Intersections

Last year I read an article in which Kimberle Crenshaw who is a black feminist anthropologist in which she analyzed the culture of hip hop from the perspective of an African American woman. She uses a term called intersectionality which seems very similar to the idea of the situated knower mentioned in the Stanford reading for this week. Essentially the term means that every person is situated within several cultural categories, for example I am not only a male but a straight male who is also a student of particular ethnic background, social class etc. Crenshaw uses the term to explain how our perspectives from these several groups collectively influence how we perceive the world around us. While I believe this to be true what is important to remember is that we cannot reduce people to simply their gender, race, social class but look holistically at their circumstances as the various realms in which we occupy help us form our understanding of the human experience.

Q&A #8: Question Two

My second question this week is partially in response to two blog posts I saw related to the issue of when critical thinking. It seems that one must admit as Avery stated, that every degree of knowledge is based off of some basic assumptions. For example one cannot have a discussion analyzing the effects the bacteria on human organ tissue without admitting that the principles of cellular biology are accurate. In philosophical arguments many authors work from certain axiomatic points which provides a framework for the discussion at hand. This is the difference between being a critical thinker who is able to recognize inconsistencies in evidence provided in given circumstance, and being a radical skeptic who denies the validity of any claim. I also agree with Tommy that in some cases we need not be critical thinkers, in his example he uses the bible as an instructional piece for moral behavior. I agree that we can agree the bible is a flawed work when analyzed by contemporary global citizens, however a critical thinker I believe would be able to recognize the danger is using the Bible as justification for a given argument, but would still be able to disseminate the valuable lessons found within scripture.

Q&A #8: Question one

My first question regarding criticality was whether we could apply the method of critical pedagogy to institutions beyond that of education. The answer seems to be an obvious yes: there is no question that other social systems are unfortunately marked by internalized forms of oppression and methods of marginalizing particular social groups. While this is true I do believe that it would be dangerous to simply look at social institutions such as politics, educations, medicine and other cultural realms as only being sources of oppression. It cannot be denied that there are still obstacles to overcome to allow equal opportunities for all individuals regardless of social status, however there is also present a significant amount of progress within these realms as well. The handicapped, minorities, and women have all made strides to open public spaces and allow them to become full fledged contributing members to society in various ways. This is not to say that the task has been completed however to simply approach cultural analysis with the pessimistic outlook of anticipating inequality, you may miss the underlying advancements and methods by which people overcome adversity today.