Re: Diversity?

Mary Bryson (brys who-is-at unixg.ubc.ca)
Wed, 16 Sep 1998 07:46:52 -0700

Phil
perplexedly
wrote:

If a doctrine of difference is propounded, difference becomes the catch cry
and focus of attention. If one remains silent, inequities abound. If one
speaks out, inequities flourish. Tokenism is, to me, many more times cruel
than exclusion. Exclusion is, however, unthinkably inequitous.
*************************************

Mary
perplexedly
wonders.....

Why would "difference" be coded as "a doctrine"? Difference, or my
preferred locution, Derrida's "differance" is a vital quality of "being in
the world". And in "meat world" it is the case that certain differences are
identified by certain people as justification for the doling out of quite
nasty punishments, like losing your head or your job or any chance of a
viable economic future. We call this discrimination. Discrimination refers
to a very vital set of relations and practices, and so shy would it be a
problem for difference to be a "focus of attention"? For whom would looking
at the mirror be a problem?

m

Associate Professor, Education/UBC
Principal Co-Investigator: GenTech Project
http://www.educ.sfu.ca/gentech/index.htm

"What's important now is to moblize hysteria as a quasi-revlutionary force
- refusing conformity with what is. Feminism could benefit from an
affirmation of hysteria; hysteria as a response to what is unacceptable and
intolerable in life...as a response to emergency."

Avital Ronell