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December 05, 2005
Chapter 3 Response
I appreciated the candor with which Lisa Delpit wrote No Kinda Sense. I felt a real sense of the complex issues she explained in the article by her sharing her immediate reactions and thoughts to her daughter use of Ebonics.
I thought it interesting that she mentions that outspoken African American critics of the Oakland Policy had "no knowledge of the real policy" and that the New York Times would not allow a rebuttal to the Atlanta's Black Professionals advert be printed. I wish there could be a time when the public arena did hold "fair competitions."
I was interested by Delpit's comments on page 37 about African American's concern over what those in power would think of them since they'd worked for so many years to prove themselves. I'm fascinated by dynamic in oppression where the oppressed almost have to accept the status quo and almost accept some of the ideology in order to try and escape. So even if the principles are absolute values judgements and skewed at best, sometimes you have to accept them in order to overcome them. Or perhaps not. This is what I find fascinating.
I was blown away by the concept that racism hears and doesn't only see. Delpit makes this so clear when she points out that although society may by and large feel it can see beyond skin color, "there are as yet few pockets that can 'listen beyond' language form." This was so true of my viewpoint up until I started traveling and was a foreigner in another country. This made me aware of how layered a concept like racism can be, beyond the obvious. And how it is upheld by different elitest values.
~ Nanette
Questions:
- Delpit did not question the assumption that white english is the standard dialect. I take issue with this and would want to explore that more.
- I'd enjoy spending more time examining the solutions Delpit proposes. I think they are dynamic and the principles could be applied in almost any situation where there is an "other" who is different.
Posted by lcissavides at December 5, 2005 03:25 PM