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Re: How I Became a Ghost
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From: Katherine Eastman <forgottenlyre_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 16:19:44 -0600
While I could easily write a book about what it's like to grow up with a phenotype that differs from the rest of your immediate family (wondering if you were adopted, having others constantly disbelieve your familial ties because your brother and father "look" other and you do not, excelling in school while watching your brother flounder, to realize after the fact that it wasn't ability, just presentation that made the difference), writing anything about the material realities of a world my parents left before I could crawl would contribute to the invisibility we're discussing. It's not about disallowing non-native writers native characters, but rather, about requesting the respect to not speak for a population when they can speak for themselves. To let us tell our stories, rather then telling them for us. Tell your story. If your story has a native american character (main or otherwise) that is not a stereotypical caricature, and it's your story to tell, write it. But in the example given, it was social workers and teachers who lived on reservations or dealt with native peoples wanting to tell the stories of other people, not their own story written from a place of respect and understanding. I feel like I'm not clearly demarcating the difference there.
Speaking FOR another group is a way to encourage invisibility and erasure.
A key element of the subaltern is that it cannot speak, if it does, then it stops being the other. By speaking for native populations, you are effectively saying they are not allowed to speak for themselves or be known as themselves. That's not beneficial to anyone.
On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 2:23 PM, Helen Frost <helenfrost_at_comcast.net> wrote:
> One thing that can arise, in trying to reconcile two threads of this good
> conversation, is that if non-native writers are forbidden to include Native
> Americans in our books, the problem of invisibility is confirmed. That is,
> Native American children can feel that no one outside of their community
> knows they exist, which is not true.
>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 16:19:44 -0600
While I could easily write a book about what it's like to grow up with a phenotype that differs from the rest of your immediate family (wondering if you were adopted, having others constantly disbelieve your familial ties because your brother and father "look" other and you do not, excelling in school while watching your brother flounder, to realize after the fact that it wasn't ability, just presentation that made the difference), writing anything about the material realities of a world my parents left before I could crawl would contribute to the invisibility we're discussing. It's not about disallowing non-native writers native characters, but rather, about requesting the respect to not speak for a population when they can speak for themselves. To let us tell our stories, rather then telling them for us. Tell your story. If your story has a native american character (main or otherwise) that is not a stereotypical caricature, and it's your story to tell, write it. But in the example given, it was social workers and teachers who lived on reservations or dealt with native peoples wanting to tell the stories of other people, not their own story written from a place of respect and understanding. I feel like I'm not clearly demarcating the difference there.
Speaking FOR another group is a way to encourage invisibility and erasure.
A key element of the subaltern is that it cannot speak, if it does, then it stops being the other. By speaking for native populations, you are effectively saying they are not allowed to speak for themselves or be known as themselves. That's not beneficial to anyone.
On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 2:23 PM, Helen Frost <helenfrost_at_comcast.net> wrote:
> One thing that can arise, in trying to reconcile two threads of this good
> conversation, is that if non-native writers are forbidden to include Native
> Americans in our books, the problem of invisibility is confirmed. That is,
> Native American children can feel that no one outside of their community
> knows they exist, which is not true.
>
---
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Received on Thu 20 Feb 2014 04:20:05 PM CST
