I'm a graduate student at a small university in New Orleans. One of the first classes I had to take was an Anthropology course entitled, "Social and Cultural Theory." The class surveyed all the most notable anthropological theorists, what they contributed to the field, etc. Very early on, because of my comments on the readings, it became clear that my politics are VERY left-leaning. As a progressive student of color, the student demographic was probably the worst I had ever experienced in the classroom. Most of the white students were extremely resistant to anything I had to say, which wasn't entirely surprising. However, there were two other students of color who decided it would be beneficial for them to agree with our White peers...they felt it might get them in good with our professor (who wasn't always fond of what I had to say).
So, one class we had to read about Edward Tylor, the man who "defined" anthropology. The professor posed a question to us...was Tylor a racist?
I immediately said yes. The exerpts we had to read of him were filled with "savage," "barbarism"...all words he used to describe people of color. The white students erupted! They did not want to hear that Tylor was racist and basically tried to claim that "savage" was just a word. When I tried to discuss the the connotations of the word "savage" and its consequences, every single white student yelled at me AT THE SAME TIME. What made matters worse, one of the other students of color, an African American male who sat next to me, leans in and says to me, "It's just a connotation." In other words, he was supporting the idea that those words had no social consequences. The professor, who had been watching all this with a grin on his face, takes out a book written by his favorite theorist, Marvin Harris, who had written an essay that was titled something like, "Edward Tylor: Racist." He read the excerpt and Harris, a white male, basically said everything I was trying to say. Except, when he said it, there was nothing wrong. The students still didn't like it, but they kept their mouths shut.
A couple weeks later everyone was now willing to call Tylor a racist as if they had known it all along...and that was just one of many incidents in this class.
By: Abyssinian del Noroeste
this type of bullshit happens all the time. Insecurity and arrogance combine to create a horrible learning environment.
ReplyDeletewhy horrible learning environment? sounds like despite initially strong resistance the class learned to trust the poster and spot racism in 'connotations'...
ReplyDeletesounds more like the class followed what the prof said, not sure thats dialogue or the way Id like the flow of ideas to take place. (top down instead of across, and that pyramid is white on top)
ReplyDeletegood post Abyssinian del Noroeste
ReplyDeletefeeaking-a cool. you got instincts. trust em. hold your mud. it's just a sandbox. but i admire the fact that you weren't willing to play it meek, dumb, or safe.
ReplyDeletepretty sad for a grad class at a fairly left uni.
ReplyDelete