Stupid Guest Tricks

drcorey wrote:yeah, they will release it right after warner brothers releases coal black and de sebben dwarfs to dvd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiRU7l4EL94

OMG, I have this cartoon on my copy of SOTS. That cracks me up.

Obviously she has no editing skills either. And with her level of education? Shame!

felinefan wrote:Obviously she has no editing skills either. And with her level of education? Shame!

Hey, some of my graduate students could not write a paragraph without the use of a computer, ann I wone't even beginng ta talke 'bout spelking!!!

(hehehehehe)

TdcOgre wrote:I did. I find many of her points to be overreaching. Others are equally applicable to both races and some are simply specious. Additionally, I would hope the author, Peggy McIntosh PhD., would spend more time on her spelling and grammar. Amongst other things: it’s pattern not patter, college is spelled with an “e” and if you could explain what this sentence means I would be grateful:

“The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political surrounding privilege are the key political tool here.”

There are other examples involving sentence fragments and punctuation but I take it your point is that as a white male, I have no idea what I am talking about since I have, in effect, been born with “a silver spoon” in my mouth. I think that finding a bogeyman under every rock is not the way to solve the issue and that there are more egregious examples of the problem than those cited by Dr. McIntosh. I reiterate my original post.

No, the point is not to make you feel guilty for being white; the point is to realize that not everyone shares your experiences, and there are many things out there that you take for granted that are simply not true for everyone. You don't have to think about things because you have the privilege of being white. That doesn't make you a bad person, nor does it mean that you have no idea what you're talking about. However, it does mean that there are a lot of things that are easier for you because you are white. To believe otherwise is to deny reality. This is not your fault, and you should not read it as such. What's important is to be aware of it and acknowledge it.

Which points, in particular, do you object to? Which ones are specious or overreaching? Be specific.

As for the typos, they are the fault of the copyeditor, not the writer. Note that the essay is excerpted from the Winter 1990 issue of Independent School and then copied onto a website. Casting aspersions on the writer for some minor copyediting errors is silly, especially when the argument is strong and the few errrors don't get in the way of understanding the essay.

The sentence you're confused by should obviously read "The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political tool here." McIntosh is addressing the power of silence to facilitate systemic inequality. Does that make sense now?

There are many, many other studies on the issue of white privilege; Peggy McIntosh's essay is seminal, so I pointed to that one. If you don't like her writing, there are plenty of other scholars out there talking about it.

Amphigorey wrote:As for the typos, they are the fault of the copyeditor, not the writer. Note that the essay is excerpted from the Winter 1990 issue of Independent School and then copied onto a website. Casting aspersions on the writer for some minor copyediting errors is silly, especially when the argument is strong and the few errrors don't get in the way of understanding the essay.

Copy editors typically remove/fix errors rather than introducing more. I've sold dozens of articles to magazines and have yet to have an editor add mistakes, although occasionally they do miss fixing 'em. There might be valid points in the essay, but with the clunky writing and suffocating style not many people are going to bother to try to figure them out. If this is a seminal essay, it sure hasn't whet my appetite to see other works it may have spawned.

Syndrome wrote:Copy editors typically remove/fix errors rather than introducing more. I've sold dozens of articles to magazines and have yet to have an editor add mistakes, although occasionally they do miss fixing 'em. There might be valid points in the essay, but with the clunky writing and suffocating style not many people are going to bother to try to figure them out. If this is a seminal essay, it sure hasn't whet my appetite to see other works it may have spawned.

I know what copyeditors do; I was trying to establish that since the excerpt has been copied at least twice, that it was likely that errors were introduced that weren't in the original. I expect some poor schlub transcribed it from the journal and made some typos; that's more likely than saying that Ms. McIntosh doesn't know how to spell "pattern."

Anyway, here's the same essay, reinterpreted through LOLcats.
http://pics.livejournal.com/elusis/pic/0011ebh4/g184

I know that introducing the idea of white privilege is hard. It's not an easy thing to accept, and it's very easy for the person doing the talking to sound like they're trying to guilt-trip white people, or for the person doing the listening to just automatically go defensive. My goal here certainly isn't to make people feel guilty; I'm aiming to introduce this idea because I think it's important, and it is relevant to a discussion of Song of the South.

It's very hard to have any productive conversation about race without the concept of white privilege. So, let's see if I can do a better job. Basically, the whole idea is that whites don't have to worry about a lot of things when looking for a house, or a job, or shopping. It just never comes up. There's a reason, you'll note, why "driving while black" is a known issue.

That's why saying people are just "thin-skinned" if they object to Song of the South is not just dismissive of the experiences and thoughts of other people, but shows a limited viewpoint. Better to learn why it's objectionable than to simply dismiss it out of hand.

Anyway, here's another essay you might like better:
http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emm ... linan.html