[Xmca-l] Re: keeping eyes open

[Diana Arya]

Hello all,

Acknowledging the emergence of multiple threads from the original ("why
generations"), I selected this particular thread to build on Antti's
encouragement to invite other voices in reimagining the purposes and
practices of this listserv. I'm currently working on a manuscript that
relates to what we can learn, how we can grow as scholars, when/if we view
reality as the *known unknown. *We need diverse voices/insights/experiences
to understand what's happening to whom, for what purposes and under what
conditions. James Baldwin is a central voice in my piece; the following
excerpt from the 1980 landmark essay *Dark Days *may be relevant to our
discussion:

Every human being born begins to be *civilized* the moment he or she is
born. Since we all arrive here absolutely helpless, with no way of getting
a decent meal or of moving from one place to another without human help
(and human help exacts a human price), there is no way around that. But
this is civilization with a small *c*. Civilization with a large *C* is
something else again. So is education with a small *e* different from
Education with a large E. In the lowercase, education refers to the
relations that actually obtain among human beings. In the uppercase, it
refers to power.      –James Baldwin, *Dark Days*, p.44


Perhaps we can use Baldwin's linguistic marker in making visible the power
distinction of R/research practices. I find that the work of philosopher
Kristie Dotson on what she calls *epistemic oppression* is also relevant.
Who gets to be the *knower, *and who is relegated to making mistakes or
missing intentions? Obviously power plays a role here.

And now that some time has passed, I want to celebrate Arturo's intrepid
engagement with this listserv. We have got to be willing to see *HOW* (not
if) racism is instantiated in our discourse. We have been socialized in a
world that values some groups of others, and such inequities seep into our
languages, discourses, etc. And academia is not immune to racist
ideologies. I believe that the real risk is acknowledging one's blind
spots, and learning to see the world as it is.

What do others think?

Best,
D


On Sat, Nov 28, 2020 at 3:33 AM Antti Rajala <ajrajala@gmail.com> wrote:

> David and all,
>
> In my reading, the issue at stake is that over a long time, many people
> experience the XMCA list as unwelcoming. Instead of refocusing the issue to
> something else, I believe we all have a responsibility to recognize it as a
> problem, carefully listen to these voices and be open to a change in the
> power dynamics of this list. Zaza, Beth, and others have made a good start
> in suggesting concrete principles of where to start.
>
> Antti
>
> On Sat, 28 Nov 2020 at 12:56, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Zaza--
>>
>> Dude, I don't really speak Russian either, as Nikolai and Anna will tell
>> you (we only speak English). In my translation work I spend a lot more time
>> on Google Translate than I would like, and that's why I burden the list
>> with the queries you mention from time to time.. But I bet you speak Shona,
>> or at least understand a little.
>>
>> So maybe you can help. I'm using this tune from the late great Tuku
>> (Oliver Mtukudzi) in a class I am giving on sex education in Korea. I've
>> been told that it doesn't really mention AIDS/HIV explicitly, and I get
>> that--in fact, that's one of the reasons why I think it's useful for making
>> certain parallels between pandemics and also discussing HPV and other
>> issues I want to talk about. But I don't quite understand THIS verse--maybe
>> you can help me?
>>
>> Zvinorwadza sei kubhinywa newaugere naye
>> (Kana uinahwo utachiwana)
>> Zvinorwadza sei kubhinywa neakabvisa pfuma
>> (Kana uinahwo utachiwana)
>> Achiziva unahwo hutachiwana
>> (Kana uinahwo utachiwana)
>> Ende uchiziva unahwo hutachiwana
>> (Kana uinahwo utachiwana)
>>
>> So "Kana uinahwo utachiwana" means something like "If you get infected".
>> But what is the reference to being raped by your roommate?
>>
>> On the subject of this thread. Like voter fraud, racism is a very serious
>> charge, and the right has successfully made hay out of its seriousness. But
>> as with voter fraud they have made even more hay out of rendering the
>> charge unproveable, by removing its class content and rendering it a purely
>> subjective inclination. This is why, I think (I hope), Arturo and others
>> tend to raise this sort of thing in private off-list material that is so
>> much at variance with their public writings that it fairly attracts the
>> charge of hypocrisy or at least political timidity. After all, if you
>> really suspect your interlocutor of racism, it's incumbent on you to keep
>> your mouth and not just your eyes open. But you've got to put money where
>> your mouth is: you have to provide some evidence (e.g. the paper that
>> Harshad circulated on the list not too long ago). There are important
>> scientific issues we need to discuss which are actually not unrelated to
>> the one that Arturo was reacting to: whether you can accurately judge the
>> language proficiency of a person by their race or national origin (as I
>> have done in the second paragraph above). Not unrelated. But not identical
>> to either, else I would not have written that paragraph.
>>
>> Here's an example. A dear colleague of mine, who like the vast majority
>> of people in this country is not white and wouldn't know deficit
>> linguistics from a surplus, has just written a paper on why Korean children
>> tend to drop articles (i.e. "a" and "the"). He begins with the Chomskyan
>> premise that all nouns must, according to universal human grammars which
>> are hardwired at birth, be realized by "determiner phrases". What that
>> means is that a noun phrase like "the cat" is not really about a cat--it's
>> about "the", and the "the" is modified by "cat" (What kind of "the-ness" do
>> you mean? The cat kind!)
>>
>> But it's THIS, and not Vygotskyan, Hallidayan, or Bernsteinian
>> developmentalism, that is deficit linguistics. I won't say it is racist,
>> because unfortunately that term has lost its scientific content and become
>> nothing but a thought crime. But I will say that people who speak languages
>> without articles or languages that emphasize nouns over determiners (e.g.
>> Korean, Chinese, Russian) are not born with a birth defect (or "null spell
>> out", as the Chomskyans say).
>>
>> Does Shona have articles or not? Do you know?
>>
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY0JssD8Hzc__;!!Mih3wA!SWP2ZnqgUqryJOnGljQ0m8RjinrQROanrP4GpZ_iIiLzaHb7yDYK93TPCNTgFzYgRlD9hA$ 
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY0JssD8Hzc__;!!Mih3wA!QePX9kKiZVk8QmwFWMwYJblxjbu3_Pd2XeZXyOV1YZVr6VOrUaRfbuTZlUpgqPtWWiBSSw$>
>>
>> David Kellogg
>> Sangmyung University
>>
>> New Book with Nikolai Veresov
>> L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works, Vol. I: The Foundations of Pedology
>> Translated with Prefatory Notes and Outlines by David Kellogg and Nikolai
>> Veresov
>> See free downloadable pdf at:
>>
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007*2F978-981-15-0528-7__;JQ!!Mih3wA!SWP2ZnqgUqryJOnGljQ0m8RjinrQROanrP4GpZ_iIiLzaHb7yDYK93TPCNTgFzayPs2HzQ$ 
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007*2F978-981-15-0528-7__;JQ!!Mih3wA!QePX9kKiZVk8QmwFWMwYJblxjbu3_Pd2XeZXyOV1YZVr6VOrUaRfbuTZlUpgqPuZA6tlEA$>
>>
>> Forthcoming in 2020:
>> L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works, Vol. II: The Problem of Age.
>> Translated with Prefatory Notes and Outlines by Nikolai Veresov and David
>> Kellogg
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 28, 2020 at 6:02 PM Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>> P.S. To my best understanding (very minimal, no doubt), the subject
>>>> matter of Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory is the *development of
>>>> human higher psychological functions*. (How that is "left," "right,"
>>>> or otherwise is beyond me.)
>>>>
>>>
>>> Political propensities can be discerned across some (adult)
>>> developmental stages.
>>>
>>> Huw
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>

-- 
*Nothing can be changed until it is faced. *(James Baldwin)

Diana J. Arya, PhD
she/her/hers/they/them/theirs
Associate Professor and Graduate Diversity Officer, Education
Faculty Director, McEnroe Reading and Language Arts Clinic
Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
University of California, Santa Barbara
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cbleducation.org__;!!Mih3wA!SWP2ZnqgUqryJOnGljQ0m8RjinrQROanrP4GpZ_iIiLzaHb7yDYK93TPCNTgFzaPiElt7A$ 
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