White people don't want to talk about it

[nadinbrzezinski]

454. I would like to quality this

semiotics (search for symbolic meaning) which is what this is down to, has a role in academia. In fact, a strong role in academia. Here is the problem as I see. After all, I did work with the grand daddy of all this with deconstruction (Thanks Derrida and Foucault), in graduate seminars trying to understand how language and symbols are part of a larger system of oppression. The system is real, and in that sense they are a great tool. Trust me, using deconstruction while looking at 18th and 19th century New Spain documents relating to the history of science was very valuable. We were trying to get into the mind of the bishop of Guadalajara for example... not a dude I would like to meet.

The problem is when all these things are ahem popularized, as it were, and come out into the wild, where people have a cow over a word because they heard this was bad in a class or read it in a book somewhere... most of these people have college degrees and cannot understand how their language concerns are the last thing a poor woman, many a times single parent and sometimes minority could give two shits about. Now talk of work hours, and child, care, she's there. That is very real for her.

BUT... when people take what could be valuable as a high level discussion and convert it into almost a religion, they do a lot of damage to their own cause. The kids in the streets care two shits about semiotics and semantics. And we at times do talk about it... hell we have had a very interesting discussion on FB over the term inmate. I am still mulling over how it is more dehumanizing than prisoner...a request a local activist made. That sadly is not a discussion we can have here.

But what both groups have done is now make sure the rest of us keep a very wide berth from them and their idiocy. Next you will see accusations that obviously our silence means we don't care. Mark my words. That is coming.