Thurs: EC 11 Final Exam, EC 60 Midterm which will be a final if I get a B
Fri: First Draft of PS 128 paper due. 0/10 pages currently written.
Striking the oral presentation too because I just wrote it. Huzzah! I guess the biggest reason I'm taking Chinese now is not to be able to converse fluently in Chinese, but more because of the thrill I get from learning how to express new words and ideas. I knew I was in higher level Chinese when I learned how to say "objectification of women." Getting ready to start the feminist movement in China now...
Snippet of thought:
Decrying racism out loud and voicing disapproval does not legitimize it, nor does it represent capitulation to racism's insidious power. It's different from getting hot under the collar before empty taunts. The objective of racism isn't to provoke people to careless action out of anger, it's to reinforce negative stereotypes associated with categorizing people according to socially constructed traits, like "whiteness", "blackness" or "chineseness" thus promoting subjugation according to these categories. Voicing your disapproval does not make the racist stronger. Activism and anti-racist discourse challenge racist views of the world, whereas silence and complicity with racism gives legitimacy, approval, and condonation to acts and words of racism.
Want a historical example? Black people didn't get whites to stop using the n-word by keeping quiet and brushing the dirt off their shoulder. The vocal disapproval of that racial slur made using it a path of great resistance in society, one rightfully so.
Liberal thinking's a good thing, some respect it and some don't and there are those who may have violent reactions and then some without any reactions at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd of all the lessons in Etiquette, I believe human beings should at the very least adhere to this one: "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"....and I think that says a lot for common courtesy which I presume is practiced by all cultures, hence becoming part of what may be perceived to be "common sense".
All true.
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