Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 10:22:58
From: "Benjamin G. Lanier-Nabors" <bglncait-AT-uab.edu>
Subject: Re: Not White, Not Quite?


	Sympathy is not enough; in fact, it perpetuates the dichotomy of one being
able to condescend to the level of another--superior/inferior complex.  It
is more akin to pity: i.e., "I pity(or My sympathies are with) you because
the police used tear gas against you; I was aghast when I saw it on
television."  Whether intentionally or not, the sympathizer is working from
a privileged vantage in a culture or from a relatively safe distance
physically or existentially.  Also, he or she might be motivated by pure
emotion, but as one often sees, pure emotion and sentimentality are rarely
long-lasting or strong motivations for confronting injustice.  Even though
it may come from the outside, empathy implies a more lateral, or
egalitarian, link:  "I empathize with you because Pinochet, de Galle,
Reagan, Clinton, etc. took similar actions against us."
	Therefore, I agree totally with your contention that "to critique from
within still, in my opinion, requires insight that comes from personal
sociohistorical experience that provides the affective base to make theory
work."  Mere sympathy doesn't "cut the mustard," as it were.  Empathy
implies your criteria for affective critique.

Always yours respectfully,
Ben
bglncait-AT-uab.edu

At 06:14 AM 7/27/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>you just can't
>>have sympathy to be a dehegemonizer.
>Do you mean: sympathy just isn't enough....?
>
>to critique from within still, in my opinion, requires insight that comes
>from personal sociohistorical experience that provies the affective base to
>make theory work...
>
>such people are often currently considered "white" ....
>lets face it Gramsci was "white" but he wasn't "quite right" enough and
>penned that stuff in jail because he was "left"
>the spaceo-racial metaphors are no coincidence because of the way space is
>organized by "whiteness" and "rightness" which goes back to seating
>arrangements and living arrangements on the land to indicate status....and
>the very different perspectives they represent.....English confounds such
>in a way that tends to obscure it where as other languages use markers
>which retain it....its probably a product of language development of the
>nation state and colonization....and the other the discourse that is
>anti-hegemonic......
>so we could possibly ask: what is the nature of the historical experience
>of oppression that is the model for ones own anti-hegemonic
>tendencies....and then how is that model sufficient or insufficient for
>transferrance onto other situations...what are the limitations....this is
>tough de-constructive slogging...not for the faint of heart....
>
>At 05:49 AM 7/27/99, you wrote:
>>I think you mean empathize.  Also, there is a term which signifies a person
>>who is part of the dominant culture but who critiques it from within for
>>the purpose of ceasing hegemony and, thus, opening more space in the
>>discourse for the silenced "subaltern."  This Spivakian term is
>>"de-hegemonizer," and I think that she borrows the notion from Gramsci.
>>However, the criteria for such a person are rather intense--you just can't
>>have sympathy to be a dehegemonizer.
>>
>>Ben L.-N.
>>
>>
>>At 05:07 PM 7/25/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>>
>>>>Steinbeck and Joyce have not/could not meta themselves in their writing
>>>>from that perspective....
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>Why not?  Are you saying that only a colonized person can relate to the
>>plight
>>>of the colonized?  I have never suffered from the AIDS virus, yet I can
>>>certainly sympathize with those who have.  I don't pretend to know the pain
>>>they feel, but I can certainly attempt to offer my own interpretation of it
>>>and thereby offer some sort of sympathetic mind set.
>>>
>>>Andrew
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>>
>>
>
>
>     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>



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