this is purely for my benefit. u won't miss anything by not reading & it's really long. lenee u'll prolly wanna read--it's the stuff from that class i was tellin u bout that broke out in pandemonium, i think ive mentioned it in eleswhere in the blawg too.
but yeah.
dont feel obligated.
---------------------------
last monday my blk feminist theory class exploded. im not gon go into too much detail cause i dont feel like typin a lot. basically tho, what happened is we were assigned to read bell hooks' "feminist theory: from margin to center" the week before & we were gonna talk about it in class that day.
two students were selected to lead discussion. spence and clint. both male, both white. i think ive talked about spence here before--1 yr younger than me, INCREDIBLY smart, rich, & conservative.
the whole class basically ended up with him and the other dudes in the class talkin about rape in relation to transy's campus. it was really bizzarre. rather than explain it all, i'll just past some emails and discussion board entries for u to read at your leisure if u care to. but beyond that class this entry wont be about anything else.
okay.. here's an email sent from my professor to me & catherine greene, a women's studies student & spence's girlfriend, basically summing up what happened in class:
We read bell hooks' Black Feminist Theory from Margin to Center --- it has
some similar themes to the Talking Back book that we read in the Intro but
its much angrier and more hostile towards white women and the mainstream
feminist movement in general. That 's one of the reasons I chose it -- I
wanted to talk about the power of anger in the black feminist movement and
see if the students would respond with defensiveness or with open minds.
Mostly I was wondering what the white women in the class would do, but as it
turns out the threat of women's empowerment (in general -- the class got
away from talking about black feminism pretty fast) was felt by, what a
surprise, white males.
I spoke for about 75 minutes and then turned the class over to Spence and
Clint who were assigned to lead discussion on that day. They both started
by talking about hooks' chapter about men. Clint essentially summarized the
chapter, making some comments, and then Spence tried to apply the issues in
the chapter to our campus here. I thought Spence's idea was a great one,
because the issue of how to talk to men about rape is important in any
community. Specifically, Spence asked if women's empowerment was a threat
to men -- at first the class talked about issues like the workforce,
politics, etc... and then we started to talk about rape. That's when the
conversation got bizarre. Spence asked why men felt threatened by
discussions about rape, and used as an example the times that anti rape
posters on his door have been torn down. Somehow this set off two other
males in the class, who felt that their "characters were being threatened".
One male in particular tried to shut down and stop talking (how antithetical
to hooks' message!!) but Spence wouldn't let him and kept pushing him. As
the males (not Spence) were talking about how they felt threatened, and how
this was a "generalization" and not a "concrete example" I saw about 60% of
the class females' faces just stare in shock, or mouths drop. UNFORTUNATELY
most of the women in the class didn't speak - only two really spoke up,
Tracy being one of them. I felt in an impossible situation because I cant
take the risk of calling on a female who may be sitting there in disbelief,
thinking about her own rape in the dorms. Luckily more females have
contributed to the discussion on Blackboard, yet this has been perceived by
class males as a "backlash against them". Now Im being accused of being an
anti-male professor, some of the males are thinking of dropping the class
and have talked to their advisors, and are saying things like the women in
the class are coming from a "women's studies perspective" and the males are
coming from a "philosophical perspective", the implication being that the
"women's studies" people don't understand the philosophical arguments that
they were trying to make. It's a real display of arrogance and male
privilege.
The worst part is, as Tracy pointed out on email, is that despite the
seriousness of sexual violence as a black feminist issue (now, in the past,
and throughout the world) the discussion was totally dominated BY white men,
and the content of the discussion was pretty much about them too -- there
actually wasn't much discussion about women at all, regardless of race.
At another college, Berea for example, it would be the female students and
female professor who would be going to talk to the Dean about this
situation, given the very hostile environment that was created in the
classroom about the issue of sexual violence (how do the students know that
I haven't been raped, for example). Many colleges have provisions about
this to protect students in the classroom, professors too. Transy isn't one
of them.
crazy, huh?
we have online discussions outside of class, and a student posted this comment anonymously:
I wanted to make the note that I was very disheartened by last night's discussion.
It seemed as though we took an issue that is very central to black feminist theory (the threat of female empowerment to the construction of 'masculinity') and went and made it about a problem white women have issue with. I'm not saying black women don't get raped, but our conversation was not about the rape of black women or the complex racial and sex based issues involved therein. I know the intention was to make it relevant, but I think we strayed away from our purpose in discussing these theories and ideas as they relate to black feminism.
The discussion was clouded by emotion and tangent and it was hard to determine where we were or where we were going with anything. I realize these issues may very well be emotional ones and many tangents will arise in their discussion, but that should not keep us from sticking to the point.
Afterall, if we are going to engage in dialogue, we need to realize that we are all people born and bred in the system- so there is no need to attack each other and hopefully no one will feel too personally attacked- we're dealing with the system, and while it has a very powerful influence on our identities (as witnessed last night), we can't let that influence keep us from the focus of our work.
That's my two cents.
to this, clint, one of the dudes who led the discussion, responded:
I see rape as a unique problem especially in relation to feminism because rape happens primarily to women irrespective of race, socio-economic class status, and sexual orientation. I understand, I think, your particular objection to Monday's class, however, I fail to see how our discussion didn't do justice to black feminist thought. In fact, (and I may be wrong, its happened before) I think of rape, sexual abuse, etc. as one of the issues that feminist movement should use to solidify the movement. Because it is a particulary female experience as stated above, it has the potential to bring women together and mobilize them like few other issues could possibly do.
and to this, i responded:
Allow me to completely disagree. I think it's all in the way we talk about it.
There are many, many women's issues that are universal to ALL women regardless of race, things like childbirth and motherhood, and of course, rape. But upon closer inspection, there are different groups of women who are affected by and deal with these issues in different manners. There's a reason why black feminist theorist talk and write about rape specificially in referene to black women--apparently there are issues concerning rape what feminism itself, as a white women's outlet, did not and does not cover. This is not to devalue the issues of rape that women of other classes, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, etc. face. It's a black feminist theory course. The point here is to discuss rape in terms of black feminist theory.
Last night's discussion essentially took a few sentences about rape and applied it to Transy's community--a white community--and discussed it in those specific terms: young women (more than likely white) in an environment, like a frat party (overwhelmingly white), and how to talk to the men of Transy's community about it (also overwhelmingly white). This is exactly the reason why courses like Black Feminist Theory and concepts like womanism had to come into being. Black women were overlooked again last night.
Taking a few words from a text by a black woman about a woman's issue and applying it in this fashion does not make it a black feminist discussion. What we had last night was not a dialogue or discussion on black feminism. I did a lot of reading on black feminist issues that I would have loved to discuss in class, but it didn't come close to happening in the capacity that it should have last night.
Sitting there & listening to the back & forth, I mused to myself: how ironic is it that we can't even get Transy folk to talk about race in a class about black people?
I'll personally be damned if this happens all semester. I don't mean to sound angry, but I guess I sort of am.
I understand that emotions got a little hot and people got a little excited, and you know what? That's okay! That's great!
But let's get excited about black ladies next time.
-Tracy
okay.
it turns out that the anonymous post was made by kelly ball, young lesbian chick, co-student co-ordinator of DAC and Progress (student activist group). she sends me this email, titled 'Thank you Thank you Thank you!':
Tracy,
You made my day. It was so great to see your post on blackboard this morning. I had posted the original anonymous post about the discussion we had last class, and how completely off base it was. The onyl reason I made it anonymous is because I didn't want people to think I was being patronizing. But anyway, after the initial response or lack thereof, I felt even more beaten down and was questioning whether or not I was out of line. Its amazing how certain attitudes coming off people can get you so down and start distorting your opinions- I had begun to think that maybe we weren't off topic. Its a shame we were and that many people in the class may still think that. But I'll be damned too if I let this course be about white people- especially white men. From a simply rhetorical point, I hated how the men of the class seemed to be dominating the conversation.
But anyway, we've both got stuff to do and eventually a world to overturn, but I wanted to quickly say thanks cause sisterhood is a good, and very necessary thing.
Talk with you later,
Kelly
to this, i responded:
Okay, let me just say that I LOVE your emails. I've been on a self-esteem high all weekend :o)
And no, you weren't alone. I don't know why I didn't open my mouth on the matter during class. I hear that some of the male students are thinking about dropping the course, complaining to their advisors about Kim being 'anti-male...' How the hell the figure that is beyond me. She's been ridiculously calm, fair and logical on the matter, more so thatn I would have been.
Spence also sent me an email too, apologizing for class being off-track, but standing by his decision to bring up the matter in our classroom. I emailed him back saying that I'm not mad that he brought the matter up, but it should not have went on the way it did, for like 5 hours polarized between 2 or 3 individuals. I'm a woman. I recognize the importance and implications of rape--how can I not? But I'm also a part of marginalized, misrepresented, underrepresented population both on campus and in society itself. We need this course on this campus, and if everyday's discussion is gonna end up the way it did Monday, the course will defeat it's own purpose and everybody's gonna lose, u know? And it wasn't just black women overlooked Monday night, but women in general--men did the VAST majority of the talking. And lesbians too--we read a lot of great literature concerning lesbianism for class that day and we all could have learned something. And we should have learned something. But we didn't, so we all missed out.
Anyway, I'm rambling big time. I just wanted to say thanks for your email, and you won't have to worry about being the lone thinker on any matter in that class, I'm sure. You're in the same boat that Brittany and I are, though it may not be on a racial plain. So Britt & I are probably having the very same thoughts :o)
See you Sunday @ the DAC meeting!
-Tracy
and.
i also got an email from spence that day, titled 'Last Class:'
Tracy
You're contribution to blackboard is extremely well taken and I did not think of the racist implications behind pushing the class away from black feminism during discussion. That was both incredibly racist and insensitive of me and you have my sincere apologies.
However, with that said I stand by my decision to take the class where I took it. I was personally shocked by the fact that these men would be so arrogant as to believe that they had some right to take the fact that women get raped personally, and I was disturbed by the fact that they felt threatened by a discussion that was never personally about them. It was a patent display of male privelege, as these men felt that they had the right to hold a discussion about the rape of women and take it personally, and I think you overexagerate the extent to which this was a result of miscommunication; I see these sentiments expressed daily (If you need a particular example, I've heard from the Rambler's editor that Matt Smith's article for this week attempts to downplay the seriousness of rape on this campus, and questions the right of a woman to call a sex act rape if she was intoxicated). This is a very serious issue relevant to all people on this campus, black and white, and I defend my decision to take advantage of the opportunity provided by last class to push the issue. However, I will never be in charge of class discussion again and from now on out I will keep a low profile in class, so the opportunity for me to pull the class away from issues of Black Feminism, which I acknowledge that I did, will never arise again.
Again I apologize from my racist insensitivity, but I stand by what I did.
-SpenceII
to THIS i responded:
Hi Spence :o)
Sorry I am so late in responding; I've been away from campus a couple of days.
And thank you for your email. I appreciate your apology, though I wouldn't call what happened last class a racist act or anything. I wasn't intentional & I understand.
And I completely agree with you on the points you brought up then and now in relation to the reactions & responses of the men both in our class and on the campus as a whole. Maybe I am putting too much stock on the miscommunication thing, but I still do think that was a huge factor in that discussion. Guess we'll just hafta agree to disagree there.
And (<- as an English major I really shouldn't be starting everything with 'and') raising the issue of rape on Transy's campus was not a sin and I'm not upset that you did so at all. I agree, as members of this campus community, it is a very serious issue affecting everybody, blk & white, male & female alike. I at anytime welcome such a discussion--but it is vital that the timing and situation be appropriate, and I don't know that it was in the capacity that it happened. Discussing it is fine, but not for 2 hours. Not in a discussion led by 2-3 individuals. Not under those circumstances in a course about Black Feminist Theory, ESPECIALLY on a campus where courses like this are barely offered once a year.
I'll admit that a lot of my anger and dismay at the way Monday's class went down stems from personal sentiment--I see and feel that sort of overlooking everyday of my life, moreso at Transy where I am so vastly underrepresented; I hear that this course is being offered and I jump at the chance to take it so that I can learn more about myself,--I've not had that luxury very often here--only to not talk about issues of race related to gender AGAIN? That was a slap in the face to me. And through all of my venting, please know that I'm not blaming you personally for that or anything else.
I said all of that to say that I'm not saying that the discussion should not have happened. I'm saying that it should not have gone down the way it did, and it had to be made known early that that sort of discussion cannot happen too many times this semester. Otherwise the course will defeat its own purposes and we will all be slighted in the end.
I admire you standing by your decision, but again I guess we'll just hafta agree to disagree.
Before I wrap this up, I want to urge you not to keep a low profile at all. How contradictory would it be for you to be silenced within a discipline that defends and insists on everyone's right to have a voice? True, you challenge all of our thoughts and make us uncomfortable. But that's a good thing, Spence. That's how we'll all learn more about ourselves, each other, and society itself. Keep it up with consideration :o)
