on the Eucharistic invocation right before the priest lifts the host and then breaks it in half. For many years, and even now, this ritual has fed my imagination and spirit. Food is divine! So are words. We are all in transition -- lives in the process of being lived, loved, and liberated. Like the mango, we will be digested and transformed. It's a matter of time. In the meantime, the noise continues but with enough skill, it, too, can be invited into the stew of our lives' creativity. (Espero.)
Send me that poem!
!!Alex
For some reason, I don't have a lot of issues with noise. Maybe part of it is that I just have a quieter life than you -- namely, no pets or kids. It's really easy to turn off the external noise or to just get away from it. Do you find you can't get away from it when you want to, late at night, in your room? Or does the life a family man just not allow that? Maybe truly great writers are more isolated than the average person. (There's a stereotype about the miserable, alienated artist.) It's a paradox -- because good writers also have to be more attuned to the people around them, to live with them, to listen to them, than the average person.
Also, I may be more comfortable with the inner noise. I'm listening to your wife Marybel help your niece Jenny with her hw -- and now they're gone. I just switched them off. It's just me and my thoughts now. Funny, it's harder for me to switch off the outside world when I'm reading. I hate reading with the tv on, for example. Lots of people don't seem to have a problem with that. But I can get completely absorbed when I'm writing. I go into a bubble. I sometimes write for hours and hours, skip lunch, lose the desire to eat and sleep. My head has strong sound-proof walls, and I can retreat to the safety of that place for long periods, like a bear hibernating, or a catepillar building a cocoon.
People definitely write differently, yet there are definitely hallmarks of what good writing is regardless of how you get there.
I remember reading this comment that Hemingway made. I did a lot of research about him in graduate school and got a chance to read a lot about his process, which I think parallels my mine. He also liked to write slowly and painfully in his own little quiet world. At the same time, he was an adventure junky, always traveling, romancing, fighting bulls, catching Marlin in Cuba. Anyway, he said something about how he didn't care that others could write much faster than he could, that he was happy writing 500 good words a day, and that his peers who could produce 5000 just had verbal "dihaerra." You know I had to come back to that.
I love writing poetry because it gives me license to have diharrea. I love just listening to my voice, allowing my emotions to float up to the surface in random, dream-like shapes, searching for words and sounds and images that connect. I love playing with it -- and then going back over it compulsively to see if I can find value, a basic core of meaning.
Tell me what you think.
Thank God for Mangoes
I bite into the mango flesh
The nerves wake up inside
My hard white teeth
Flow of yellow juices
Red and violet mango skin
born of supple muses
with undulating capes
made from the textures, scents
and aftertaste
Work your mouth into a mango!
How does that song go?
Where does the sun go
Dropping under the horizon
From the tree limbs in the heavens
Ripe with globes of life?
I don’t really know.
God, but what a show!
I remember my body has temperatures.
Cool is the flesh of the mango
And my warmth trembles forth
Not without enamel pain
Not without a shirt stain
Yet the buds are fresh inside
I am eternal flesh
How does that song go
About eating life
Until it drips all over?
About taking in
The juice and flesh?
About passing body sin?
Souls at a feast of life
Biting down to the seed
Peel, cut, chew, suck, swallow.
How does that song go?
Breath, feel, sing, tell, write.
Thank god for mangoes.
===
MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
Source: [[Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - Speeches - Letter from the Birmingham Jail|http://www.creighton.edu/mlk/speeches/jail.html]]
[[Bomer|http://www.utexas.edu/opa/experts/profile.php?id=775]] argues for the importance of memoir writing, especially with adolescent writers. He points to the significance of memory in creating/crafting a self. "Making Something of Our Lives: Reading and Writing Memoir" is an excellent resource for students writing memoir. His weaving of different sources in reference to memory is powerful.
Over the past couple of months I've been in a memoir binge of sorts. I have not been able to say why I've been so moved or intrigued by the genre until just now after reading the following:
<<<
In the film //The Ploughman's Lunch//, one fo the characters comments, "Milan Kundera has one of his characters say that struggle of freedom against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting...If we leave the remembering to historians, the struggle's already lost. Everyone must have a memory. Everyone needs to be a historian. In this country, for example, we are endangered of losing hard-won freedoms by dozing off into a perpetual present. (158)
<<<
The link between the struggle of memory, of freedom, and //Ishmael's// leaver and taker retelling and re-membering is clear. To keep preoccupied with the very moment, the latest news or fad or emerging is to lose a hold on the strands of our lives that make for a bigger and wider narrative than what the tyranny of commercial corporatist interests can control and manipulate through marketing strategies.
<<closeAll>><<permaview>><<newTiddler>><<newJournal 'DD MMM YYYY'>><<saveChanges>><<slider chkSliderOptionsPanel OptionsPanel 'options »' 'Change TiddlyWiki advanced options'>>
/***
|Name|NestedSlidersPlugin|
|Source|http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#NestedSlidersPlugin|
|Version|2.3.1|
|Author|Eric Shulman - ELS Design Studios|
|License|http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#LegalStatements <<br>>and [[Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License|http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/]]|
|~CoreVersion|2.1|
|Type|plugin|
|Requires||
|Overrides|Slider.prototype.stop|
|Description|show content in nest-able 'slider' or 'floating' panels, without needing to create separate tiddlers for each panel|
!!!!!Configuration
<<<
Enable animation for slider panels
<<option chkFloatingSlidersAnimate>> allow sliders to animate when opening/closing
>(note: This setting is in //addition// to the general option for enabling/disabling animation effects:
><<option chkAnimate>> enable animations (entire document)
>For slider animation to occur, you must also allow animation in general.
Debugging messages for 'lazy sliders' deferred rendering:
<<option chkDebugLazySliderDefer>> show debugging alert when deferring slider rendering
<<option chkDebugLazySliderRender>> show debugging alert when deferred slider is actually rendered
<<<
!!!!!Usage
<<<
When installed, this plugin adds new wiki syntax for embedding 'slider' panels directly into tiddler content. Use {{{+++}}} and {{{===}}} to delimit the slider content. You can also 'nest' these sliders as deep as you like (see complex nesting example below), so that expandable 'tree-like' hierarchical displays can be created. This is most useful when converting existing in-line text content to create in-line annotations, footnotes, context-sensitive help, or other subordinate information displays.
Additional optional syntax elements let you specify
*default to open
*cookiename
*heading level
*floater (with optional CSS width value)
*transient display (clicking elsewhere closes panel)
*custom class/label/tooltip/accesskey
*alternate label/tooltip (displayed when panel is open)
*panelID (for later use with {{{<<DOM>>}}} macro. See [[DOMTweaksPlugin]])
*automatic blockquote style on panel
*deferred rendering of panel content
The complete syntax, using all options, is:
//{{{
++++(cookiename)!!!!!^width^*{{class{[label=key|tooltip][altlabel|alttooltip]}}}#panelID:>...
content goes here
===
//}}}
where:
* {{{+++}}} (or {{{++++}}}) and {{{===}}}<br>marks the start and end of the slider definition, respectively. When the extra {{{+}}} is used, the slider will be open when initially displayed.
* {{{(cookiename)}}}<br>saves the slider opened/closed state, and restores this state whenever the slider is re-rendered.
* {{{!}}} through {{{!!!!!}}}<br>displays the slider label using a formatted headline (Hn) style instead of a button/link style
* {{{^width^}}} (or just {{{^}}})<br>makes the slider 'float' on top of other content rather than shifting that content downward. 'width' must be a valid CSS value (e.g., "30em", "180px", "50%", etc.). If omitted, the default width is "auto" (i.e., fit to content)
* {{{"*"}}} //(without the quotes)//<br>denotes "transient display": when a click occurs elsewhere in the document, the slider/floating panel will be automatically closed. This is useful for creating 'pulldown menus' that automatically go away after they are used.
* """{{class{[label=key|tooltip][altlabel|alttooltip]}}}"""<br>uses label/tooltip/accesskey. """{{class{...}}}""", """=key""", """|tooltip""" and """[altlabel|alttooltip]""" are optional. 'class' is any valid CSS class name, used to style the slider label text. 'key' must be a ''single letter only''. altlabel/alttooltip specifiy alternative label/tooltip for use when slider/floating panel is displayed.
* {{{#panelID:}}}<br>defines a unique DOM element ID that is assigned to the panel element used to display the slider content. This ID can then be used later to reposition the panel using the {{{<<DOM move id>>}}} macro (see [[DOMTweaksPlugin]]), or to access/modify the panel element through use of {{{document.getElementById(...)}}}) javascript code in a plugin or inline script.
* {{{">"}}} //(without the quotes)//<br>automatically adds blockquote formatting to slider content
* {{{"..."}}} //(without the quotes)//<br>defers rendering of closed sliders until the first time they are opened. //Note: deferred rendering may produce unexpected results in some cases. Use with care.//
//Note: to make slider definitions easier to read and recognize when editing a tiddler, newlines immediately following the {{{+++}}} 'start slider' or preceding the {{{===}}} 'end slider' sequence are automatically supressed so that excess whitespace is eliminated from the output.//
<<<
!!!!!Examples
<<<
simple in-line slider:
{{{
+++
content
===
}}}
+++
content
===
----
use a custom label and tooltip:
{{{
+++[label|tooltip]
content
===
}}}
+++[label|tooltip]
content
===
----
content automatically blockquoted:
{{{
+++>
content
===
}}}
+++>
content
===
----
all options combined //(default open, cookie, heading, sized floater, transient, class, label/tooltip/key, blockquoted, deferred)//
{{{
++++(testcookie)!!!^30em^*{{big{[label=Z|click or press Alt-Z to open]}}}>...
content
===
}}}
++++(testcookie)!!!^30em^*{{big{[label=Z|click or press Alt-Z to open]}}}>...
content
===
----
complex nesting example:
{{{
+++[get info...=I|click for information or press Alt-I]
put some general information here,
plus a floating panel with more specific info:
+++^10em^[view details...|click for details]
put some detail here, which could in turn contain a transient panel,
perhaps with a +++^25em^*[glossary definition]explaining technical terms===
===
===
}}}
+++[get info...=I|click for information or press Alt-I]
put some general information here,
plus a floating panel with more specific info:
+++^10em^[view details...|click for details]
put some detail here, which could in turn contain a transient panel,
perhaps with a +++^25em^*[glossary definition]explaining technical terms===
===
===
<<<
!!!!!Installation
<<<
import (or copy/paste) the following tiddlers into your document:
''NestedSlidersPlugin'' (tagged with <<tag systemConfig>>)
<<<
!!!!!Revision History
<<<
''2007.07.26 - 2.3.1'' in document.onclick(), propagate return value from hijacked core click handler to consume OR bubble up click as needed. Fixes "IE click disease", whereby nearly every mouse click causes a page transition.
''2007.07.20 - 2.3.0'' added syntax for setting panel ID (#panelID:). This allows individual slider panels to be repositioned within tiddler content simply by giving them a unique ID and then moving them to the desired location using the {{{<<DOM move id>>}}} macro.
''2007.07.19 - 2.2.0'' added syntax for alttext and alttip (button label and tooltip to be displayed when panel is open)
''2007.07.14 - 2.1.2'' corrected use of 'transient' attribute in IE to prevent (non-recursive) infinite loop
''2007.07.12 - 2.1.0'' replaced use of "*" for 'open/close on rollover' (which didn't work too well). "*" now indicates 'transient' panels that are automatically closed if a click occurs somewhere else in the document. This permits use of nested sliders to create nested "pulldown menus" that automatically disappear after interaction with them has been completed. Also, in onClickNestedSlider(), use "theTarget.sliderCookie", instead of "this.sliderCookie" to correct cookie state tracking when automatically dismissing transient panels.
''2007.06.10 - 2.0.5'' add check to ensure that window.adjustSliderPanel() is defined before calling it (prevents error on shutdown when mouse event handlers are still defined)
''2007.05.31 - 2.0.4'' add handling to invoke adjustSliderPanel() for onmouseover events on slider button and panel. This allows the panel position to be re-synced when the button position shifts due to changes in unrelated content above it on the page. (thanks to Harsha for bug report)
''2007.03.30 - 2.0.3'' added chkFloatingSlidersAnimate (default to FALSE), so that slider animation can be disabled independent of the overall document animation setting (avoids strange rendering and focus problems in floating panels)
''2007.03.01 - 2.0.2'' for TW2.2+, hijack Morpher.prototype.stop so that "overflow:hidden" can be reset to "overflow:visible" after animation ends
''2007.03.01 - 2.0.1'' in hijack for Slider.prototype.stop, use apply() to pass params to core function
|please see [[NestedSlidersPluginHistory]] for additional revision details|
''2005.11.03 - 1.0.0'' initial public release
<<<
!!!!!Credits
<<<
This feature was implemented by EricShulman from [[ELS Design Studios|http:/www.elsdesign.com]] with initial research and suggestions from RodneyGomes, GeoffSlocock, and PaulPetterson.
<<<
!!!!!Code
***/
//{{{
version.extensions.nestedSliders = {major: 2, minor: 3, revision: 1, date: new Date(2007,7,26)};
//}}}
//{{{
// options for deferred rendering of sliders that are not initially displayed
if (config.options.chkDebugLazySliderDefer==undefined) config.options.chkDebugLazySliderDefer=false;
if (config.options.chkDebugLazySliderRender==undefined) config.options.chkDebugLazySliderRender=false;
if (config.options.chkFloatingSlidersAnimate==undefined) config.options.chkFloatingSlidersAnimate=false;
// default styles for 'floating' class
setStylesheet(".floatingPanel { position:absolute; z-index:10; padding:0.5em; margin:0em; \
background-color:#eee; color:#000; border:1px solid #000; text-align:left; }","floatingPanelStylesheet");
//}}}
//{{{
config.formatters.push( {
name: "nestedSliders",
match: "\\n?\\+{3}",
terminator: "\\s*\\={3}\\n?",
lookahead: "\\n?\\+{3}(\\+)?(\\([^\\)]*\\))?(\\!*)?(\\^(?:[^\\^\\*\\[\\>]*\\^)?)?(\\*)?(?:\\{\\{([\\w]+[\\s\\w]*)\\{)?(\\[[^\\]]*\\])?(\\[[^\\]]*\\])?(?:\\}{3})?(\\#[^:]*\\:)?(\\>)?(\\.\\.\\.)?\\s*",
handler: function(w)
{
lookaheadRegExp = new RegExp(this.lookahead,"mg");
lookaheadRegExp.lastIndex = w.matchStart;
var lookaheadMatch = lookaheadRegExp.exec(w.source)
if(lookaheadMatch && lookaheadMatch.index == w.matchStart)
{
// var defopen=lookaheadMatch[1]
// var cookiename=lookaheadMatch[2]
// var header=lookaheadMatch[3]
// var panelwidth=lookaheadMatch[4]
// var transient=lookaheadMatch[5]
// var class=lookaheadMatch[6]
// var label=lookaheadMatch[7]
// var openlabel=lookaheadMatch[8]
// var panelID=lookaheadMatch[9]
// var blockquote=lookaheadMatch[10]
// var deferred=lookaheadMatch[11]
// location for rendering button and panel
var place=w.output;
// default to closed, no cookie, no accesskey, no alternate text/tip
var show="none"; var cookie=""; var key="";
var closedtext=">"; var closedtip="";
var openedtext="<"; var openedtip="";
// extra "+", default to open
if (lookaheadMatch[1]) show="block";
// cookie, use saved open/closed state
if (lookaheadMatch[2]) {
cookie=lookaheadMatch[2].trim().slice(1,-1);
cookie="chkSlider"+cookie;
if (config.options[cookie]==undefined)
{ config.options[cookie] = (show=="block") }
show=config.options[cookie]?"block":"none";
}
// parse label/tooltip/accesskey: [label=X|tooltip]
if (lookaheadMatch[7]) {
var parts=lookaheadMatch[7].trim().slice(1,-1).split("|");
closedtext=parts.shift();
if (closedtext.substr(closedtext.length-2,1)=="=")
{ key=closedtext.substr(closedtext.length-1,1); closedtext=closedtext.slice(0,-2); }
openedtext=closedtext;
if (parts.length) closedtip=openedtip=parts.join("|");
else { closedtip="show "+closedtext; openedtip="hide "+closedtext; }
}
// parse alternate label/tooltip: [label|tooltip]
if (lookaheadMatch[8]) {
var parts=lookaheadMatch[8].trim().slice(1,-1).split("|");
openedtext=parts.shift();
if (parts.length) openedtip=parts.join("|");
else openedtip="hide "+openedtext;
}
var title=show=='block'?openedtext:closedtext;
var tooltip=show=='block'?openedtip:closedtip;
// create the button
if (lookaheadMatch[3]) { // use "Hn" header format instead of button/link
var lvl=(lookaheadMatch[3].length>6)?6:lookaheadMatch[3].length;
var btn = createTiddlyElement(createTiddlyElement(place,"h"+lvl,null,null,null),"a",null,lookaheadMatch[6],title);
btn.onclick=onClickNestedSlider;
btn.setAttribute("href","javascript:;");
btn.setAttribute("title",tooltip);
}
else
var btn = createTiddlyButton(place,title,tooltip,onClickNestedSlider,lookaheadMatch[6]);
btn.innerHTML=title; // enables use of HTML entities in label
// set extra button attributes
btn.setAttribute("closedtext",closedtext);
btn.setAttribute("closedtip",closedtip);
btn.setAttribute("openedtext",openedtext);
btn.setAttribute("openedtip",openedtip);
btn.sliderCookie = cookie; // save the cookiename (if any) in the button object
btn.defOpen=lookaheadMatch[1]!=null; // save default open/closed state (boolean)
btn.keyparam=key; // save the access key letter ("" if none)
if (key.length) {
btn.setAttribute("accessKey",key); // init access key
btn.onfocus=function(){this.setAttribute("accessKey",this.keyparam);}; // **reclaim** access key on focus
}
btn.onmouseover=function(event) // mouseover on button aligns floater position with button
{ if (window.adjustSliderPos) window.adjustSliderPos(this.parentNode,this,this.sliderPanel,this.sliderPanel.className); }
// create slider panel
var panelClass=lookaheadMatch[4]?"floatingPanel":"sliderPanel";
var panelID=lookaheadMatch[9]; if (panelID) panelID=panelID.slice(1,-1); // trim off delimiters
var panel=createTiddlyElement(place,"div",panelID,panelClass,null);
panel.button = btn; // so the slider panel know which button it belongs to
btn.sliderPanel=panel; // so the button knows which slider panel it belongs to
panel.defaultPanelWidth=(lookaheadMatch[4] && lookaheadMatch[4].length>2)?lookaheadMatch[4].slice(1,-1):"";
panel.setAttribute("transient",lookaheadMatch[5]=="*"?"true":"false");
panel.style.display = show;
panel.style.width=panel.defaultPanelWidth;
panel.onmouseover=function(event) // mouseover on panel aligns floater position with button
{ if (window.adjustSliderPos) window.adjustSliderPos(this.parentNode,this.button,this,this.className); }
// render slider (or defer until shown)
w.nextMatch = lookaheadMatch.index + lookaheadMatch[0].length;
if ((show=="block")||!lookaheadMatch[11]) {
// render now if panel is supposed to be shown or NOT deferred rendering
w.subWikify(lookaheadMatch[10]?createTiddlyElement(panel,"blockquote"):panel,this.terminator);
// align floater position with button
if (window.adjustSliderPos) window.adjustSliderPos(place,btn,panel,panelClass);
}
else {
var src = w.source.substr(w.nextMatch);
var endpos=findMatchingDelimiter(src,"+++","===");
panel.setAttribute("raw",src.substr(0,endpos));
panel.setAttribute("blockquote",lookaheadMatch[10]?"true":"false");
panel.setAttribute("rendered","false");
w.nextMatch += endpos+3;
if (w.source.substr(w.nextMatch,1)=="\n") w.nextMatch++;
if (config.options.chkDebugLazySliderDefer) alert("deferred '"+title+"':\n\n"+panel.getAttribute("raw"));
}
}
}
}
)
// TBD: ignore 'quoted' delimiters (e.g., "{{{+++foo===}}}" isn't really a slider)
function findMatchingDelimiter(src,starttext,endtext) {
var startpos = 0;
var endpos = src.indexOf(endtext);
// check for nested delimiters
while (src.substring(startpos,endpos-1).indexOf(starttext)!=-1) {
// count number of nested 'starts'
var startcount=0;
var temp = src.substring(startpos,endpos-1);
var pos=temp.indexOf(starttext);
while (pos!=-1) { startcount++; pos=temp.indexOf(starttext,pos+starttext.length); }
// set up to check for additional 'starts' after adjusting endpos
startpos=endpos+endtext.length;
// find endpos for corresponding number of matching 'ends'
while (startcount && endpos!=-1) {
endpos = src.indexOf(endtext,endpos+endtext.length);
startcount--;
}
}
return (endpos==-1)?src.length:endpos;
}
//}}}
//{{{
window.onClickNestedSlider=function(e)
{
if (!e) var e = window.event;
var theTarget = resolveTarget(e);
var theLabel = theTarget.firstChild.data;
var theSlider = theTarget.sliderPanel
var isOpen = theSlider.style.display!="none";
// toggle label
theTarget.innerHTML=isOpen?theTarget.getAttribute("closedText"):theTarget.getAttribute("openedText");
// toggle tooltip
theTarget.setAttribute("title",isOpen?theTarget.getAttribute("closedTip"):theTarget.getAttribute("openedTip"));
// deferred rendering (if needed)
if (theSlider.getAttribute("rendered")=="false") {
if (config.options.chkDebugLazySliderRender)
alert("rendering '"+theLabel+"':\n\n"+theSlider.getAttribute("raw"));
var place=theSlider;
if (theSlider.getAttribute("blockquote")=="true")
place=createTiddlyElement(place,"blockquote");
wikify(theSlider.getAttribute("raw"),place);
theSlider.setAttribute("rendered","true");
}
// show/hide the slider
if(config.options.chkAnimate && (theSlider.className!='floatingPanel' || config.options.chkFloatingSlidersAnimate))
anim.startAnimating(new Slider(theSlider,!isOpen,e.shiftKey || e.altKey,"none"));
else
theSlider.style.display = isOpen ? "none" : "block";
// reset to default width (might have been changed via plugin code)
theSlider.style.width=theSlider.defaultPanelWidth;
// align floater panel position with target button
if (!isOpen && window.adjustSliderPos) window.adjustSliderPos(theSlider.parentNode,theTarget,theSlider,theSlider.className);
// if showing panel, set focus to first 'focus-able' element in panel
if (theSlider.style.display!="none") {
var ctrls=theSlider.getElementsByTagName("*");
for (var c=0; c<ctrls.length; c++) {
var t=ctrls[c].tagName.toLowerCase();
if ((t=="input" && ctrls[c].type!="hidden") || t=="textarea" || t=="select")
{ ctrls[c].focus(); break; }
}
}
var cookie=theTarget.sliderCookie;
if (cookie && cookie.length) {
config.options[cookie]=!isOpen;
if (config.options[cookie]!=theTarget.defOpen)
saveOptionCookie(cookie);
else { // remove cookie if slider is in default display state
var ex=new Date(); ex.setTime(ex.getTime()-1000);
document.cookie = cookie+"=novalue; path=/; expires="+ex.toGMTString();
}
}
return false;
}
//}}}
//{{{
// click in document background closes transient panels
document.nestedSliders_savedOnClick=document.onclick;
document.onclick=function(ev) { if (!ev) var ev=window.event; var target=resolveTarget(ev);
// call original click handler
if (document.nestedSliders_savedOnClick)
var retval=document.nestedSliders_savedOnClick.apply(this,arguments);
// if click was inside transient panel (or something contained by a transient panel)... leave it alone
var p=target;
while (p)
if ((p.className=="floatingPanel"||p.className=="sliderPanel")&&p.getAttribute("transient")=="true") break;
else p=p.parentNode;
if (p) return retval;
// otherwise, find and close all transient panels...
var all=document.all?document.all:document.getElementsByTagName("DIV");
for (var i=0; i<all.length; i++) {
// if it is not a transient panel, or the click was on the button that opened this panel, don't close it.
if (all[i].getAttribute("transient")!="true" || all[i].button==target) continue;
// otherwise, if the panel is currently visible, close it by clicking it's button
if (all[i].style.display!="none") window.onClickNestedSlider({target:all[i].button})
}
return retval;
};
//}}}
//{{{
// adjust floating panel position based on button position
if (window.adjustSliderPos==undefined) window.adjustSliderPos=function(place,btn,panel,panelClass) {
if (panelClass=="floatingPanel") {
var left=0;
var top=btn.offsetHeight;
if (place.style.position!="relative") {
var left=findPosX(btn);
var top=findPosY(btn)+btn.offsetHeight;
var p=place; while (p && p.className!='floatingPanel') p=p.parentNode;
if (p) { left-=findPosX(p); top-=findPosY(p); }
}
if (findPosX(btn)+panel.offsetWidth > getWindowWidth()) // adjust position to stay inside right window edge
left-=findPosX(btn)+panel.offsetWidth-getWindowWidth()+15; // add extra 15px 'fudge factor'
panel.style.left=left+"px"; panel.style.top=top+"px";
}
}
function getWindowWidth() {
if(document.width!=undefined)
return document.width; // moz (FF)
if(document.documentElement && ( document.documentElement.clientWidth || document.documentElement.clientHeight ) )
return document.documentElement.clientWidth; // IE6
if(document.body && ( document.body.clientWidth || document.body.clientHeight ) )
return document.body.clientWidth; // IE4
if(window.innerWidth!=undefined)
return window.innerWidth; // IE - general
return 0; // unknown
}
//}}}
//{{{
// TW2.1 and earlier:
// hijack Slider animation handler 'stop' handler so overflow is visible after animation has completed
Slider.prototype.coreStop = Slider.prototype.stop;
Slider.prototype.stop = function()
{ this.coreStop.apply(this,arguments); this.element.style.overflow = "visible"; }
// TW2.2+
// hijack Morpher animation handler 'stop' handler so overflow is visible after animation has completed
if (version.major+.1*version.minor+.01*version.revision>=2.2) {
Morpher.prototype.coreStop = Morpher.prototype.stop;
Morpher.prototype.stop = function()
{ this.coreStop.apply(this,arguments); this.element.style.overflow = "visible"; }
}
//}}}
*Memories
*Reflections
*Self-definitions
*Questions
*Lists
*Experiments with language
*Discovered words
*Snippets of language heard
*Insightful quotations
*Plans for the future
*Writing again about something from an old entry
*Overheard conversations
*Interviews
*Notes
*Free association
Source: Bomer, Randy. //Time for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School//. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1995.
Last Updated: <<today>>
Copyright ©
Carlos Morales Gonzalez
and Alex Salinas
KANSAS CITY STAR
(Kansas City, MO)
March 24, 2003, n.p.
© 2003, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS. Distributed by KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE Information Services.
Offensive? Depends on Your Viewpoint
By Karen Uhlenhuth
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
KANSAS CITY, Mo.--Bob Wolfson has heard plenty of people use the term "Jew" as a verb.
"You'd be surprised at the number of people who don't know that (derives from) people who are Jewish," he said. "Most of these people grew up in small towns and never knew a Jewish person."
Does Wolfson take offense? Well, it depends.
"The difference between being a bigot and just ignorant is whether you know what you said," said Wolfson, Plains States regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, which monitors and speaks out against racial and religious hatred and extremism.
Should people take offense at such slurs, obvious or not?
After all, a couple of black women from Johnson County are suing Southwest Airlines over a white flight attendant's comment they thought was racially discriminatory.
The attendant had chanted, "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat, we gotta go." Little did she know, apparently, that the original version of the chant included the "N" word.
Psychologist I.J. Barrish doesn't think it's an overreaction.
"Who gets to decide what's reasonable to someone else?" asked Barrish, who practices in Leawood. No one, he would argue. That's a call each of us makes on our own.
When it comes to offense taken, even if it seems like a stretch, Barrish said: "You don't know what people have experienced. You don't know what wounds lie there with scabs over them. Past traumas leave us feeling a vulnerability that gets tweaked by people who don't intend to tweak it."
That apparently was the case on the Southwest flight. The flight attendant, a 22-year-old, said she'd never heard the racist version of the rhyme she chanted over the loud speaker.
And while the attendant's experience "may be far removed from the root of that statement, I think that statement was very, very close to a core experience of these women," said Joyce Wallace, a licensed psychologist who practices in Independence, Mo.
"Can you ever feel too sensitive about something you think has racist implications?" said Wallace, who is black. "I don't think you can. You're talking about the core of who you are."
Diane Hershberger, director of Kansas City Harmony, is adamant on that point.
"It seems now people think it's OK to tell people sometimes they shouldn't be offended about race or gender or ethnicity. I happen to believe we don't have the right to tell each other what (we) can be offended about. We don't challenge each other's experiences in other situations. If someone's feelings are hurt in a human exchange, we don't say, 'Come on now, you're faking it.' We accept their hurt.
"People still may choose to blow them off, but there's something fundamentally wrong, oppressive almost, to say, 'You should feel like me, and I wouldn't take offense.' "
There's often a divide in how people perceive offense, especially where race is concerned, Hershberger said.
"People of color often have a different definition of racism and racist behavior than people who are Caucasian. In my opinion, neither is right nor wrong. It's not wrong that whites don't understand that. But it doesn't make them not responsible for understanding when people of color point that out."
Hershberger hears from white people who are fatigued by what they consider to be unmerited or overblown allegations and complaints of racist behavior. She has no patience for it.
"How often are Caucasian people confronted with having to hear about discrimination? I don't think it's very often."
On the other hand, David Donovan, a Kansas City psychologist, said that in the prevailing "climate of PC...people have gotten really kind of wacky about taking offense." He doubts whether hurt feelings are at the root of many such claims.
Although he acknowledges that humans do at times commit abuses large and small against one another, Donovan said that cries of offense sometimes seem geared to "create some sort of uproar and make a scene, to draw attention for some personal reason. It turns into a platform. Someone says, 'Oh, he offended me and I want a million dollars.' It's like 'Wow, why didn't you just talk about it or write a letter?' "
Even in the face of an arguable offense, he said, there's merit in moving on and cultivating "some sort of self-empowerment where you're not going to let things like that get under your skin, and you're going to be able