Finals in grad land; an email that made me ill
so it is finals time in grad land. working on an interesting paper where i look at some exams and projects that a math instructor assigned to get a sense of the kinds of things this instructor thinks is important for someone to do in mathematics.
wanted to complain about people who think that rhetoric is sufficient support for an argument (here I mean a line of reasoning or thought), who do not understand the difference between debating, verbal bullying, conversation and dialogue. I recently got an email that offended me so much I was livid about it for at least a whole day (am still livid about it). It was couched as an article written by some guy in Florida for a Tampa newspaper. My cousin forwarded it to me from her boyfriend (he must have gotten it from someone else). It is the kind where someone complains about multiculturalism- that it some how is diluting American culture. For some odd reason, the typical conclusion that espousers of this kind of thought view equate disagreement with their ideas as being disloyal or unpatriotic to America. Therefore, dissenters should just leave the country when they are done complaining.
There are so many things wrong with this argument. it is a gross misunderstanding of what the first amendment means, how democracy operates, and what it means to be an American. What meaning does the first amendment have if the solution to disagreements is to remove the voice that does not agree with you? Even if that writer isn't old enough to remember Tianamen Square, we can reference what is happening in Iran to consider what that writer is asking about.
As to cultural dilution, what is the culture of America? What is produced by Hollywood does not constitute all of America. Neither the culture of the Southeast nor the Northeast. The culture of the midwest represents only that, the midwest. The attempts that I can think of to create a "unified culture" for a country has often went down a road I would not like to see America go down (re: Hutus and Tutsis, Cultural Revolution in China, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany during World War II, etc). Then to try to quell dissent by having it removed? My guess is that the person who wrote this probably doesn't consider himself to be in the same boat as Castro, Mao Tse Dong, or Saddam Hussein, or does he?
I am not against having different opinions and ideologies, but I want someone who takes this view that multiculturalism is bad for America to give me a well reasoned, well articulated argument. Then, possibly we can have a dialogue about ideas and come to understand things a bit more. I think that people like the author of the email give conservatives a really bad name. I think I am also operating under the assumption that dialogue, achieving understanding for the purpose of moving us past sticking points to real progress is something that everyone wants. Some people might not want that. Okay, so even if they don't want to dialogue, then I want someone who is willing to hold their ideas out for scrutiny and have a debate with me. To not be afraid that their ideas might have holes in it. I'll do the same with mine.
I have been trying really hard to put aside my anger and to understand what that email is really about. To take that person seriously. This is as close as I can get. At the heart of it, the person is uncomfortable (dare I say, scared) of the changes that are happening. In reality, the boundaries between things are not so clear- no clear, us or them, no clear good or bad, no clear black or white. In fact, it ain't even so binary that we are only dealing with shades of grey, we've got yellow, red, brown, etc. Given the state of the world today, and where it seems to be heading, we are often confronted with the fact that we can't deal with things so easily any more and that scares a lot of people. Their previous binary assumptions are being challenged. I think that they feel a loss of their sense of the world, their place in it and their understanding of how things operate. For some people, they can't deal with change, never move past the fearful grieving state and stew in anger (or shut down and give up).
wanted to complain about people who think that rhetoric is sufficient support for an argument (here I mean a line of reasoning or thought), who do not understand the difference between debating, verbal bullying, conversation and dialogue. I recently got an email that offended me so much I was livid about it for at least a whole day (am still livid about it). It was couched as an article written by some guy in Florida for a Tampa newspaper. My cousin forwarded it to me from her boyfriend (he must have gotten it from someone else). It is the kind where someone complains about multiculturalism- that it some how is diluting American culture. For some odd reason, the typical conclusion that espousers of this kind of thought view equate disagreement with their ideas as being disloyal or unpatriotic to America. Therefore, dissenters should just leave the country when they are done complaining.
There are so many things wrong with this argument. it is a gross misunderstanding of what the first amendment means, how democracy operates, and what it means to be an American. What meaning does the first amendment have if the solution to disagreements is to remove the voice that does not agree with you? Even if that writer isn't old enough to remember Tianamen Square, we can reference what is happening in Iran to consider what that writer is asking about.
As to cultural dilution, what is the culture of America? What is produced by Hollywood does not constitute all of America. Neither the culture of the Southeast nor the Northeast. The culture of the midwest represents only that, the midwest. The attempts that I can think of to create a "unified culture" for a country has often went down a road I would not like to see America go down (re: Hutus and Tutsis, Cultural Revolution in China, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany during World War II, etc). Then to try to quell dissent by having it removed? My guess is that the person who wrote this probably doesn't consider himself to be in the same boat as Castro, Mao Tse Dong, or Saddam Hussein, or does he?
I am not against having different opinions and ideologies, but I want someone who takes this view that multiculturalism is bad for America to give me a well reasoned, well articulated argument. Then, possibly we can have a dialogue about ideas and come to understand things a bit more. I think that people like the author of the email give conservatives a really bad name. I think I am also operating under the assumption that dialogue, achieving understanding for the purpose of moving us past sticking points to real progress is something that everyone wants. Some people might not want that. Okay, so even if they don't want to dialogue, then I want someone who is willing to hold their ideas out for scrutiny and have a debate with me. To not be afraid that their ideas might have holes in it. I'll do the same with mine.
I have been trying really hard to put aside my anger and to understand what that email is really about. To take that person seriously. This is as close as I can get. At the heart of it, the person is uncomfortable (dare I say, scared) of the changes that are happening. In reality, the boundaries between things are not so clear- no clear, us or them, no clear good or bad, no clear black or white. In fact, it ain't even so binary that we are only dealing with shades of grey, we've got yellow, red, brown, etc. Given the state of the world today, and where it seems to be heading, we are often confronted with the fact that we can't deal with things so easily any more and that scares a lot of people. Their previous binary assumptions are being challenged. I think that they feel a loss of their sense of the world, their place in it and their understanding of how things operate. For some people, they can't deal with change, never move past the fearful grieving state and stew in anger (or shut down and give up).
posted by Matty Lau at
5:52 PM
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