Comments on: Sucking up to the biggies http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:28:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Sokari http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5792 Sokari Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:15:44 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5792 Exactly - when did she sit down with some regular everyday ordinary women to know what they have to say and their world view. you hit the nail on the head! Exactly – when did she sit down with some regular everyday ordinary women to know what they have to say and their world view. you hit the nail on the head!

]]> By: Kym Platt http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5788 Kym Platt Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:40:59 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5788 Alice's remarks are condescending and sad, but not very surprising. What Alice Walker said was very typical of privileged Americans. She has forgotten the struggle because she no longer struggles. She has transcended race and gender and class. Alice’s remarks are condescending and sad, but not very surprising. What Alice Walker said was very typical of privileged Americans. She has forgotten the struggle because she no longer struggles. She has transcended race and gender and class.

]]> By: Jay http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5767 Jay Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:55:59 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5767 To say nothing of human agency. Perhaps Alice's life is so simplistic. Perhaps a woman can and does feel empowered wearing high heels or niqab. Or, shocking, both, since women here in the U.S. can look very stylish and hip in both. Condescending and very sad. To say nothing of human agency. Perhaps Alice’s life is so simplistic. Perhaps a woman can and does feel empowered wearing high heels or niqab. Or, shocking, both, since women here in the U.S. can look very stylish and hip in both.

Condescending and very sad.

]]> By: Sokari http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5759 Sokari Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:38:50 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5759 I am sorry this happened to you in this way and that some how "we" are enlightened people, that would be as patronising of you as Ms Walker's statement. People have different life experiences and reach their own understanding at different times in their lives depending on those experiences. I am sorry this happened to you in this way and that some how “we” are enlightened people, that would be as patronising of you as Ms Walker’s statement. People have different life experiences and reach their own understanding at different times in their lives depending on those experiences.

]]> By: ohno http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5752 ohno Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:08:39 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5752 You must all have been very enlightened people. I never knew or understood my oppression for years. learning opened the door to my undersatnding and freedom. I wish someone had showed me a way out sooner. You must all have been very enlightened people. I never knew or understood my oppression for years. learning opened the door to my undersatnding and freedom. I wish someone had showed me a way out sooner.

]]> By: sokari http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5739 sokari Sun, 17 Dec 2006 06:24:17 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5739 Dara@ I think you would be surprised to know that having spent a great deal of time talking and spending my days with many poor rural and urban women that they are very much aware of the covert ways in in which oppression of women and the poor is exercised ie " the causes of oppression “are embedded in unquestioned norms, habits, and symbols." Women use different ways to subvert these "norms, habits and symbols" in the daily lives. To say they do not understand these oppressions or just sit by and do nothing is first of all disingenuous and secondly just not true. Dara@ I think you would be surprised to know that having spent a great deal of time talking and spending my days with many poor rural and urban women that they are very much aware of the covert ways in in which oppression of women and the poor is exercised ie ” the causes of oppression “are embedded in unquestioned norms, habits, and symbols.” Women use different ways to subvert these “norms, habits and symbols” in the daily lives. To say they do not understand these oppressions or just sit by and do nothing is first of all disingenuous and secondly just not true.

]]> By: kactus http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5737 kactus Sun, 17 Dec 2006 05:52:13 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5737 It's this kind of class arrogance that really bugs me. The same kind of classism that says poor women are unqualified to raise their own children but the government can do a better job, or the middle class, or the wealthy. Same kind of classism that enables a woman like Madonna to think she can swoop in and save an African baby--from what? Being poor and African, of course. Of course, in Ms. Walker's world I guess middle class women escape their oppressors all the time. Cuz of being so educated, and all. It’s this kind of class arrogance that really bugs me. The same kind of classism that says poor women are unqualified to raise their own children but the government can do a better job, or the middle class, or the wealthy. Same kind of classism that enables a woman like Madonna to think she can swoop in and save an African baby–from what? Being poor and African, of course.

Of course, in Ms. Walker’s world I guess middle class women escape their oppressors all the time. Cuz of being so educated, and all.

]]> By: dara http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5730 dara Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:52:25 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5730 i think it's easy to say that most women know/understand their oppression by men when it is overt and occurs at the individual level. but i would say that the reason the system of the "oppressor" and the "oppressed" thrives is becuase oppression is a structural concept in which its most dangerous aspects are not readily seen by many individuals. There is an article titled "The Five Faces of Oppression" by Iris Marion Young. In it she states that the causes of oppression "are embedded in unquestioned norms, habits, and symbols." I believe this is what Walker is referring to--wanting women to take a look at these unquestioned norms that may not seem oppressive b/c they've been normalized. i think it’s easy to say that most women know/understand their oppression by men when it is overt and occurs at the individual level. but i would say that the reason the system of the “oppressor” and the “oppressed” thrives is becuase oppression is a structural concept in which its most dangerous aspects are not readily seen by many individuals. There is an article titled “The Five Faces of Oppression” by Iris Marion Young. In it she states that the causes of oppression “are embedded in unquestioned norms, habits, and symbols.” I believe this is what Walker is referring to–wanting women to take a look at these unquestioned norms that may not seem oppressive b/c they’ve been normalized.

]]> By: Women of Color Blog » Link farm http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5716 Women of Color Blog » Link farm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 17:21:56 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5716 [...] Disappointing arrogance: Alice Walker “I’m not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself” and “Use some of this time not just to be on the defensive but to interrogate your own culture and see how much of it you really believe yourself in your heart and how much of it you can let go of. You don’t have to be a prisoner of your religion.” Gears of War and the Expendable, Token Generic-Asian: So now I must go on to save the world, a small Asian woman in a big, white dude’s body without my bald, Asian-fusioned, shallowly bio’d, expendable comrade. It’s a mad, mad world indeed. [...] [...] Disappointing arrogance: Alice Walker “I’m not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself” and “Use some of this time not just to be on the defensive but to interrogate your own culture and see how much of it you really believe yourself in your heart and how much of it you can let go of. You don’t have to be a prisoner of your religion.” Gears of War and the Expendable, Token Generic-Asian: So now I must go on to save the world, a small Asian woman in a big, white dude’s body without my bald, Asian-fusioned, shallowly bio’d, expendable comrade. It’s a mad, mad world indeed. [...]

]]> By: Brian http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5714 Brian Sat, 16 Dec 2006 17:04:47 +0000 http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/12/problems.html#comment-5714 Yeah I'm sure a woman who's beaten by her drunk husband needs to go to school to know she's being oppressed. Yeah I’m sure a woman who’s beaten by her drunk husband needs to go to school to know she’s being oppressed.

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