Aren't these more appropriately cast as the superficial categories/ excuses
employed in language and action by those discriminating as a means to
codify, reinforce, and further spread discriminatory beliefs and marshall
power?

Would not underlying - i.e. "engendering" (to create) - causes be in the
realms of fear of difference, fear of others, fear of change, desire for
psychological and personal reinforcement, need for one truth, limited
ability to accept multiple intelligences as valid .. e.g.' circling the
wagons' behavior?

If so, then a valid and useful mission is to share the literacy skills that
enable seeing the many ways language can be employed/manipulated ...
literacy becomes inherently political.

Andrew Pleasant



On 12/8/06, Jenny Horsman <jenny at jennyhorsman.com> wrote:

>

> Interesting quote Daphne - I think an important characteristic that is

> left

> out - and often left out in talk of oppression, is disability - physical,

> intellectual, and emotional forms of disability - there is so much

> oppression around these areas that we still think people are less than

> human

> who are severely disabled - if we try mapping some of the attitudes about

> those who are disabled onto other characteristics such as race or gender

> it

> is easy to see how much oppression and exclusion we (that is those of us

> in

> the we who do not live with daily oppression around disability) or perhaps

> we as a mainstream society, accept as "normal" for those who are seen as

> "abnormal." I think it is that struggle to see not walking as just as good

> as walking for example that makes it easier for those of us who are not

> disabled to see disability as a horrible state and offer charity rather

> than

> equality - and of course that's the problem!

>

> If anyone is interested in a couple of resources I found amazing around

> disability - one is the new documentary by Bonnie Klein a brilliant

> filmmaker who became disabled herself - called Shameless: the Art of

> Disability - it reveals the play and possibility of a different way of

> understanding disability as she and several others who live with

> disability

> reflect on images and stereotypes of disability. The other an essay by

> Catherine Frazee (one of the people featured in the film who has always

> used

> a wheel chair and never walked using her own body) - a powerful disability

> rights activist and university professor - Still Life: Reflections on

> Running, Walking and Standing (in To Arrive Where you Are: Journalism form

> the Banff Centre for the Arts, Eds. Echlin, Moon, and Obe, Bannff: Banff

> Centre Press 2000) - both shift the discourse about disability in ways I

> found compelling and fascinating - and I find it quite disturbing how much

> ableism is still often off the feminist radar when we reflect on

> oppressions.

>

> Now after that long rant I should quickly introduce myself - I've been on

> the women and literacy and race and poverty lists for ever and a day - so

> it's interesting to see them combined - though not what I would have

> originally chosen I'm enjoying see the intersections of the two - as I

> think

> it is very valuable to look at the way oppressions intersect. I am sorry

> to

> say I mostly lurk as there never seem to be enough hours in the day to do

> everything I want to do - but for some reason this question drew me in -

> especially when I've kept meaning to jump in and introduce myself - to

> those

> of you who often put your voices - thanks for all the reflection - I

> always

> read and am often fascinated, and full of thoughts and reflections in

> consequence!

>

> My work as some of you may know has been for many years now about the

> impact

> of violence on learning and how to address and counteract some of the

> negative impacts through the ways we carry out all educational practice

> (not

> just the classroom, and not just adult literacy). I come out of adult

> literacy work (rather than the counselling side), have been involved since

> the early 70s when like many others I began as a volunteer tutor and then

> began to turn around many stereotypes I had when I saw realities - I

> realize

> now that I thought everyone should learn to read because I couldn't

> imagine

> how they could survive without - because I couldn't imagine surviving

> without reading - that is reading fiction as an escape from reality!!

>

> I've taken long and windy paths to explore in practice, research and

> writing

> literacy, ESL, job training, women and literacy and finally violence and

> learning - and there I expect to remain obsessed to the end of my days - I

> do believe it's such an important and often overlooked issue!!

>

> When I think of "violence" I include the full range of violences we may

> experience in our lives - and believe it is important both to recognize

> the

> complex interplay of individual experience and systemic underpinnings of

> violence and the ways in which oppressions both are violent and foster

> violence - for example the exclusion and put downs of people with

> intellectual disabilities is violent and exposes people with such

> disability

> to repeated violence - I remember well when a literacy student I was

> working

> with said she could not stand at the bus stop alone because she would be

> attacked - and as I stood beside her at the bus stop and cars slowed and

> men

> yelled I suddenly realized that the street was a more dangerous place for

> her than for me because the ways in which society diminishes, excludes and

> devalues who she is make her an easy and sort of "acceptable" target...

>

> OK I must stop I have a million and one things I should be doing - I hope

> I

> will be seeing some of you in Boston next march at the seminar Daphne so

> kindly announced here - so that we can muse about violences and how they

> affect  learning - and how we can address them and so support learning and

>

> broader educational change....

>

> Ah now I see why I don't often post - what was going to be a few lines

> becomes an essay - apologies for going on.... !!!

> Jenny

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov

> [mailto:povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Daphne Greenberg

> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 9:51 AM

> To: povertyracewomen at nifl.gov

> Subject: [PovertyRaceWomen 100] quote

>

> I came across this quote and wondered if people on this listserv agree:

>

> Merriam and Caffarella (1999), pg. 342 state: "Among the

> characteristics of people that engender prejudice and oppression in

> American society, race, class, and gender are three of the most powerful

> and pervasive."

>

> Do you agree with the above? Do you think that there are other

> characteristics that engender oppressions that are as powerful and

> pervasive as the ones listed above?

>

> What about the ABE classroom, the ESL classroom?

>

> Daphne

>

> Daphne Greenberg

> Assistant Professor

> Educational Psych. & Special Ed.

> Georgia State University

> P.O. Box 3979

> Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3979

> phone: 404-651-0127

> fax:404-651-4901

> dgreenberg at gsu.edu

>

> Daphne Greenberg

> Associate Director

> Center for the Study of Adult Literacy

> Georgia State University

> P.O. Box 3977

> Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3977

> phone: 404-651-0127

> fax:404-651-4901

> dgreenberg at gsu.edu

> ----------------------------------------------------

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