I don know the personal life of Giroux, Apple, McLaren, but I know the
work of these authors, and my apreciation is based on their works. I thi=
nk
that in the academia there are much disput - disput for power and prestig=
e.
But I don can affirm that these authors are unscrupulous persons. I think
that Stephanie cleared up the questions raised for Mary.
Jo=E3o Martins
JO=C3O BATISTA MARTINS
RUA ANISIO FIGUEIREDO, 476
LONDRINA - PARAN=C1 - BRASIL
CEP 86065-630
TEL: 043 3385208
E-MAIL jbmartin who-is-at sercomtel.com.br
----------
> From: stephanie spina <sspina who-is-at email.gc.cuny.edu>
> To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Diversity Issues & Resistant Students
> Date: Segunda-feira, 6 de Outubro de 1997 11:25
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> I must take issue with Mary Bryson s assessment of McLaren, Giroux, and
> Apple. =20
> But perhaps I should first identify myself with an assortment of labels
so
> I can be put in the appropriate boxes. I am a heterosexual woman from =
a
> working class family and am completing a Ph.D. in social psychology wit=
h
a
> concentration in cultural studies. (aha! red flag! a grad student!)=20
Would
> your impression of me change if I added that I am overage, overweight,
and
> overwrought? Or that I have a Harvard degree with a 4.0 average? Or
that
> I have been separated for two years? Or that I am of Puerto Rican and
> Italian heritage? (Maternal and paternal lineage, respectively, since =
I
> am frequently asked and it apprears to matter to so many.) Did your
> opinion of me change as you read each part of the description? Be
honest.
> There is a point to this exercise.
> =20
> Mary_s comments suggest that political insight is directly linked to
> sexual, racial, and class origins. Truly, a dangerous notion. Gender a=
nd
> racial experience, for example, do not guarantee political or theoretic=
al
> insight. They have to be worked for and, yes, they may show up in white
> men such as Stanley Aronowitz, Michael Apple, or others who contribute
> greatly to this list including Jay Lemke and other erudite white male
> participants in xmca discussions. Maybe we should dismiss them as well
as
> Vygotsky, Freud, Marx, Gramsci, etc., all white men. =20
> =20
> To dispense with their work because they are white and publish books is
> essentialist at best. If an author_s work resonates in the public
sphere,
> it may be because they have something to say. As for Giroux,
> appropriating the work of women of color, that is absurd. Appropriatin=
g
> means using someone_s ideas and not giving them credit for it. This is
> certainly not the case in Giroux_s use of bell hooks, chandra mohanty,
and
> others. Nor does it acknowledge that many of these same feminists have
> been published in books edited by Giroux. So much for critical mediatio=
n.
> Work by Giroux and McLaren is central to any discourse on diversity.
> These are scholars who have taken risks for their beliefs. It cost
Giroux
> his job at Boston University in the 80s. It forced McLaren to leave
> Canada in 1985 to find work. =20
> Mary_s argument about Ellsworth is also somewhat sensationalist.
Ellsworth
> is the one who fired off an article steeped in military like binarisms.
> Mary says Giroux tried to bury her, but his response was measured
compared
> to Ellsworth_s offensive attack. =20
> =20
> The students at the University of British Columbia who voted that Peter
> McLaren be named Noted Scholar this summer obviously also disagree with
> Mary Bryson_s assessment of Peter McLaren. Mary obviously hasn't read
> McLaren in the last several years. His work complements Giroux in some
> ways, certainly, but both are original, and unique and there is nothing
> like either stylistically or politically in the field. True, both writ=
e
> about Whiteness (as do many others) but each conceptualizes it
> differently. (See the Giroux article in the previous issue of the
Harvard
> Ed Review and compare it to McLaren s work on the topic, for example.)
> Their focus is also in different areas. McLaren concentrates more on
> global capitalism while Giroux writes more in depth on youth and cultur=
al
> studies, especially media. McLaren_s work is highly regarded and
> published a great deal in Mexico, Brasil, Argentina, and many other
> countries, as evidenced in the well meaning comments from Joao.=20
McLaren_s
> new book, _Revolutionary Multiculturalism_, is strongly supported by
> scholars and activists of color. All of his work, including that on th=
e
> abolition of whiteness, should be judged on its own merits. The issue
> should be a fair assessment based on the work by Apple, Giroux, McLaren=
,
> et. al., not an assessment based on the fairness of their skin or their
> sexual physiology or orientation.
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>=20
> Stephanie Urso Spina
> City University of New York
> sspina who-is-at email.gc.cuny.edu
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> =20
> =20
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