[5186] in Central_America
Re: New quotes for Fri Nov 19
sorokin@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sorokin@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sat Nov 20 18:17:18 1993
Please note, if you will, that what I have said thus far is:
This is why these things happen, and I acknowledge that they are wrong.
I have in multiple places in this discussion gone out of my way to try
to express the difference between "I understand why many people
generalize like this" and "I generalize like this"; or between "This
injustice matters less to me than that" and "I will ignore all injustice
of this type or to this group." I won't say that I've never said
anything that could be interpreted as meaning the latter; I've spoken
more than once in haste and anger, and I certainly can't claim I've
always been exact and precise.
But there is a vital difference between "Almost all women who are raped
are raped by men," and "Almost all men rape women", and I have said the
former and had it taken as the latter, and that doesn't get anyone
anywhere.
I was also careful, in my last post, to say that I spoke for one group
because I felt I could express best what I felt, as a member of that
group. White feminism has spoken for black women -- and been wrong --
all too much in the last few decades, and I don't think I need to
continue that. I'm not ignoring other groups -- I'm trying not to speak
for them.
So I think what it comes down to is this:
I don't deny that this overgeneralization and sterotyping is a bad
thing. I spent time this past term working with a friend who led a
colloquium on how to teach women's studies; she spoke on exactly the
issues you've mentioned, and the article I referred to earlier (it says
very much the same things as the article you posted, Seth) was required
reading. An explanation is not an excuse, and I don't try to make it
one.
But I *still* do not believe that the injustice done to you, though it
is an injustice and is in fact admittedly detrimental to the cause it's
trying to support, is the greatest issue here, or the most volatile, or
the most immediate. In a world of finite energy and compassion and
resources, I find that I have to prioritize things in order to get
anything done. And, you see, what I am seeing is physical damage and
emotional destruction and death and massive inequity on every level on
one hand, and resentment and annoyance and guilt on the other hand.
And if none of that makes any sense to you, then I guess I'm talking to
a wall, and I'll apologize for wasting your time and go talk to other
people.
