[Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context

[larry smolucha]

Message from Francine:

Only taking into account  the oppression of  non-Western peoples by Western (European) people, is dysfunctional. There are (and always have been) other forces at play.
In the era of European colonialism, there were other non-European cultures that engaged in
colonialism and imperialism. The 1,000 years of Muslim Ottoman Turkish rule
of the Middle-East was followed by a much briefer period of European 'administration'
over the Middle East (following WWI). [Note: that Egypt is not part of the Middle East]

As Annalisa points out China had its own empire, when Western European powers were just beginning to build theirs. It is absurd to regard the Russian Empire as a Western European colonial power. In the 20th century, Imperial Japan of the WWII era was not a Western power.

Latin America had various empires that oppressed indigenous peoples long before
the Spanish came. And there were indigenous oppressors in Africa, long before the
European colonization. Look at the caste system in India, which was not created or imposed
by Europeans - unless we want to go back to the Aryan invasion of 2,000 B.C. (which also produced the holy books in Sanskrit.) Oh, and North American indigenous people made
war on each other long before Europeans ever set foot on North America.

[Note: In a dysfunctional family none of the problems ever get resolved because people
stereotype each other as the 'scapegoat', the 'rebel', 'the care giver', the family 'hero',
the 'invisble ones', and the 'mascot'.]

> From: annalisa@unm.edu
> To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
> Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2015 21:43:30 +0000
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context
> 
> Hello,
> 
> It is a arresting proposition to do an analysis of how people are successfully oppressed rather than how they are successfully liberated. Isn't this what George Orwell attempted to show?
> 
> Of course what is implied by an analysis of successful oppression is (in my mind) to show whether a disruption of oppressive patterns offers liberation better, equal, or worse than attempting to establish patterns of liberation?
> 
> Perhaps disruption, interruption, or diversion of oppressive patterns is the best first step? This need not be revolutionary, just effective?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Annalisa
> 
>