good advice

From: Mike Cole (mcole@weber.ucsd.edu)
Date: Sat Jan 26 2002 - 12:46:10 PST


Elizabeth,

Your advice seems good to me. I do not think that simply exhorting
people to reflect will help. But your concrete suggestion:
;Avoid telling jokes
that depend for their humor on ridiculing another person or a group to
which you do not belong.&quot;<br>
<br>
And another:<br>
<br>
&quot;Avoid assuming an accent or expressing stereotypical attitudes or
behaviors that mock members of groups to which you do not
belong.&quot;<br>

is very useful.

I do not know what could be done to make Mary feel as if it were worth
her time to participate in xmca. I value her work and contributions
and have tried to demonstrate that in my public behavior. But I cannot
avoid the apparently unforgivalbe circumstand of being a satraight,
white male. I cannot control who contributes to this discussion. I cannot
provide an analysis of jokes on xmca in activity theory terms because
xmca is to variable with respect to its status as an object for those
who participate.

What interested you most about the Wenger discussion so far? To me
what has seemed like an assist to my own development is Mary and Diane's
emphasis on exclusionary practices that are the underside of every
community crossing the Vann and Bowker discussion of the movement
of COP from object to instrument in its change of context from
critical social science theory to business op. Now it seems as if
we cannot live with our differences.

Unable to change my identity, thanks in part, to a little help from
my co-participants.
mike



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